A unique aspect of working at Adventure Treks is that instructors return year after year to spend their summers with us. In fact, our instructor return rate every summer exceeds 60 percent. Below, some of our longest-standing community members tell us why Adventure Treks and wild places are such an important part of their lives. This cadre of folks have countless years of experience working in the outdoors, and they’re happy to share just a small piece of what led them to work in the outdoors and what brings them back year after year.

Tess Sneeringer, 2018 trip leader for Alaska Expedition 1 and Pacific Northwest Explorer; with Adventure Treks since 2013

What led you to work in the outdoors? When I describe my current job, I frequently end up answering the question, “How did you get into this, being from a city?” I enjoy the opportunity to share that a simple outdoor day camp in Maryland planted the seed for what is now a career in outdoor education. No, my family didn’t raise me climbing 14,000-foot peaks out west or backpacking, but they did see the value in spending the summer outside. At the beginning of high school, I started working at this same camp and found myself charged with creating a positive experience for young people in the outdoors for the first time. Clearly it was a feeling I enjoyed. My involvement in my college outdoor program quickly became as important to me as my degree in biology and provided me with the basic skills in backcountry travel and wilderness risk management to apply for a job in the outdoor industry just a year before graduating.

What keeps you at AT? At 21 years old, I started my first season with Adventure Treks in North Carolina on the Blue Ridge trip. It was (and still is) the hardest job I’d had to date, but not without a reward to match. At AT, we encourage our students to work toward becoming their best self over the course of a trip, and it’s not an accident that our own teachings rub off on ourselves. This feeling is the reason I come back, and the reason why the student return rate is about as high as the instructor return rate. If you have a place you can go where you know that as soon as you arrive, you assume the best version of yourself without trying, wouldn’t you go back? Again, and again? I would. When I do, I find myself surrounded by a community of others—both students and staff—that are also thriving as the best versions of their selves.

Why do the outdoors and teaching young people matter to you? It doesn’t hurt that I’m often amidst a curling wave of whitewater, a snow-covered peak towering over an alpine lake, or a coastline so rugged you truly feel as if you’re walking on the edge of a continent. The setting in which we get to facilitate this self-discovery, I believe, makes such discovery possible. The outdoors provides ample opportunity to cultivate skills in personal communication, reflection, and resilience—three components to adolescent development that seem at risk in the current social and technological climates of high schools today. Working, and succeeding, to provide those opportunities to young people is important to me, and fuels the hard work that is required. Lastly, when you strike the balance of community, physical triumph, and self-love, the real reason to work in the outdoors with young people is the sheer amount of fun that results. It almost—almost—seems like cheating.

Nathaniel Humphreys, 2018 trip leader for Leadership Summit; Adventure Treks student 2005–2008, Adventure Treks instructor 2009–present

What led you to work in the outdoors? On the Leadership Summit course as an AT student, I remember our second day in the Goat Rocks Wilderness and the pure enthusiasm we had to adventure into an unusual amount of snow. It was July. Outfitted as a summer trip, we had only regular hiking boots, so our first two days of hiking were slow and tedious. That afternoon we stopped by a creek to set up camp, and we split up to find campsites. I felt something then—some kind of magnetic pull—and before I knew it, I was running up toward the first piece of exposed ground I had seen in days. At the crest of the hill, I turned around and sat down. In front of me, a hill of wildflowers swept down into a full presentation of the high range of the Goat Rocks—the rocky alpine crags, snow-covered and silent. In that moment, with tears in my eyes, I fell in love with the wilderness.

What keeps you at AT? When we’re outside, we often think about how small we are, or how easily the world gets along without us. My years at AT (years of adventure, work, connection, and challenge) have left me with a certain feeling I continue to return to. It’s that the wilderness is us, and we are it. Every day of my life, I feel enormous gratitude for this, and every day I seek a path back to that silence of the backcountry, so it can be filled with friends, laughter, and good will. What more can anyone want?

