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-Look at that elk. -He was really close.
-Look at the elk. Look at the elk.
-Shh, shh, shh.
-Yo, that's crazy.
-Do you want to get out and look at him?
-Yeah.
♪
-That's crazy.
♪
-I'm finna walk with them.
I'm a elk, too.
♪
-Brother, mountains!
You never seen something so breathtaking in your life.
-Bro, look!
Do you see the blue rays right there?
-Yeah.
-It looks like God coming up.
♪
-Wilderness Works, when I first heard of it,
I thought it was a program where we just go like a,
you know, like a Boy Scout-type thing.
I, like, skipped over the wilderness parts.
-So where is the entrance going to be at?
-Um...
Man!
I haven't even seen the outdoors.
I just heard stories.
But I believe that -- I'll admit --
I just wanted to see different places.
-You busted it. -[Groans]
-These are the legs.
The little knobby things are the legs, right?
-Please help me. I'm about to break this chair.
-Do you mind helping me out?
-Most of the trips I've been on,
we were in Georgia, or probably North Carolina,
but never really went somewhere
where it's just wilderness and wild, like Colorado.
-This is one of our youngest groups to fly on a trip
and go into a National Forest
and do real rugged outdoor living.
They're a bit on the young side,
but they learn a lot and they grow.
What's the name of that movie, Dylan, that you told me about,
with the people that put on all the weight.
They end up being on, like, these --
-"WALL-E." -Is it 'WALL-E"?
-If you've seen that movie, so all they do is watch TV.
They've got, like, food that just comes to their mouth.
And they don't have to do any work.
And they become softer and softer, to the point where,
if you ask me, it's like they're dead.
You understand what I'm saying?
And I'm thinking that a lot of us do that
for 50 weeks out of the year.
And we stop doing this.
Outdoor living is living.
And believe me, when you go home, when it's September,
you will look back at this experience
and you will have kind of a pain
because you'll be looking back for it.
You'll say, wow, that was cool. I really connected.
♪
-Cliff, you still in?
-I was very fortunate as a young person.
I was in an orphanage as a baby.
And I was blessed with being adopted by good parents.
And I grew up in Miami Beach, Florida.
And my brother and I, we were canoeing in Biscayne Bay,
and boating and sailing
and swimming and going to the beach.
We were definitely in the outdoors.
When I was in Mercer University in Macon, Georgia,
we started to work with disadvantaged kids.
And I began to appreciate how powerful outdoor
living experiences would be for them.
And I realized that taking this to the next level,
establishing a nonprofit, is where I needed to head.
And that's what I've done.
This is our first city camp of the year,
so why don't we do this?
Let's all say what our name is.
You want to stand up and say your name?
-My name is Jacob.
-Oh, I like that name. That's a cool name.
Where do you go to school?
-Parkside. -Parkside!
-First impression -- he was a stranger, really.
But he always was making jokes.
-We got to do the special handshake, okay?
Who's that back there?
-I didn't know him at first, so I just called him "weird."
-What is the name of this organization, Victor?
-Wilderness Works.
-Now, look at the forest. The green is the forest, right.
Can wilderness work
if we're working our way towards extinction?
No.
-When I first seeing him,
I thought he was like this old, white, grumpy man.
So I didn't know what to expect.
-Outdoor living, it tends to be male-dominated
and it tends to be Caucasian.
So introducing these ideas to the children we serve,
which are predominantly Black children,
it's a tough thing to attempt.
-How many people know where we're going next?
-Ooh, ah, ah! Game room!
-I can't hear you. -Game room!
-With me being there, I think it helps,
because I am Black, I am a female,
and I do come from the urban neighborhoods.
So I am very informed, very in tune with these kids.
Y'all just lost your turn.
-Ebonie Martin is outstanding.
The two of us work together very effectively.
-I don't look at him as the white savior.
And I don't think he looks at it as,
oh, I'm helping these Black kids out.
But I'm helping these kids that, in any other situation,
couldn't afford the opportunity.
