HI, KARIE LEE HERE! SO GLAD YOU STOPPED BY MY SITE TO LEARN ABOUT MY WORLD.
I have had a lifetime of fulfilling experiences in the outdoors. From backpacking at six months old strapped to my father's back, growing up in a small town, playing in the woods, and making shelters, I always dreamed of someday walking off into the mountains with just a knife to survive.
As a young adult, I found myself in a meaningless livelihood in Seattle. Some of you can relate. Eventually, I escaped the turmoil of the corporate world and moved to a very special place, Sandpoint, Idaho. I believe strongly in my dreams and making them a reality. So much that I was recently chosen to be on History Channel’s ALONE Season 9, which was a huge undertaking. It was the experience of a life-time that I will never forget and has touched my soul forever!
​As I settled into life in Northern Idaho, the opportunity arose to create the life that I wanted. I was introduced to the primitive skills gatherings and found my tribe! With no delay, I started teaching a year later. The skills inspired me to incorporate primitive wilderness living into my home life.
MY WATER COMES FROM THE SKY AND MY WARMTH FROM THE TREES
My home is what I call beyond off-grid, meaning I’m not connected to anything except for nature. My home is a 30' yurt deep in the woods. I am surrounded and supported by the natural world around me: my water comes from the sky; warmth from the trees; I hunt and forage for food and medicine from the plants and wildlife; all "waste" is composted and returned to the forest to be recycled. I even built a gravity-fed, fire-heated bathhouse containing a shower and sauna!
Following my passion and know-how today, I happily teach wilderness and primitive living skills at gatherings worldwide. I am the Founder of Sacred Cedars Wilderness School, where I, along with other wilderness instructors, share their wisdom of the woods. You can join my team and me on week-long immersion expeditions into the wilderness, where you can unplug from the mundane world and plug into nature’s landscape of magical wonder. Learning to attune your senses, craft with buckskin, make awesome stuff from natural materials, fish, and forage for your dinner meals, are just a few things that may touch your soul in this life-changing experience! Check out our retreats, classes, and workshops!
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My other special gifts are my Energy Medicine work and line of herbal remedies. I will treat my patients with the utmost care and knowledge of what they might be going through physically, spiritually, or mentally using hand-foraged, wild-crafted herbal remedies and flower essences. Always championing a healthier food system, I work with a pesticide research scientist, collecting data to be analyzed and published in scientific journals on pesticide toxicity and the impact of the foods you eat.
FOR FUN, I LOVE GOING ON WILDERNESS ADVENTURES!
One of my favorites was spending three months kayaking in Alaska’s Inside Passage in a 21-foot (6.4 meters) hand-built wooden kayak. A partner and I paddled 500 miles, harvesting salmon, berries, and beach asparagus along the way. We had close encounters with humpback and minke whales and got chased by sea lions. That was a scary thing!
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On the way home from kayaking for 3 months, we stopped in Canada and bought a commercial trolling fishing boat. By spring, we were off and headed back north to Alaska! The landscape brought magical experiences to life and with the weather came many not so amazing (some quite dangerous) experiences.
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Eventually, I bought my own live-aboard boat, and created a niche job to collect salmon eggs from the fishermen to be shipped to Japan for sushi. Just as adventurous and even more dangerous as I drove a 26’ aluminum skiff out into the ocean to scoop up 5-gallon buckets of eggs from behind each fisherman’s boat. I never felt so alive in those moments when you had to trust your every action to make the right move or possibly perish!
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Back on land, I solo ventured up to the peaks of the Bitterroot Mountains in Idaho on a six-week challenge and put my primitive wilderness skills to the test, using the primitive gear and buckskin clothing I handmade. I was a curious sight for passing hikers on the trail! I ate a 100% wild food diet, by fishing and foraging and cooking over a fire made with the bow drill. On the journey, came the inspiration and wisdom of how to live.
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When I went out on ALONE, my adult-self’s intention was to see how spiritually deep I could connect with the land. It was a spiritual experiment, so to speak, and without modern distractions. Through my experiences on the trail and living so close to nature, I gained the insight and inspiration to write a book, The Art of Sacred Living. The book will be published and released by end of 2023.
From this book, I will be offering a year-long experiential program to share these insights and how to BE in the world. I hope to launch this program by spring of 2024, so stay tuned!
When I am not out adventuring or teaching, I enjoy various bushcraft projects like tanning hides, buckskin sewing and beading, primitive pottery, basketry, fire, and shelter making. I am an avid backpacker, and love kayaking, snowboarding, and archery.
COME JOIN ME ON MY ADVENTURE AND FOLLOW ALONG AS WE MAKE SACRED CEDARS A REALITY.
Early last spring, Karie purchased 13 acres of raw land in her hometown of Sandpoint, Idaho. Finally her dream of having her own wilderness school came to life. However, the site is bare with the exception of her old home, the yurt. She is raising funds to build the necessary infrastructure to support the school and its instructors. Please consider supporting Karie by visiting her go-fund-me page and making a donation!