Why do the outdoors and teaching young people matter to you? Almost a decade after my Leadership Summit trip, I found myself in a similar position, sitting on a ledge above our campsite, 18 days down the Colorado river in the Grand Canyon. With the flow of the river echoing like time up the wall through my feet, I contemplated the tight-knit community of friends and coworkers I could see below. I considered our backward progression through the tiny slice of history written in the layers of sediment apparent in the canyon walls—only an estimated 1,250 million years, a drop in the proverbial ocean of time.

Jack Hoiland, 2018 logistics coordinator and regional director; with Adventure Treks since 2013

What led you to work in the outdoors? As a student, I always felt more comfortable, energized, and focused when I was outdoors. Outside I felt like an intuitive, natural learner, a feeling I rarely had while in the classroom. I knew that I was not the only one with this experience, and I wanted to be part of facilitating that for others.

What keeps you at AT? As an employee for AT, I don’t feel like I am just there to make the company run. There is a greater mission that I recognize and an inherent value that is placed on the bonds between the people that make up the company. Most issues that I run into with other jobs stem from putting the company before the person, and with AT, they clearly share weight and space.

Why do the outdoors and teaching young people matter to you? I really care about this question and don’t fully have an answer yet, but I am so interested and committed to finding out. The outdoors and teaching young people is such a varied and dynamic experience that it is a fuel that hasn’t burnt out yet, and that has a value all its own. The outdoors provides an important platform for risk and beauty to occupy the same space, and that pairing is such a powerful tool for learning and teaching.

Allison O’Brien, 2018 educational programs director; with Adventure Treks since 2013

What led you to work in the outdoors? A big turning point for me and my relationship with the outdoors happened while I was attending an adventure-based outdoor recreation semester at Feather River College in California. We spent the semester backpacking, backcountry skiing, winter camping, whitewater rafting, and rock climbing—activities I didn’t do a lot of growing up in Minnesota. Through these new challenges and experiences I learned that when I pushed myself, I was capable of a lot more than I realized. I developed confidence in myself that I had never had before. Being able to do all these activities and also be in beautiful places, getting to know awesome people, felt very fulfilling.

What keeps you at AT? It is very rewarding to see the growth, bonding, and the laughter that happens on an AT trip. Summer after summer at Adventure Treks, I see teens meet and overcome challenges, and they come out the other side stronger and more confident.

Why do the outdoors and teaching young people matter to you? I feel the most happy and at peace with life when I am active in the outdoors. After having such a life-changing experience, I realized I wanted to help others have similar experiences.

Erica Van Steenis, 2018 staffing director and regional director; with Adventure Treks since 2011

What led you to work in the outdoors? When I was a kid, my dad would take my brother and me to the river in Colorado. He had two foldable poolside chairs, one for my brother and one for me to sleep on. I remember not even minding the slightly uncomfortable sleeping arrangements because the river and all the stars and my surroundings were fascinating. Fast forward 10 years, and I was turning 22 years old in the middle of the Alaskan wilderness while on a multi-week backpacking trip. Now I am 32, and central to my work is educating youth in the outdoors. How I got here is sort of a blur, but I like to think that those river trips with my dad has something to do with it.

What keeps you at AT? Those who organize their lives around the outdoors and appreciate the educational opportunities that take place in such settings are my people.

Why do the outdoors and teaching young people matter to you? There is a certain rhythm that exists in teaching youth in the outdoors. It is experiential, and so different from the typical classroom setting most youth experience. I am a big believer in the idea that all young people should be afforded opportunities to learn exponentially and outside of their comfort zone.

Dave McGlashan, director; with Adventure Treks since 2007

What led you to work in the outdoors? Thinking back, it all started with a TV show called “McKenna.” It aired after the Superbowl in 1993. The show was about a family in Oregon that ran a guiding company. It was a horrible show; only five episodes aired in the U.S. (out of the 13 that were filmed). Think “Baywatch” (the original TV show) crossed with Aspen Extreme. It was the first time I’d heard about being able to make a living in the outdoors. This put me on a path to working, in whatever manner I could, in the outdoors.

