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GRP Hosts Pursuit

By Green River Preserve on November 27, 2019

This past September, Green River Preserve partnered with The Outbound Collective to bring their Pursuit adventure series to Western North Carolina. Pursuit’s goal is to inform and educate curious adventurers to try new activities, build new communities, and reconnect with the outdoors and their own confidence. As you can imagine, this was a match made in heaven for us at GRP. Previously held in locations such as Bear Valley in Northern California and Snowbasin, Utah, Pursuit was excited to stretch their footprint into the Southeast and we were thrilled to have them choose the Preserve for the event. Three hundred and fifty attendees, ages 16 to 77, arrived from 36 states ready for adventure and connection.

The event spanned three days and offered hundreds of unique class opportunities including one-wheeling, night photography, hammock yoga, backcountry cooking, and on and on. Liquidlogic brought in local whitewater legends Pat Kellar and Steve McGrady to teach introductions to kayaking and SUP, Redington brought a whole new toolkit of fly rods to taunt the trout in our lake and river, HOKA outfitted everyone with marshmallow-like running shoes to hit the trails, and Stanley made sure that we were hydrated in the backcountry and around the campfires at night. Our own seasoned Mentors brought camp classics like climbing at Bear Rock, caving, primitive skills, and mountain biking to the participants.

The front field was transformed into the Pursuit Village with canvas tents for the event sponsors circled around a dozen conversation areas equipped with their own gas fire pits and a stage for nightly musical entertainment. Bells rang to announce mealtimes and the buses chugged up and down the roads to deliver eager campers to their trailheads. The weekend came to a close as folks headed home with new skills, renewed confidence and newly formed friendships. It felt an awful lot like camp.

Hayne Beattie-Gray

Green River Preserve
Green River Preserve

Green River Preserve is a non-competitive, coed summer camp connecting children with nature. Located on a 3,400 acre private wildlife preserve in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Western North Carolina, this extraordinary natural setting inspires campers to have a greater understanding of themselves, their environment, and their fellow man. Designed for bright, curious, and creative children, our program nurtures character development and fosters skills like perseverance, curiosity, communication, optimism, creativity, and GRIT.