Holiday River Expeditions x Open Roads

October 7, 2024

By Matt Williams

Shifting the psyche of a nation, one river trip at a time

In 1993, Trevor Hall went down the Salmon River with Holiday. He was leading trips for a private company, bringing students from high-income families into the backcountry. Troubled that powerful experiences in nature weren’t available to all of us, he co-founded Open Roads with Roger Bristowe in 2001.

Joining him on his next trip down the Salmon were inner-city students from Boston who didn’t have the resources to go into the backcountry—or rather, they hadn’t until now. Under Trevor’s leadership, they were participating in a summer-long expedition across the Western states and experiencing the transformative power of the wilderness. As the trip reached its conclusion, Trevor wrote in his journal: “I want to run 1,000 rivers and sit on 1,000 riverbanks.”

Fast forward to 2024 and he’s well on his way. Open Roads is wrapping up its biggest summer yet, successfully completing 5 unique river-trips and officially becoming Holiday’s largest client. Along the way, they’ve increased access to a historically homogenous space, supported hundreds of students through some of life’s biggest transitions, and planted seeds that could shift the psyche of a nation. So, what is Open Roads?

The Dynamic Duo

It’s impossible to understand Open Roads without knowing a bit about the humans who took it from crazy idea to side-hustle to full-time passion.

I met Roger and Trevor for the first time on a Yampa trip this Spring. Roger immediately earned high marks in my book for beating the guides up in the morning and bringing us coffee in bed. After spending a few days with them, I was struck by the beauty of their friendship and their mutual enthusiasm for these trips. It was clear that Open Roads was inseparably tied to the pair, and I asked them to explain how it all came to be.

Trevor and Roger met working at a summer camp in Minnesota, where they were assigned to share a small, four-person A-frame during a workshop for trip-leaders. Both well above 6-feet tall, they quickly got acquainted.

“I don’t know who those other guys were, but our friendship was immediate,” Trevor told me. As time went on, and Trevor decided to attend graduate school in Boston, Roger was working as an environmental educator in the Northeast.

“For whatever reason, the universe decided that we were going to be in the same place at the same time. Trevor was in the city but his release was coming up and seeing me in the outdoors,” Roger explained. They quickly discovered a common passion for working with kids in the outdoors. As Trevor recounts, “We had this moment when we realized that this is what we had been looking for our whole lives. There was camaraderie and meaning in taking people into the outdoors in a transitional time in life and having a ton of fun but also being the people who can make meaningful experiences for these kids.”

The Inspiration

When I asked where their inspiration came from, both Roger and Trevor agreed: Outward Bound. Similar in spirit to Open Roads, Outward Bound has long been a global leader in backcountry education. Trevor got to attend one of their trips at a pivotal time in high school, and Roger got to witness the transformative effect it had on his father—who received a scholarship to attend and as a result spent 40+ years working in youth development.

But one thing makes Open Roads unlike Outward Bound or any other program of its kind: 100% of their students are on a full scholarship. Rather than selling pre-packaged trips, they identify partner organizations and schools, co-create desired outcomes for students on the trip, and then find a way to make the experience completely free for everyone. “Each of our partners lets us know how much they can contribute, and we raise the rest,” explained Trevor.

The result: 450+ students have participated in a tailor-made Open Roads experience for free. This is key, because while similar programs might include some scholarship recipients, Open Roads ensures that everyone is in the same shoes. Roger explained that “it’s intentional that everyone on the trip has no familiarity in the outdoors and is attending on scholarship. That makes them all feel like they fit in. If you only have a few scholarship kids, they feel like they stand out.” But finding the right group and securing the funding is only a piece of the puzzle.

The real magic is what happens next.

The Secret Sauce

I got to experience it firsthand on that Spring Yampa trip with a group of upcoming leaders from Cleveland. A few months after the trip, I asked a student named Meir to explain in one paragraph what makes Open Roads trips so meaningful:

“Open Roads took a fantastic outdoor experience and turned it into a meaningful, life-changing event. Led by some of the kindest, wisest, and most caring people I know, the trip became a catalyst for deep conversations and a conduit of human connection. We would circle around for dinner, or make a circle for a reflection, or just a circle where we all held each other and looked in each other’s eyes. The circle was beautiful because it allowed everyone to see each other equally, no one on more of an angle than anyone else, and I think that was intentional. These conversations allowed us to collectively shape the trip into a meaningful experience for all of us, sharing stories and ideas, connecting them to each other and the river, and listening to each other, growing together in our collective experience.”

I couldn’t help but ask: What’s the secret formula? Trevor replied, “Set expectations + build anticipation + at least 3-days of awe in true wilderness + personal reflection + a post-trip integration = transformation. One of the things that sets us apart is that we work with our partners to set clear outcomes we want to achieve for every Open Roads program.

With 30+ years of experience in education with diverse groups, we have a huge network of outdoor guides and creatives. Being lean (the full-time team is composed of just Roger and Trevor) means that (1) we can staff each trip with guides that are an ideal fit for that trip, (2) we can create a trip in any location to best serve our partner’s goals, and (3) working with groups like Holiday means we also have the benefit of the AMAZING guides they bring to the table.”

