Tale of a Teen Thrill-Seeker

Once, I was a Los Angeles city boy. You may know the kind. I like watching pro sports, especially basketball and baseball. I’ve been known to turn on the tube, although I read quite a bit. I like music, especially jazz and classic rock.

Then I was transformed.

It’s not that I don’t still love sports and reading and all. But I have some new loves too, the kind that make my heart race and make me yearn for more.

The change occurred last summer when I was 14 and went to a camp of sorts in Northern California, a chance to take a break from my parents and a chance for them to take a break from me. This wasn’t an ordinary sleep-away camp; this was Adventure Treks, a company that organizes adventure travel trips for teenagers. For 18 days, thrown together with a group of 21 other teens and six instructors (our “elderly friends,” as we called them), we camped, backpacked and kayaked. We went white-water rafting. We climbed rocks. We went mountain biking. We saw scenery that took our breath away.

We found the real outdoors.

I was tested in a host of new ways, challenged to take one more step, paddle a little harder, climb a little farther. Initially, because I wasn’t an outdoors guy, I was a bit scared and a lot nervous, but in pushing myself, I discovered I could do these things and do them well. When I came home, I was a little more self-confident and self-reliant. And I had the satisfaction of knowing that I had done something special with my summer vacation--and for myself.

Orientation began soon after I landed at Sacramento airport. I joined my group, ages 13 to 15, and was soon making friends among the eight girls and 14 boys who came from 13 states. They had different accents, different points of view and interesting personalities. They did have one thing in common, though: There were no whiners here. We knew from the beginning that this wasn’t a “tour for teens” but an outdoor experience, and aside from an occasional sigh of exhaustion or a mild complaint about sore muscles, we were a pretty tough group, I was to discover.

We piled into two vans and headed to our first campsite, on Lake Slye outside Sacramento. (When we arrived, everything was set up for us, but that was the last time we got that kind of break. After that first day, we did the work of making and breaking camp and cooking.)

After a swimming test to assess each person’s skill, we chowed down on a dinner of chicken, steak and salad, prepared by the instructors. (Lots of food is one of the hallmarks of Adventure Treks.) We had a meeting that evening and each evening thereafter. The group would gather to talk about the day, plan for the next day and review the trip journal, a diary written by a different teen each day and presented to the group.

Our first big challenge was the second day, when we would go white-water rafting on the middle fork of the American River with a local outfitter. I had never been rafting, so I was nervous and excited when I climbed into the nine-person boat.

White water, I soon learned, is nature’s roller coaster, except that you’re sitting on the side of a boat, water splashing on all sides, heading straight for a partly submerged boulder that looks like a giant in your path and listening to a guide scream instructions as you paddle with all your might. By the end of our trip, I was soaking wet, scared--and exhilarated.

From fresh water we moved to salt water. After a night at Samuel P. Taylor State Park in Marin County, we rose early to begin an overnight sea kayak voyage along Point Reyes National Seashore, just north of San Francisco.

Early the next morning, carrying all we would need for the night, we broke into three groups (we often broke up into groups based on ability and to get a more personalized experience) and set out in two-person kayaks for the four-mile paddle to Marshall Beach, which was on a peninsula where we would camp. The combination of fog and early morning light made the scenery that much more incredible as we kayaked. My hands and arms were wet and my muscles were sore, but my reward was the cool ocean breeze on my face and a view of a seashore so pristine it looked as though it had never been touched. Camping on the beach that night, I fell asleep to the soothing sound of waves gliding onto the sand.

We spent a couple of nights at Humboldt Redwoods State Park before our next big adventure: a challenging four-day, three-night backpack trip along the Lost Coast, a 27-mile stretch of rocky, uninhabited coastline south of Eureka.

My group took the most strenuous route. Starting at the northern end, we hiked along the coast; we would tackle the 3.8-mile Horse Mountain Trail on the last day. We tramped along deserted beaches and trails above the rocky shore, and by the end of the first day’s hike, our feet were so swollen that they barely fit in our boots, and our eyelids were even heavier than our packs. The next morning we woke up early enough to see the sunrise, made even more incredible by our relative isolation.

We made about 10 miles on the second day and found an excellent campsite in a valley, protected from the winds. By the third day, we were about two-thirds of the way there. We were tired, but we had gotten into the spirit and rhythm of the trip. We went to bed early that night because we knew our last day would be a challenge: We had to cover about six miles by 1 p.m., including climbing Horse Mountain Trail, but we were ready. After a few miles along the ocean, Horse Mountain Trail took us from sea level to 1,200 feet, where we had beautiful views, transitioning from a gorgeous coast to deeply forested hillsides, a fitting finale to our Lost Coast outing.

But the highlight of the trip was still to come.

