It’s starting to feel like spring in Western North Carolina.  We are still getting in as many ski days as we can, if you are willing to liberally interpret  what we do on skis in the NC mountains as skiing. We have now moved into overdrive mode in preparation for what we intend to be our best Adventure Treks summer ever.

I hear from alumni frequently and they typically say one of the true highlights of their Adventure Treks summers were the relationships they had with our instructors. The instructors provided inspiration, instilled confidence and helped build a belief that they could follow their dreams. And that is exactly what many of our alumni are doing!

To that end we dedicate ourselves to building an incredible instructor team every year. Hiring instructors is a full time job for Dmac.  Over the course of a year, he will weed through almost 1000 resumes to hire 25 new instructors.  All new instructors will go through three intensive interviews, four reference checks and a complete background check.  I personally interview all the finalists as does our director, Niki Gaeta. It’s an exhaustive process but it yields the incredible team of instructors everyone expects from Adventure Treks.

Our summer trip leaders and regional directors (our 20 person senior staff team) are now finalized and as always we are thrilled and excited that these incredible role models will be inspiring our students again this summer.  They average 6.6 years each of Adventure Treks experience.   It looks like we will again have close to a 70% instructor return rate and we are super excited that so many of your favorite instructors will again be joining us.

We are still interviewing new instructors to fill our few remaining instructor positions.  Trips are 70% full with students and we are excited and honored that so many of you will be returning.  We appreciate that you understand the value of an Adventure Treks summer and put a priority on being outdoors, living in a close community of incredible friends and challenging yourself in ways that help you grow. We are getting very eager to see you!

You will get a complete list of instructors and their biographies in May once we have finished hiring our entire staff team.  (Approximately 70 instructors total)

We all live vicariously through someone, and for those of us working away in the Adventure Treks office, all we need to do is look to our instructors to be envious of their time of life when they have the freedom to collect incredible and enriching experiences. Part of what makes them great role models is the many “outside of the box” experiences they have collected.  These folks as Thoreau would say, “are living deep and sucking all the marrow from life”

Josh Goldbach is wintering (well, actually summering) in New Zealand and lead hikes on the Fox Glacier; Brandon Tyrrell biked from California to Florida solo; John Greene and Tricia Chan just paddled the Grand Canyon for 19 days; Daniel Bleckinger is teaching skiing in Jackson Hole; Christina Bruno spent 2 months in Nepal on a high altitude mountaineering course; Dan Flynn is now engaged (congratulations!) and is beginning paramedic school. He remains a training director on the Mammoth Mountain Ski Patrol; Dennis Mabasa is wintering in the Virgin Islands and learning about sustainable farming and agriculture; Chrissie Monaghan went to South America to assist with the opening of the 2013 spring semester of the traveling school and spent a month in Pakistan with the Iqra Fund; Daniel Kreykes paddled in the Green River Narrows Race and then paddled the Grand Canyon; Rob Abercrombie spent New Year’s hanging his feet over Mexico in Big Bend National Park; Kenny Goff planted some temporary roots in Thailand to climb for 2 months before returning to the US; Austin Charvet and Ryan Johnson are both in South America so they can make their way back to the US via plane, train, llama, or whatever means necessary; Michelle Tuday spent a month traveling around the desert Southwest climbing and meeting up with heaps of AT folks; Kip Pastor’s documentary “In Organic We Trust” is winning awards and is available on I-Tunes; Jackie Fleming spent the past several months traveling and adventuring all over Asia; Carter Timbel is now a certified yoga instructor and teaching skiing  in Vail; Jan Wojtasinski is teaching  whitewater  kayaking and hiking Volcanoes in Chile for the Alzar School; Amanda Cencak is finishing her masters in psychology and training for her second marathon; Tracy Roberts and Corey Steben are living in Boulder, working hard in graduate school and skiing as much as school allows; Kai Schwartz and Kaitlin Kelly-Reif are working hard on Master’s degrees at UNC Chapel Hill; Liddell Shannon and Kara Sweeny are completely restoring an old house in Asheville, NC.

