Get Outdoors - Volunteer: Finding Hope in the Wilderness

When 17 year-old Carmella Spears stepped off a plane at the Denver International Airport on a hot day last August, she had never been so far from her Chicago home. "I was so terrified I didn't know what to do," Carmella wrote in her journal. "I had never been on a trip like this and I wasn't sure I was prepared for it. But it was too late to turn back."Over the next week, Carmella would revisit the idea of turning back more than once as she and 4 other teenage girls hiked the peaks and forests of Colorado's backcountry on a trip sponsored by Big City Mountaineers (BCM). The outing was one of 16 trips organized by BCM last summer that led at-risk youth from America's cities on week-long wilderness adventures.

Carmella's trip, by her own estimation, was "death defying, dangerous, daring and dirty in short, a transformative journey." By the end of the hike, after struggling with fear, a heavy pack, steep climbs and torrential rain, Carmella "had the energy of a lioness," and had come to believe that "anything is possible."

That's the essence of the Big City Mountaineers experience, said Mary Margaret Sloan, American Hiking Society Vice President and BCM trip leader. "The teens that take trips with Big City Mountaineers are kids that have never had a break from their difficult, chaotic lives," Sloan said.

"They have all suffered from the stresses of poverty and abuse. Many have been abandoned by their families, and all have gotten into enough trouble to be assigned to youth homes and treatment programs. A wilderness trip offers an opportunity for peace, accomplishment and a renewed sense of possibility. For a troubled teen, it's really important to know that there are people out there who care."Big City Mountaineers has been a magnet for people who care for 10 years. Established in 1989 by American Hiking Society founder Jim Kern, BCM has grown from a weeklong backcountry hike Kern planned for his son and an impoverished boy from Miami to an organization planning 20 week-long trips a year for 100 teenagers in residential treatment programs. On each trip, adult volunteers are trail guides and leaders for a group of teens accompanied by their counselor. Last year alone, 78 men and women volunteered to lead BCM trips into the backcountry.

Volunteers are drawn to the outings, said Kern, by the hope that sharing a wilderness experience with a young person can actually do some good. Out on the trail, he said, "they discover that getting to know these kids is a wonderful experience. The teens often times share their lives and this is an opportunity for somebody from the middle class or above to be close to a kid for a few days who has been dealt a bad hand."

On a typical outing, each adult acts as a guide and mentor for one of the teens on the trip. Sometimes that means helping a young man accustomed to life on the street adjust to a backpack and the challenges of walking in wild country. Sometimes it's as simple as sharing camp chores, such as setting up tents or preparing a meal.

But as with all wilderness journeys, there is really no "typical" BCM trip. Though planners carefully organize all of the outings "identifying youth groups and leaders, setting schedules, gathering gear, planning the route" each trip presents a different and unimaginable set of challenges. There are the unknowns of weather and terrain, of course, but it's the emotional landscape that often proves the most daunting.

"These girls and boys are very afraid of getting attached to people," said Mary Kay Stoehr, BCM President and 5-time trip leader. "Anyone they have ever gotten close to has abandoned them. Why should we cooperate with you?" they ask. "Why should we trust you when you're just going to walk away?"

Stoehr lets love and the wilderness answer her group's mistrust. "We just try to take away all the distractions in their lives," she said. "When we go out together, all we are is a bunch of women in the wilderness pulling together to stay warm and dry and have a good time. We're just there to be with them and love them, and that sets up such a different atmosphere for relationships."

Indeed, a BCM trip can become an emotional touchstone for atroubled teenager. Stoehr and her husband Bill, a fellow trip leader, visited a boy at a residential youth program who had accompanied Bill on a BCM backpacking trip. The boy had decorated his room with pictures from the hike and beamed with pride as he relived his adventure with the Stoehr's. A girl who went on Mary Kay's first BCM trip 5 years ago writes to her every other week. "I am her only adult link in the world," says Stoehr.Adult leaders go home changed as well. When the kids struggle with fatigue or fear or anger, leaders may have to dig deep for patience and understanding. Sometimes, even typically joyful moments in a day outdoors, such as laying about and chatting after dinner, can unleash painful stories from the group, provoking troubling memories in teenagers and adults alike. After one such evening, Stoehr said, "we adult leaders crawled into our tents with heavy hearts." But they awoke, she added, "grateful for everything they have and moved by the experience of being able to give a group of troubled kids the care and attention they so badly need."

Unfortunately, it's difficult to extend that care beyond a backpacking trip. Typically, BCM volunteers come from far afield and lead groups from places they may never be able to visit. But Stoehr is leading a push to encourage volunteers to identify groups close to home so that BCM leaders can "stay connected to the kids."

Stoehr sets a fine example. She has led trips with 5 groups of girls from the same residential program near her home in Colorado and visits them often to share pizza and stories. If her charges need living proof that there are adults who won't walk away, Stoehr is it.

But even when the kids who hike with BCM have to fly home and resume lives far removed from wilderness and new-found mentors, they still take with them a profound experience. Carmella Spears reflected, as she boarded her flight home to Chicago, how much she had changed during her week in Colorado. She mused about determination and friendship, togetherness and accomplishment and she strode onto the plane like a lioness.