Ascend Wilderness Experience has concluded its summer season with an impressive amount of trips under our belt. For our fall season, we still have a few more trips available, but first, let’s dive into what has happened so far!

During the month of May, Ascend had an all adult stewardship project on the Waldorf Crossing trail that saw some badly needed clearing, brushing, and logouts! In June, our 5-day adult stewardship trip to the Canyon Creek trailhead received a lot of love from our staff + volunteers, helping clear 55 trees from the trails caused by last winter’s big storms and doing miles of brushwork. We also had an adult day hike trip up to Shimmy Lake where some moderate brush work was done. Our 7-day Teen Stewardship Trip saw 8 teen volunteers collaborate with the United States Forest Service to do some heavy-duty trailwork on the Boulder Lakes trail system that also included 55 logouts, retreading, and brushing work. The month of June also kick started our youth backpacking program with two day hikes, one on the Lewiston Lake trail and another in Whiskeytown Falls.

In the month of July, Ascend provided youth ages 9-14 backpacking trips ranging from 3-5 days to East Boulder Lakes, Boulder Lakes, Paynes Lake in the Russian Wilderness, and Deadfall Lake. Two teen trips that included youth from the Dream Quest Youth Center and volunteer teens, participated in a trip to Boulder Lake and Stuart Fork. The Teen Field Science Trip up Stuart Fork was a collaboration with BigFoot Trail Alliance and Cal Poly geologists. We were joined by Executive Director Michael Kauffmann, a noted local author, as well as Botanist Liz Houghton who engaged the teens in the world of plotting and soil sampling. An all-ages 2-day backpacking trip was completed up at Boulder Lakes that involved light-duty brushing. To spread awareness of Leave No Trace ethics, Ascend tabled at Stuarts Fork and Canyon Creek Trailheads during the Fourth of July weekend to hand out information on trail conditions and permits for campfires to bustling crowds going into the wilderness. 

 September and October will see a couple of trips, some of which are still looking for volunteers to join.  An all adult 7-day stewardship backpacking trip in collaboration with BigFoot Trail Alliance will be taking place the last week of September going into October to the Long Gulch trail system. This trip will include pack support from the USFS with their famous pack mules and will focus on trail work that will also include logouts and brushing while camping under the stars. Lastly, we will culminate our fall season trips in October with a Car-Camping Stewardship Trip in the Coffee Creek area, location is still TBD.

If you or anyone you know are interested in joining one of Ascend’s upcoming trips please contact us via email at [email protected] or contact us by phone at 1-530-739-1177. 

Upcoming Trips:

September 29th – October 5th – Long Gulch trail system, adult stewardship, 7-day backpacking with brushing and logouts in collaboration with the USFS and their famous pack mules as pack support.

October 19-20 – Location TBD, structure of the trip will be Car Camping with the option of a day hike to our work area.