Huge Congratulations are in order to Naomi Fertman and her husband Jesse who welcomed baby Amaia into the world and to Alex Penny and Laura who just welcomed beautiful baby Kaia.  We will be excited to see Amaia and Kaia at Camp Pinnacle in 2022 and AT in 2027!  Congratulations also to Liz Golembeski who is now Liz Rumbagh (she was married in November with several AT friends in attendance!)

Tessa Dawson and Cedric Gamble are ski patrolling at Park City; Carolyn Jackson is working at Guest Services for the Canyons Resort; Mallory Holland is also working and skiing in Park City;  Dave Pete is managing a Co-op in Clackimas, Oregon;  Stephen Gardiner is teaching 8th grade in Portland; Jessie Hanna has successfully opened the North Portland Montessori School; Joe Sisti is helping us build the Camp Pinnacle waterslide (when not rock climbing!); Eric Van Steenis is in grad school at U-C Davis studying community development;  And Spencer Fields is interning for the Worldwatch Institute in DC.  Many of these great folks will be back this summer, all will be full of great stories!

Soon we all will be back together for another great summer at Adventure Treks. We can’t wait for you to get here and get the opportunity to meet your wonderful instructors.   Only 100 days to go! We hope you have some great (and safe) adventures of your own on spring break. The Dockendorfs are going to Nicaragua where the Dockendorf kids are going to climb their first Volcano!  We are pretty excited.

See you soon, Dock

As the parent of four children, I witness an improvement in family dynamics whenever we are able to spend time outside together as a family.  Whether it’s just playing games or better still going on a family hike or bike ride, we just seem to get along better outside.   Conversations come more easily and we actually seem to listen to each other. Nobody is distracted by a digital screen, a magazine or a ringing phone.  Outside, we play with each other, look out for each other, and share smiles as we witness a brilliant vista or waterfall. Somehow our kids’ complaints about “how much they hate hiking” miraculously disappear by the end of the trip.

 
The cognitive and social benefits of time spent in nature are now well documented.  Children carry less stress; and demonstrate better brain development, better mental health and better physical health when they spend significant time outdoors and in nature.  A 2012 British Study shows how even a few days spent in nature can improve both executive function and creativity skills.

 
Although Adventure Treks is a natural solution to the challenge of getting teenagers outdoors, three great weeks in the summer needs to be reinforced by family outdoor adventures the rest of the year.  At Adventure Treks, we light a fire for a lifetime love of all things outdoors.  Your job is to keep the fire stoked with regular family outdoor activities.

 
We get it. It’s easy to want to get your family outdoors but difficult to actually do it.  Schedules are crazy.  Youth sports and extra -curriculars have become all-consuming.  As video games become even more “exciting,” inspiring kids to go on a family hike becomes more challenging.  And then it always seems just when you have moved the heavens to get everyone commitment-free, the heavens themselves move, the rains set in and plans are postponed… until next month or next year.

 
Besides crazy family schedules there are also access issues, equipment issues and expertise issues.  The good news is that even if you are inexperienced, if you have a child who has participated in Adventure Treks, your child should know enough basic outdoor skills, and have good enough judgment, leadership and risk management  skills to be able to take an active role in planning and leading your next family excursion.   Empower them and let them show off their skills!

 
You do want to make sure your zealous Adventure Treks kid doesn’t plan something a little too epic for all concerned!  So, if you are bringing younger siblings along, I wanted to offer some strategies to make sure the younger siblings have fun, too.  These are all little tricks we use at Adventure Treks and at our summer camp, Camp Pinnacle.

 
•    First begin by understanding that in a world where kids’ frame of reference is the Harry Potter ride at Disney, a casual walk in the woods doesn’t pack the punch that a roller coaster can.  Also remember that few people find walking uphill to be fun.  A successful outing begins with embracing and overcoming the negatives.

