Ascending to New Heights in the Trinity Alps

Sophia Sady, Ascend Wilderness Experience Public Relations Manager

Youth participants during an Ascend day hike in the Trinity Alps Wilderness.

Ascend Wilderness Experience (Ascend) is a Trinity County based non-profit that has been quietly taking youth on backpacking trips into the Trinity Alps Wilderness Area for over 20 years. Founded by experiential therapist Scott LaFein, Ascend emerged from a desire to create safe spaces for youth to explore the natural world and tap into themselves as individuals in a collaborative group setting. Over the years, Ascend has provided a variety of environmental education programs and team building offerings that enhance its core mission of providing experiences in wilderness that empower youth by fostering personal growth, the ability to overcome challenges and a deep appreciation of humanity and the natural environment.

Since 2001, Ascend has led over 800 youth (age 6-18) into the Trinity Alps Wilderness Area, providing all food, gear, transportation and training at no cost to participants. Ascend’s flagship program is their multi-day backpacking trip into various alpine locations in the Trinity Alps Wilderness Area. This trip is an immersive experience for youth aged 9-18 and can last from 3-7 days depending on experience and maturity levels. Ascend emphasizes the opportunity to allow kids time and space to unplug and be their curious selves, finding that the combination of being in a natural setting with peers and an adult leader who is not a parent is a rare and unique opportunity for kids to tap into themselves. Ascend Wilderness Guides are trained to facilitate discussions and experiences that allow participants autonomy and can transform challenges into opportunities to build resiliency, gain insight and grow. Young people who have enjoyed an Ascend Wilderness Experience trip have flourished as adults in Trinity County and beyond, becoming strong advocates and protectors of public lands.

The current iteration of Ascend is led by Executive Director Amanda Barragar, a Junction City native. Barragar’s close family ties with Ascend Founder Scott LaFein ensure Ascend stays true to its original intent of supporting youth while growing and shifting to meet the current challenges that face public wildlands today.  The Trinity Alps Wilderness Area had seen an enormous increase in usage of 1,400 percent since 2015, even before COVID drove record numbers of hikers and backpackers into this ecologically delicate area. The Trinity Alps Wilderness Area is the second largest designated wilderness in California and spans three national forest boundaries. It is also a hot spot for ecological diversity because it is part of the Klamath Mountain range, which is one of the seven areas of global biological significance in the United States, and one of only 200 worldwide. Yet, only two Wilderness Patrollers are responsible for the half million acres of wilderness. Add the devastation from the past few years of historic wildfire seasons and the result is a monumental amount of work to be accomplished to steward and tend this remote tract of public land.

In 2021, Ascend launched two new backpacking programs for teens and adults to help address the shortages of personnel in the Trinity Alps by recruiting volunteers to complete critical trailwork in the backcountry during their Ascend trip. In partnership with local Forest Service personnel, these trips identified particularly neglected trail systems and spent days exploring the area, collaborating as a working group and accomplishing critical tasks to rehabilitate the trails. 

Two youth participants gazing out onto Boulder Lake.

The Teen Stewardship Work Experience Trip was designed to not only perform important stewardship tasks but also provide the much needed service to the community of creating resume building experiences for teens. Trinity County youth face significant disadvantages due to the prevalence of poverty in the region. Local youth have limited opportunities for hands-on job training and often lack adult mentors and role models. During the Teen trip, local youth were given the opportunity to work in a nurturing, small group setting with caring, professional adults to gain basic, employment-related soft skills such as the ability to follow direction, work as a team and resolve conflict; as well as more tangible skills such as safely operating hand tools and principles of leave no trace, that will give participants an advantage when applying for a job in public lands management or other natural environment-related careers. Teens who participated in the initial offering last year have responded with resounding enthusiasm and the trip received record applications from returners as well as new applicants to participate this coming year.

In 2021, Ascend was also able to fulfill a much requested desire of the community by creating an adult stewardship trip. This dedicated group of ten adult volunteer participants was able to perform significant trail work, including logging out approximately 70 fallen logs that had impeded the trail system. Besides the astounding amount of trail work this group accomplished, on an interpersonal level these adults had the time and space to forge connections with the wilderness and each other that will have a lasting effect in the community. In this way, Ascend’s stewardship trips incorporate those original principles that Ascend was founded on of accessing one’s true self and building connections both internal and external through experiences in wilderness. 

To find out more about Ascend Wilderness Experience, visit our website and sign up for our newsletter at www.ascendwilderness.org.