What keeps you at AT? The people, both the students and the staff, are the reason I have stayed for 12 years. We get some of the most incredible students—they are engaged, they want to learn, and they want more from their middle and high school years. Some of the best conversations I have ever had were with students at Adventure Treks. Most of my friends, and all my best friends, have come from Adventure Treks. Everyone wants to do and be more, and they will challenge and support each other in every way possible. My vacations typically revolve around seeing AT staff all over the country.

Why do the outdoors and teaching young people matter to you? As cliche as it sounds, youth are our future. Seeing what is going on with the environment, and how special it is—it’s of great importance to take the leaders of tomorrow into the places that matter. If someone does not have a connection with nature, why would they care to protect it? This is one of the key reasons that taking youth into the outdoors is so important. One the other side of that coin, working with teenagers is just fun. So many of us have forgotten what it is like to play made-up games, or laugh at nothing for hours, or just be in awe of a new experience. Working with youth keeps me young at heart. It is not something I ever want to give up.

Congratulations to our graduating class of 2018, soon to be the class of 2022! We know you all have worked extremely hard and are excited (and probably a bit nervous!) about the opportunities ahead.

The college application process is a challenging one. Some even construe it as broken, where teenagers with impeccable credentials, who have done everything “right” in high school, are routinely rejected or waitlisted by elite colleges. It’s not because they aren’t qualified to attend; it’s because there’s limited space available, and students have to fill a very specific mold and demonstrate the “appropriate level of interest” in order to be admitted.

Instead of celebrating these amazing teenagers, colleges are telling them they’re not good or doing enough. We would expect that despite our students’ success, they have almost certainly faced some rejection through this process. We hope no one takes it personally and that everyone has used their resilience gained at Adventure Treks to keep everything in perspective. If you weren’t accepted into your first-choice school for this fall, please know that you will thrive at any one of hundreds of wonderful universities. As Frank Brunei says in his great book, “Where you go is not who you will be.”

Regardless of this process, we are always impressed (but never surprised) at the remarkable schools that our Adventure Treks students will soon be attending. We feel privileged and grateful to have been a topic of many of your college essays. We believe that admissions officers appreciate the Adventure Treks experience because of how well it reflects on the character and community-mindedness that our students bring to campus.

Here’s an excerpt from former student Eli Burk’s acceptance letter from the University of Rochester: “For a major research university to thrive with just 5,300 undergraduates, each student has to make a personal and immediate contribution to campus life. The counselors recommended you for admission because of the lessons you learned from your experience climbing Alaska’s Matanuska Glacier. The committee and I are confident you will both stand out and grow stronger as part of the Rochester family.”

Or this nice quip from Lewis and Clark: “P.S. Your experience with Adventure Treks has prepared you nicely for our college outdoor program!”

More than reputation, we noticed that you all have chosen schools that are a good fit for your personalities, abilities, and interests. We’d like to emphasize again that what you will take away from your higher educational experience has little to do with the prestige or rank of a given college, and everything to do with the mindset and attitude with which you approach your collegiate career. Success in college is about the effort poured into the experience, your desire to fuel your passions, the relationships formed with new friends and faculty, and your ability to thrive in new and sometimes ambiguous situations. Having succeeded through outdoor challenges “in the middle of nowhere,” we all know that it’s what you bring to your future community that will define your college experience.

At a time when only 58 percent of students at four-year universities graduate within six years, we’re proud that the graduation rate of Adventure Treks students remains consistent at 98 percent! We believe the resilience, social confidence, and community mindset skills you’ve strengthened through your Adventure Treks experiences will allow you to navigate challenges in college seamlessly.

Below are where our high school graduates are headed for fall of 2018!