•    Let your child bring a friend.  In fact encourage it – It will make all the difference – often the promise of a friend coming turns a potential hike from a big negative to a small positive. This can get a little sketchy when you end up with 7 kids and 1 adult, but I find my kids always behave better and are more eager  to try new things  with friends present.

•    Limit your scope –The epic adventure you have in mind may turn kids off to the outdoors forever.  Most adults have that memory of an outdoor adventure in their youth that ended in near disaster – While this makes for a good story –kids aren’t as resilient as we’re certain we used to be.  If in doubt, always hike less (at least with young kids) rather than more.  Just because you get out infrequently, don’t force your kids to “go big or go home!” Getting back to the car a little early is always better than hiking in the dark. Remember you are investing in the future!

•    Choose a destination when possible where there is something special.  Unless your child is an inspired dendrologist, few kids find rewards from just walking. The incredible view, the striking waterfall, the special swimming hole, an old shelter or a blueberry patch all serve as a reminder that effort and reward are related.  If your scenery is limited have a special treat or game planned for the midpoint and find ways to embellish the neat small things you do see along the way.

•    Bring goody bags – My kids don’t get a lot of candy but we loosen the rules for the woods.  Giving each child a small personal snack bag from which they can eat from and trade from at will works!  It’s also a great emotional intelligence test.  You can predict your kids’ future success simply by seeing who finishes their goody bag before the hike begins and who saves the best treats until the end!

•    Make the most of small opportunities and make use of nature’s play areas.  Especially with young children, save time to play. Hold balance contests on logs, try and jump from rock to rock, cross a stream several times in different ways, and find stumps and natural ramps to jump off.   Kids will often remember the time spent playing more fondly than the hiking.

•    Have an arsenal of riddles, nature quizzes, word games and activities ready to make rest time along the trail fun.  Games are also great filler when conversation runs thin! Never underestimate the power of a scavenger hunt and a little friendly sibling competition to add spark.

•    Whip out a special treat like a fireball when the hiking gets challenging. Distractions are good.  The “heat” of the fireball will help kids “forget” the steepness of the trail!

•    Try to find a beautiful place along the trail, spread your kids out and give them a minute or two for reflective silence. Don’t overdo this or take it too seriously but it’s always nice to begin the habit of reflection in the outdoors. Small habits in youth pay benefits later.

 
I hope you can use some of these ideas to embellish your next family hike – the goal is to make time spent outdoors a family habit and keep it fun enough that they won’t argue too loudly when you want to go again!

 
At Adventure Treks, we want to be your partner in getting your kids outside.  It’s usually easier for us to get kids excited about being outdoors than it is for you.  Adventure Treks supplies the friends and “larger than life” instructor mentors who are eager to share their love for outdoor activities.  Our program has been carefully designed to make outdoor activities exciting and appealing.  We want kids to have fun early in the process, succeed easily and then we can build on their successes.  I know this is a different approach than how we as adults did things as children.  We were frequently told to “suck it up!” But times have changed and children of the digital age live in a different world than we did.  If we are going to keep them outdoors and perhaps inspire the next John Muir or Rachel Carson, we have to bring young people into the outdoors gently.

 
The benefits of getting your kids excited about the outdoors are great. The risks of raising a child who never leaves the family basement shouldn’t be ignored. We believe that the outdoors is a wonderful tool in helping to raise great kids!

I’m going to use pumpkin carving as a metaphor for how ridiculously high the bar is being set in our global and digitized world.  In my youth, my parents would present me my annual pumpkin a few days before Halloween.  I would take my knife, hack out a couple triangles for eyes and a nose, try to cut a couple of teeth into the mouth, throw in the candle, and there it was – my best effort!   It was all my own work and done in half an hour, or perhaps an hour if I stretched out my carving glory. I had made my contribution to the neighborhood and all the neighborhood pumpkins were equally mediocre. That being said, they all seemed plenty good to us as we roamed the neighborhood in search of tricks and treats. Sound familiar?