For example, an Open Roads trip begins with a visit from the guides ahead of the expedition to “set student’s expectations and establish the value of going outside of our comfort zone together and being in nature.” Once those expectations are set, the anticipation begins to grow, and with it, their mental and emotional readiness for transformation ripens.

As a result, when everyone actually arrives for their wilderness immersion (and a duration of at least 3-days is key), they waste no time getting into the deep and real, utilizing personal reflection and the art of storytelling to identify which parts of themselves they want to leave behind, and which parts of themselves they want to nurture. Finally, when the trip ends and students head home, Roger and Trevor help them integrate their new goals and perspectives into daily life. They emphasize bringing the experience back to your community after the trip is over.

“We talk about going back to civilization after being in the backcountry, but our trips are about as civil as it gets,” Trevor explained. “You get people from all walks of life together and they thrive together and respect each other. Why can’t we take that back into the outside world?”

They are also intentional about “bringing back previous students to be leaders on trips and help current students through the transition. This shows current students the impact that the trip can have and helps them picture themselves in leadership roles and in the outdoors after the trip. It’s a whole lifecycle and it’s about relationships and community.”

I asked Owami, another student from our Spring Yampa trip, to comment on how Open Roads changed her. She replied that “Open Roads is an organization that gives people a platform to not only connect to nature, but also connect to one another, sharing meaningful stories and creating an environment that helps us believe that anything is possible. The river taught me that even in the midst of adversity, life will continue going/flowing; that even in the midst of the noise, there’s always somewhere to find peace and serenity.”

I asked Roger and Trevor to comment on this idea of using the backcountry to change hearts and minds. They explained that they have a deeply rooted approach to using these experiences to help people expand their belief systems about what’s possible. “We think a lot of young people today don’t have the ability to realize their full potential, and having this experience in the outdoors outside of your comfort zone helps you realize what’s actually possible. We want to help students redefine their belief system about what they can and can’t do, using a cycle of experience, reflection through journal prompts, and group discussion.

In fact, we don’t think of ourselves as running trips. Our intention has always been to create transformational personal growth programs that could shift a student’s psyche, create new connections, and lead to ambitions for a better world. Joy and play are absent in many of our lives today, so we are also intentional about incorporating that.”

And the impact of Open Roads doesn’t end with its attendees. They also have a magazine. “We think of our magazine is a megaphone. We’re trying to take a deep swing at affecting systemic change. It strives to amplify the work that we and our partner organizations are doing to address the lack of connection to the natural world in our country. The more we can heal this wound, the easier it will become to solve many of our physical and mental health issues.”

Once published, the magazine gets distributed for free to school districts and organizations like Holiday, drawing students, communities, and potential donors into the space that Open Roads is fearlessly pioneering.

This video, produced during the Spring Yampa trip I got to participate in, is a fantastic example of how Open Roads operates on the river and strives to amplify their impact through storytelling.

The Partnership

I also wanted to know how Open Roads had settled on Holiday as their partner, so I asked Trevor and Roger, “Why river trips?”

Trevor explained, “the river is the best way to get people out into deep wilderness without an extended hiking trip. The barriers for entry are much lower, and with Holiday we can focus exclusively on the journaling and intentional conversations and storytelling as soon as we get on the water, because everything else is taken care of. Nothing is as powerful as the river for giving people a true deep wilderness experience who have never had it in a way that’s comfortable.

And the experience with our participants has gotten better and better as our partnership with Holiday has gotten better. We work seamlessly with you guys. Holiday has been responsive to our needs and we’ve worked together to adapt trips to our community. I’ve seen you all adapt your approach to be responsive to who we are.”

The river has also influenced how they design programs by centering them around the “wow factor” of being out on the river. For example, they do some hiking and camping before the trip so that students can compare and contrast camping on and off the river. They have also found this helps make students feel more comfortable when they get out on the river.

“By challenging them before the river trip begins, it ensures that our time on the water can be focused playing and releasing and reflecting,” Roger explained. “What’s more, the river itself is a teacher of sorts. You can’t help but be deeply moved by the lessons of a river, and our physical connection to the nature of flowing water is impossible to ignore. It gives us the time and space to connect and be a community, and just experiencing the river safely makes any trip a success.”

The Future

I was surprised to learn during our conversation that Roger and Trevor didn’t begin working on Open Roads full-time until 3 years ago. I asked them if there’s anything they would have done differently given what they know now. “I would have believed in our ability to make this work and go all in sooner,” Trevor replied. “And yet, we had to learn so much to get us to this moment of major capacity for growth.”

By capacity for growth, Trevor is referring to the fact that Open Roads doubled its programming this summer and plans to do the same next year. Long-term, they hope to get to 10 programs and over 100 students every summer. Trevor also has high hopes for the Magazine. “We have some really inspiring stories to tell, and I want to see our magazine and films reach a big audience. We all need these stories in our lives. I know I do.”

Having witnessed the power of an Open Roads program firsthand, I can confidently say that I do too. Want to help Open Roads down the road? Check out their website here and consider becoming a part of the growing community of donors who make their mission possible!

Matt rows boats for Holiday in the Summer, and runs/skis/bikes around the West in the Winter. Writing and photography are his favorite ways to scratch the creative itch. If you liked this post, you can follow along with more stuff he’s making here.