• Kevin Juneau, Colorado School of Mines
• Lola Motley, Bowdoin College
• Carly Brown, Dartmouth College
• Lila Watts, Dartmouth College
• Hannah Dubinski, University of Chicago
• Keegan Sweeney, American University
• Peter Benedict, Elon University
• Harry Sultan, Dartmouth College
• Jo de la Bruyere, Princeton University
• Cole Estrada, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
• Edward Estrada, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
• Blake Todor, Duke University
• Lily Kafka, Cornell University
• Eli Kline, Duke University
• Mitch Gustafson, Florida Atlantic University
• James Hill, Ohio University
• Eoin Schnell, gap year then Oberlin College
• Megan Klee, Thrive School
• Ezra Seegull, University of Michigan
• Alex Gaines, North Carolina State University
• Samantha Pancoe, University of Pennsylvania
• CJ Lavoie, gap year
• Elizabeth Paul, Rhodes College
• Jeremy Bers, Georgia Institute of Technology
• Tom Weimer, Indiana University
• Max Albers, University of Wisconsin–Madison
• Audrey Dockendorf, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
• Emma Cleveland, Washington and Lee University
• Ben Bragg, Washington and Lee University
• Josh Webb, Skidmore College
• Bill Zach, George Mason University
• Griffin Rocco, University of Colorado Boulder
• Alex Nichols, University of Colorado Boulder
• Ally Krause, St. Lawrence University
• Jack Evans, University of Vermont
• Lauren Salzman, Yale University
• Ben Whorf, Wake Forest University
• Addison Bent, Middlebury College
• Lena Hoplamazian, Princeton University
• River Friedman, The Cooper Union
• Charlotte Butcher, Dickinson College
• Alex Lopez, Bard College or Wesleyan College
• Julian Lopez, gap year then Trinity College
• Caroline Kimble, St. Olaf College
• Sophie Shack, University of Pittsburgh
• Jason Provanzano, Binghamton University
• Grace Beneke, Skidmore College
• Robert Evans, Indiana University
• Thayne Covert, University of Portland
• Huston Hamlin, North Carolina State University
• Madison Bain, Western Carolina University
• Jackson Megar, University of Massachusetts Amherst
• Jeri Stoller, Colgate University
• Megan King, California State University Maritime Academy
• Sebastian Capeans, Instituto Tecnológico de Santo Domingo

If we missed you, please tell us where you are heading so we can add you to this list and put you in touch with Adventure Treks students already at your new school!

Congratulations again from all of us at Adventure Treks!

While our trip itineraries provide a great overall picture of the outdoor adventures we do at Adventure Treks, it can be difficult for new families to understand the Adventure Treks logistics while their students are on a trip. I’ve been working for Adventure Treks for five years (as both the year-round logistics coordinator and summer trip leader), and my friends and family still ask questions like, “what do you do with your stuff?” And “are you in the woods the whole time?”

Here are answers to some commonly asked questions that give more specific information about where we stay and how we handle all of our gear on our trips.

Frontcountry vs. backcountry campsites

Adventure Treks and outdoor enthusiasts often use the terms frontcountry and backcountry when referring to the wilderness. Frontcountry refers to a campground that has amenities like running water, toilets, picnic tables, etc., and is close to town with easy access to a grocery store or gas station. Frontcountry sites can be found at state parks, national parks, or private campgrounds, and you can usually drive up to them—you do not have to hike to a campground in the frontcountry.

When Adventure Treks trips stay in the frontcountry, we have all of our gear and food with us. We regularly restock several large coolers with ice, and we have access to fresh food like fruits, vegetables, and meat from nearby grocery stores. Often groups will stay at these campgrounds when they are doing activities like mountain biking, climbing, or whitewater rafting—activities accessible by road. We avoid heavily trafficked frontcountry campgrounds whenever possible so that it still feels like we are in the wilderness (the photo above shows a frontcountry campground on the Yellowstone Teton Adventure). If you have ever stayed in a national park and woken up to a gorgeous view the next morning, you have a similar picture to the types of frontcountry campgrounds Adventure Treks uses.

