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As far as she was concerned, she was just a regular Montana girl growing up on her family's cale ranch, nestled away in the Adel Mountain Range near Cascade. "I really have my dad to thank for my interest in some of this," Kate says, reflecting on how those early experiences have shaped and empowered her over the years. "He has been beating the drum of self-sufficiency and organic/regenerative agriculture for decades, so a lot of my interests and skills were derived from him." Aer graduating from MSU Bozeman and working a stint in advertising in Great Falls, Kate made her way to the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). "I started talking with friends in California, and I would recount some of these stories about my early experiences, and they were stunned," she laughs. "I realized that so many people haven't had those experiences and that they could really enjoy it and benefit from them." And even though she was working and studying in Los Angeles, Kate still escaped home to the Adels every chance she could. "When I get back there, I feel like I can breathe again and that things make sense," Kate says. Determined to help others experience the empowerment of living with nature, Kate teamed up with wilderness survival experts Adam Mayfield and Rob Mullins to establish Primal U, an immersive, seven-day adventure based out of the same off-grid hunting lodge where her love of the outdoors was forged. Primal U's unique, hybrid curriculum combines wilderness first aid training, straightforward survival-skill building, leadership coaching, Welcome to Primal U 36 | SIGNATURE MONTANA Instructor Adam Mayfield during the Signaling portion of the course. Instructor Rob Mullins working on his bow drill. Home sweet home! Instructor Kate Parsons uses the creek bed to chill freshly made quick-pickles.