Our Unique Program: Helping Young Adults Grow, Learn & Experience

October 3, 2022

How is Trails Momentum unique?

Trails Momentum, the sister program to Trails Carolina, is a co-ed adventure therapy-based wilderness program that offers a transformative, whole student-centered growth experience in the mountains of Western North Carolina for young adults ages 18-25.  Our unique program mixes adventure programming, clinical services, education, service-learning, and community living and empowers our students’ ability to successfully launch into independence.

Unique Program with Wilderness Experience

At Trails Momentum, students spend half their time at the program’s Sky Valley campus.  Sky Valley is an 800-acre mountaintop property with a trout-stocked lake, a waterfall, hand-hewn log cabin classroom spaces, student houses, a dining hall, and a myriad of trails for biking, trail running, and hiking that connect to neighboring state forest land. 

Our students participate in daily seminars on field ecology, interpersonal communication, and leadership and collaborate with the campus chef to plan and pack food for the expeditionary portions of the program as well as engage in hands-on culinary classes that build up each student’s ability to make healthy food choices and prepare meals for their peers.  Additionally, Trails Momentum students participate in mindfulness-based yoga, work in the campus garden, and engage in service learning projects in the surrounding community.

While in the field, the regional access to course areas provides Trails Momentum students the opportunity to engage in a multitude of identity-shaping experiences in multiple ecosystems.  Unlike other programs, Trails Momentum strongly believes in developing both soft and hard skills.  Students are taught from the “ground up” the fundamental skill set for each adventure activity, increasing their efficacy in the outdoors and allowing them to continue to engage in healthy outdoor pursuits after they transition from the program.