The term backcountry refers to wilderness areas that are remote—meaning you have to hike, canoe, bike, etc. to get there instead of driving right up. Being in the backcountry also means being away from amenities like running water and toilets. Many of our activities at Adventure Treks include backcountry camping, including all of our backpacking trips, canoeing, and sea kayaking.

Being away from amenities usually begs the question, “how do we use the bathroom?!” On the second and third day of each Adventure Treks trip, we’ll thoroughly cover how to use the bathroom in the woods. This can be an intimidating thought to a new student, but don’t worry—it becomes second nature very quickly!

Where does our stuff go?

Parents often wonder if their students have to carry their fully-packed duffels all of the time—fortunately, this is definitely not the case. Think of a duffel at Adventure Treks as a closet. Duffels are stored and locked in the U-Haul trailer that we tow throughout the trip, and students will pull whatever items they need for the next activity out of their duffels and pack them in their backpacking packs, daypacks, or dry bags (for water activities). After that activity, dirty clothing goes back into the duffel until laundry day.

When we’re at frontcountry campgrounds, students will carry their duffels a short distance to their campsites to organize their personal belongings and prepare for the next activity (see the photo above, where students are packing for a Colorado Explorer backpack in Rocky Mountain National Park). We will set up a line called a “duffel shuffle” to unload the U-Haul, so we do ask that students not bring wheeled baggage, as they’re hard to navigate in gravel, dirt, and grass, and they’re harder for students and instructors to pass through the line.

Handy packing tips

Each trip’s packing list guides families through what kinds of items to purchase and how to pack. (Trip-specific packing lists can be found on each online trip page and in your CampInTouch account.) The packing lists are very thorough and have been refined and perfected over the past 25 years. If your student has everything on the list, he or she will be set for the trip. Please do not leave any items out, nor is it necessary to pack anything extra. 

It is essential for students to know what gear they have and where their items are, so we highly recommend including your child in the packing process. If your student packs his or her duffel alone, fantastic! But please confirm that everything is included to make sure nothing is left out. While we may be able to purchase a forgotten item while on a trip, it is much easier  to buy any last-minute items at home before your student leaves. Trips do not have easy access to outdoor clothing stores.

You might ask, how do we organize items in the duffel? Again, use the closet analogy. You can locate items in a closet more easily when they are folded or on hangers. Similarly, on an Adventure Treks trip, it’s much easier for students to locate clothing and toiletries when those items are organized in their duffels. Ziploc bags and stuff sacks are great options for organizing clothing and gear. I like to use one large Ziploc or stuff sack for shirts, one for warm baselayers, one for socks, one for miscellaneous items like hats and gloves, and so on. We do a lot of packing and repacking, and being organized from the very beginning will help set your child up for success.

Also, we cannot overemphasize the importance of labeling everything you send with your student with his or her name, from shirts to boots to hats to socks. A Sharpie is all you need for this. You’d be amazed at many pairs of socks end up in the lost and found bin (aka the bag of doom). We’ve had students forget and “lose” everything from a daypack to hiking boots. Again, please label your student’s items!

More packing resources

Please click here for more tips on packing for airport days and for a helpful gear video. Please also utilize the Adventure Treks office as a resource: We are always happy to answer any questions about gear—give us a call at 828-698-0399 anytime.

Twenty-five years ago, Adventure Treks was founded, we didn’t realize that one of the biggest benefits of AT would be the opportunity to escape electronic devices and engage in face-to-face conversation over an extended period of time.

The book Reclaiming Conversation by MIT’s Sherry Turkle, the leading sociologist studying humans’ relationship to technology, has given us much food for thought as we prepare for summer and look for ways to improve the learning benefits inherent in the AT experience. Here’s a quick summary.