We rested and recovered for a day, gearing up for a three-day white-water rafting trip down the lower section of the Klamath River, near the Oregon border. We loaded our supplies into gear boats and found spots in six-person rafts. There were also 10 single-person inflatable kayaks that we took turns using. The first day took us to rapids of varying difficulty, some of which required hard paddling, but we also found ourselves in quiet pools where “splash wars” seemed to break out with some frequency. In the afternoon I tried one of the inflatable kayaks and loved it.

I started the next morning in a kayak and almost immediately faced Ferry Rapid, a long, wide, rolling rapid with lots of smaller rocks. We’d gotten some tips and instruction before we started, and with luck and some hard paddling, I stayed in control.

And that was just the beginning. We took on several more rapids, including Dragon’s Tooth, the most difficult of the trip. Only one person fell out there--and he loved it.

By the time our kayaking adventure ended, we were ready for bed. We camped at nearby Shasta-Trinity National Forest. In our campground near Lake Siskiyou, we slept on tarps in sleeping bags with views of the stars.

Black Butte summit awaited us the next morning. From the base of the mountain we hiked up about 2,000 feet before reaching the summit, where we could see Mt. Shasta, whose snowcapped point dominated the landscape.

Half the camp awoke early the next morning and took off for rock climbing, and my half later headed out to go mountain biking. We picked up rented bikes before hitting a trail on Lake Siskiyou. After safety lectures and some practice, we biked along a paved road, a dirt bicycle trail along the lake (a test of our skills that didn’t offer much comfort room dodging tree branches) and another dusty trail before calling it quits.

I became a rock climber the next morning. After a short drive, we came to a beautiful creek and a 30-foot cliff with ropes strung all around. After listening to a lecture and being outfitted, we started rock climbing and rappelling. I did three of the four climbs that day, the last giving me stunning views of forested hills and the creek.

We moved our campsite south to a nice spot at the base of Lassen Peak, a 10,457-foot volcano near Shasta. The next morning we woke up early, had a quick meal, loaded our gear and drove to the trail head, at 8,000 feet.

From there it was a grueling hike, sometimes bordering on scary because of slippery snow, but we all made it to the top. I felt a real sense of accomplishment and pride that day as I ate lunch on top of Lassen Peak.

For a onetime city boy, it was a high point.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Guidebook: Adventures for the Young and the Restless

* Getting there: Nonstop service from LAX to Sacramento is available on United and Southwest. Restricted round-trip fares begin at $118.

* About the company: Adventure Treks takes teenagers on 16-to 27-day outdoor adventures in California, Washington, Oregon, North Carolina, Alaska and western Canada. The adventures typically combine backpacking, hiking, white-water rafting, canoeing, kayaking, rock climbing and mountain biking.

Adventures are limited to 24 students, ranging from 13 to 18 years old. Each adventure has six instructors of whom some are veterans of several years. The group is broken up into three or four smaller groups for most activities.

The all-inclusive adventures cost an average of $124 per day and include all equipment (backpacks, tents, sleeping bags, cooking gear), meals and activities.

The 18-day California trip described in this article costs $2,195, plus air fare. The least expensive trip is the 16-day North Carolina Blue Ridge adventure for 13-and 14-year-olds, at $1,895. The 27-day Alaska adventure for 16-to 18-year-olds is the most expensive trek at $3,695.

Students apply for Adventure Treks, and letters of recommendation are required.

For information, contact Adventure Treks, 628 7th Ave. East, Hendersonville, NC 28792; telephone (888) 954-5555 or (828) 698-0399, fax (828) 696-1663, Internet https://www.adventuretreks.com.

* Other companies that run trips: Adventures Cross Country, 242 Redwood Highway, Mill Valley, CA 94941; tel. (800) 767-2722, fax (415) 332-2130, https://www.adventurescrosscountry.com.

Deer Hill Expeditions, P.O. Box 180, Mancos, CO 81328; tel. (800) 533-7221, fax (970) 533-7221, https://www.deerhillexpeditions.com.

Longacre Expeditions, R.D. 3, Box 106, Newport, PA 17074; tel. (800) 433-0127, fax (717) 567-3955, https://www.longacreexpeditions.com.

Moondance Adventures, P.O. Box 20178, Atlanta, GA 30325; tel. (800) 832-5229, fax (404) 367-9419, https://www.moondanceadventures.com.

Trails Wilderness School, P.O. Box 123, Kelly, WY 83011; tel. (800) 869-8228, fax (307) 733-5441, https://www.trailsws.com.

Wilderness Ventures, P.O. Box 2768, Jackson Hole, WY 83001; tel. (800) 533-2281, fax (307) 739-1934, https://www.wildernessventures.com.