Nestled at the end of a long dirt road in Soda Springs is Hoyfjellet, an old stone lodge dating back to the 1930s. It has seen its share of action throughout its years on Donner Summit, but in recent times, new life has been breathed into its sturdy walls after the Gateway Mountain Center started leasing the space two years ago. Now, Gateway is purchasing the 23-acre property, including the lodge and a building to be used for staff housing, sealing its future as a nature healing center for the nonprofit, whose mantra is to get kids out of the clinic and into the outdoors.
“In the past, we have had to operate out of other rented-out lodges on the summit, requiring us to constantly move gear between locations, work with an external management team of that lodge, and require our clients to pay high lodging rates that would sometimes make or break their ability to do the program because of their budget,” said Mackenzie Kingston, assistant director of Gateway’s Sierra Experience program. “Now, we are able to break down barriers of access and inclusion to the mountains and our programs by fully operating out of our own space.”
Whether it is therapeutic mentors connecting in nature with kids for whom traditional clinical therapy has not been effective, welcoming kids ages 13 to 23 at it 4Roots Youth Wellness Center, or through its Sierra Experience programs, Gateway Mountain Center combines the transformative power of human connection and nature immersion to help young people learn, heal, and thrive. Sierra Experience draws young people from both private and Title One schools, and it has always been a goal to provide access to nature for underserved youths.
“It was foundational to the start of Gateway that we were focused on youths who had never been to nature before,” said Peter Mayfield, who founded GMC 18 years ago with the mission of connecting youth of all backgrounds to nature to increase enviro-literacy and resilience.
Often, they come from homes and communities that are socioeconomically disadvantaged, with some having experienced significant childhood trauma, such as abuse, substance use in the home, or even human trafficking. Many are part of therapeutic programs in their home areas, and a few days at Hoyfjellet Lodge — which in Norwegian translates to High Mountain Lodge, as it has now come to be renamed — is a stop along their healing journey.
“We don’t shy away from complexity at Gateway Mountain Center,” Mayfield said. “And that’s the amazing thing about our work; one week we’ll have Marin Montessori and the next week we’ll have kids from Glen County Probation, but increasingly, the majority of our groups are youths of color who historically have not felt welcomed or had these opportunities to be in nature.”
Relationships play an important role in the Sierra Experience program.
“That bond is built so beautifully, sharing time, shoulder-to-shoulder, exploring the natural world together … It’s so much more complex than the human-built world,” Mayfield said. “It’s a big deal for these kids to bond, to be with their classmates and their teachers in a completely different setting than school. You know, to have breakfast, have meals together, to cook, to clean up, and all that, but then to be exploring nature together. We feel so fortunate to have Donner Summit as our field site.”
And this is where the lodge comes in.
“We’re not just giving them an experience in nature. We are helping them learn that this is their land, these are their public lands. All of us own these lands. And not only that, but it’s also the top of their watershed,” Mayfield said. “This is your land, and your life is connected to this land. The biggest producer of oxygen in this region is the forest of the Sierra Nevada. And so, they’re breathing it, they’re drinking it, and we want them to love it.”
Mayfield says that while Gateway often works to bring young people from big cities into nature, it’s also important for our local schools to have a convenient overnight lodging location to bring students right into their own backyard.
“Having our own lodge and space to operate has created an immense amount of opportunity for us,” Kingston said. “Not only is the lodge beautiful and in a great location with trails right out the back door, but we have also been able to further curate programs and adapt to different client needs because of our exclusive access and management of the space.”
Gateway now has a greater ability to be flexible in areas such as running a kitchen that can adjust menus upon client request or offering lower rates that are more affordable for the clients’ budgets.
“As the groups’ needs adapt and change, we are now able to change with them,” Kingston said. “Whether it be a last-minute program date change, an adjustment to the youths that are coming, or itinerary change requests, by internally running the lodge all of those needs can be met more easily.”
The ability to house all program gear in one central location is also a huge positive, as it enables Gateway to provide winter and summer gear for clients that don’t otherwise have access. But having workforce housing is the cherry on top.
Last year, the Truckee Tahoe Airport District awarded GMC a grant of $90,000 toward the purchase of the lodge and to upgrade the staff house portion of the property. It has the capacity to provide workforce housing for two new behavioral health workers serving as therapeutic mentors in Gateway’s Whole Hearts, Minds & Bodies program serving Tahoe/Truckee youth.
“Having a staff house is so important,” Mayfield said of the on-site employee housing. “It allowed us to recruit an amazing therapeutic worker who moved here and has a place to live.”
As beautiful as the lodge is, like any nearly century-old structure, it needs repairs and upgrades. While Gateway is obtaining a mortgage to purchase the property, the nonprofit is launching a $2 million fundraising campaign to offset the cost of renovations, such as roof work, kitchen upgrades, electrical system updating, and ADA compliance requirements, making it one of only a handful of such mountain lodges in the Sierra Nevada that will be fully wheelchair-accessible.
Once the renovations are complete, Mayfield sees the High Mountain Lodge nature healing center growing to include programs not only for youth from all backgrounds, but also teachers, healthcare workers, and adults who could benefit from nature’s healing properties.
“It’s the therapeutic bond [that] is the biggest healing element,” Mayfield said. “But that bond is built so beautifully, sharing time, shoulder-to-shoulder, exploring the natural world together.”
To learn more about Gateway Mountain Center’s High Mountain Lodge, or to support the lodge campaign, contact Director of Philanthropy Kate Frankfurt at (530) 426-2110 or by email at kate@sierraexperience.org.
~ Juliana Demarest has been a Moonshiner since 2018 but also wears multiple other hats. One of those is communications manager for Gateway Mountain Center, whose work with youths she has admired from the first story she wrote about the nonprofit not long after joining Moonshine.