As we all know, communication between teens these days is multimodal: Conversation rarely happens without some combination of talking, texting, looking at photos, and bringing in non-physically-present friends through chat. This multitasking communication changes the dynamic of communication from what we as parents experienced growing up. While we can’t stop this change, we can reflect on what, if anything, is being lost.

Unlike multimodal conversation, where we divide our attention, face-to-face conversation unfolds slowly and requires patience, tone, and nuance. True conversation is how we learn empathy, and the give and take and self-reflection of dialog determine what we actually think and believe. It’s more raw because conversation is instantaneous, and we are often asked to challenge our beliefs without having the time to research a point or polish our position. It allows us to be fully present and vulnerable, and experience the joy of being heard. It’s an opportunity to connect with others in a way you can’t when technology is present. Believe it or not, research shows that just the presence of a phone in the room, even if turned off, changes the dynamics of conversations, keeping them more superficial while avoiding topics of controversy or consequence.

Is it time to dismiss the belief driven by media and industry that the better connected we are, the better off we are? Technology’s perceived benefits are attractive, after all:

• We will always be heard (regardless of the importance of what we have to say).
• We can direct our attention to wherever we want it to be.
• We will never be alone—or bored.
• We will get a slight neurochemical high from connecting via technology as a result of receiving “likes,” “shares,” and new texts and emails.

But are these “benefits” actually good for our kids in the long run? Research shows that there has been a 40 percent reduction in markers for empathy in college students over the last 20 years, and most of this loss has developed over the past 10 years. This loss in empathy can be directly linked to habits resulting from the rise in digital communication. Beyond that, highly connected users of social media feel less accepted by peers, are not as good at identifying their own feelings (or the feelings of peers), and do not receive the same level of positive feelings after interacting with friends as do those who use social media less frequently. They also perform worse academically. Kids today report feeling more lonely than at any time in history, and incidence of teen mental health issues and suicides continue to rise. Technology can be a crutch that keeps kids from fully engaging in the real world, allowing them to engage only superficially, presenting a rehearsed rather than authentic self to the world.

We fear that our kids who have grown up surrounded by internet-connected technology don’t have the perspective to decide for themselves how to selectively let technology into their life. We fear that they won’t be able to realize the benefits of fully engaging with others through real, unfiltered conversation. And let’s admit it: Many of us adults have not been the best role models as we have tried to adapt to rapidly advancing technology (how often do we text, talk, or use Google when we are also engaging with our kids?). Two years ago we were talking through machines. Now we are talking directly to Alexa and Siri. It’s time to set an example.

We believe a summer trip with Adventure Treks can be an antidote. Research shows that it only takes four disconnected days outside for kids’ creativity to surge 40 percent. When we talk with kids at Adventure Treks, we see that they crave the opportunity for intensive face-to-face interactions and actually enjoy the break from technology. Returning home after an extended tech-free experience gives them new perspective on how digital communication can fit into their world at home as a tool, rather than something they “need” in order to socialize.

We’ve often felt evening tent conversations are some of the best times at Adventure Treks. There are no distractions (except impending sleep), and they have a chance to fully engage with friends in a way they don’t at a sleepover. When surrounded by the beauty and power of nature and the shared pride of outdoor accomplishments, conversations come easy, barriers come down, and friends engage at a level they rarely do elsewhere. Our nightly evening meeting format is also a vehicle that enables group conversations that help us form close communities. There is nothing superficial about friendships formed at Adventure Treks or the conversations we share. And without digital devices to divert our attention, there is time at Adventure Treks to reflect, gather one’s thoughts, and enjoy the peace and quiet of nature.

Further reading:

Can You Connect With Me Now? How the Presence of Mobile Communication Technology Influences Face-to-Face Conversation Quality, by Andrew K. Przybylski and Netta Weinstein (2012)

Changes in Dispositional Empathy in American College Students Over Time: A Meta-Analysis, by Sara Konrath, Edward O’Brien, and Courtney Hsing (2011)