Fast forward to 2012: The pumpkins of my youth would be ridiculed—I haven’t seen a triangle nose in years! Much of America is now too busy to even carve their own pumpkins and opt for the hand carved foam pumpkins available on EBay instead.  Other parents fear that with thousands of stencils to download, their ten year old doesn’t stand a chance of carving a pumpkin that will meet the new normal. So they end up carving the pumpkin themselves. I hate to admit it, but I was just about to fall into that category.  My five year old was obsessed with creating a dragon pumpkin. After dozens of Google searches and pages of complicated dragon pumpkin stencils (some of which cost $6.99 to download – Not going to happen!), I had to admit to Charlie – that while I was surely good at something – I was hardly the Picasso of pumpkin carving and we would have to go for something much less ambitious. Tears were shed!

Although we knew our best effort would pale in comparison to all that we had seen on the internet, we decided the only alternative was to create our own pumpkin. It was neither the fanciest, the scariest or the most unique, but it was our pumpkin. No stencils, no dragons, and yet it was certainly scary and worthy enough to adorn our front stoop.  And Charlie even got to use a knife. We did it together and we had fun.  The process was much more rewarding than the result. The neighbors may grimace at our low rent pumpkin, but we had fun because we lowered the bar and enjoyed the experience!

The bottom line is that the high bar for everything is stressing out our kids… and us parents. Our kids wonder if they are going to measure up. And they feel our stress as we wonder too. Sure the stakes in the global economy are so much higher than they used to be, but there are costs to raising our kids to be “exceptional” that aren’t always taken into account. As parents, we have certain images of success in our minds for our kids—sports championships, music recitals, high grades, attending an Ivy League school—and with our high expectations, some kids are becoming more afraid of failure than ever before. High expectations are a good thing.  We want our kids to do well.  Having unrealistic expectations isn’t healthy, nor is raising kids who feel that they aren’t allowed to fail.

And isn’t it possible that we may be setting the wrong goals for our kids? What if we reframed it?

What if we focused less on specific goals and more on one simple question: How as parents do we help our children shine? Put differently, we should worry less about creating goals for our children and more about finding environments where they will experience successes and acceptance.

“A great environment” has three important components. First, it should be a good match to a child’s talents and interests—a place that they show skill and feel a desire to improve their skills.

Second, the “great environment” should provide challenges and opportunities to grow by overcoming these challenges: “confidence comes from competence”.  And resilience comes because of hard work and even more through picking oneself up after failure. That “great environment” is a place where the culture says it’s OK to fail, and provides plenty of support when you do.

The final component of a “great environment” is community and acceptance. This component is often neglected when parents consider activities for their children.  But as I look at my daughters’ soccer team at the end of the season, far more important than the skills they gained and the games won or lost, was the incredible rapport the girls developed and the friendships that extend beyond the field. To me soccer is merely the vehicle for healthy friendships, healthy bodies and a respect for all that comes as a result of hard work. Some of their coaches see it differently, but we are used to that!

Which brings me to Adventure Treks. Ultimately our goal is to create that “great environment” for your child. We typically hear from parents that their son or daughter had a great time at Adventure Treks, made great friends and loved their instructors. They say it was one of the healthiest and happiest times of their lives. They say that their kids loved being in a place that didn’t judge them and loved them for who they were, not who they were “supposed to be.”  Then we hear: “We can’t do A.T. next summer because of summer select lacrosse, or a community service requirement, or the chance to get some college credits or learn a new language… and these opportunities for enrichment just can’t be missed!”

And we respond: While the benefits of a summer outdoors cannot be quantified,  isn’t the opportunity to celebrate more simple things like friends, the wonders of nature and the chance to live in a supportive community ultimately going to yield more long term success and happiness? Isn’t developing resilience, character and communication skills important too?  Is fulfilling a checklist of accomplishments that are often pursued—not for love of the activity, but to measure up to someone’s perceived expectations worth missing out on the magic of A.T.?

Sometimes the simplest pumpkin is the most satisfying. Charlie and I are both glad we chose not to carve that dragon.  It was just too much for us and by carving our own “design,” we were ultimately happier.