[Kids shouting indistinctly]
-Let's go.
-What we do at Wilderness Works here,
we want you to have fun.
But my job is to give you ideas.
Do you understand me?
So let me give you an example.
How many people here can say
I have a lot of absentee father in my life?
Raise your hand. I know I can.
It's a lot of people.
-I think he can connect with us, because, you know,
Bill also grew up as an orphan.
And he didn't have his real parents in his life,
so he couldn't have a real blood-on-blood connection.
-I met Clifford when he was in fifth grade.
His dad was in prison and his mom had a full-time job.
He's got two sisters and a brother.
He was like the man of the house, right.
He's only in fifth grade.
-We have parents that work two
or three jobs just to struggle.
It's a lot of things going on with the child
as well as the family as a unit.
-With Nick, for instance, he is grappling with depression.
With Clifford, he had to grow up with a father
who was incarcerated during most of his childhood.
Ahmani has experienced chronic homelessness,
constant instability.
♪
-Right now, I'm just concentrating
on really trying to work and get us somewhere to stay.
You need your own room. Your sister needs her own room.
And three bedrooms are not cheap here.
-Yeah.
-Literally, I've got to work a lot.
-When I was around 4,
it's when my dad first got arrested.
And I think that's when it actually started
with all the chronic homelessness and stuff.
♪
Sometimes I'd stay in a hotel where it's, like, prostitutes
and people selling drugs
and smoking weed and stuff like that.
I've never really, like, lived on the street.
I think it was because my mom, she'd always find a way, really.
Even if it was just going to another shelter
or another hotel.
-Do you remember, like, some of those rinky-dink
hotels sometimes, like when I wasn't working?
And we had to lug all our clothes around.
And sometimes I say y'all,
we just gonna be here for a couple of days.
Let mama -- mama gonna figure it out
and we're gonna move somewhere else.
You know, I always tried to make sure, you know,
we got something good to eat, or something like that.
But a lot of hotels, I look back and think,
wow, how could I allow us to stay in it, and with y'all.
♪
-I was mad at myself
because I felt so ashamed of being homeless
and living in shelters and stuff.
I was ashamed that I didn't live in a house or an apartment.
My mom didn't have a good job.
She didn't get good money.
♪
I was staying at Nicholas House, another shelter.
And there was a sign-up sheet
for something called Wilderness Works.
So my mom had just put my name on the list.
-And they was like, oh, we think your son would be
a good candidate for it.
And I met Bill. We sat down and talked.
And the next weekend, I let you go.
This was your first time ever going away from me, you know.
And you've been going every weekend since.
And that was, what, six years ago.
-I remember how you used to pick me up.
-You've been gone every weekend since.
-Y'all used to pick me up.
And I'd get mad because I was leaving.
And I started crying.
-You didn't want to leave the camp.
-Mm-hmm.
-So he was just having that much fun.
I used to always say,
Bill your -- your new white daddy.
-You did say that.
-You don't remember that? -Yeah, I do, I do.
-Ol' Bill, ha ha.
-I believe that Ahmani is in a period of processing.
By careful repetitive experiences and reassurance,
we do think we may be countering this negative energy in his life
so that he feels like he has value
and that he is worthy,
and that he can overcome this neglect
that he's faced as a child.
♪
[Crickets chirping]
♪
-Kind of remind me of a red panda
and a squirrel if they had a baby,
but that would be kind of weird, both of them at the same time.
♪
-[Speaks indistinctly]
-I bet you won't stick your hand on it.
-I bet you I won't. -I bet you will.
-What if it just charge out the hole, like just --
-It's gonna catch Nohea.
-I'll give you all my dinner food if you go do it.
I got two bags of mashed potatoes.
-Well, let me get a bag.
I made a bet with Nohea.
Because Nohea said, if you stick your hand in there,
he would give me half of his dinner.
So I stick my whole entire hand in there.
I hear something, like, sniffling on my hand.
And I pull it back. I was like, dang.
He let me have his mashed potatoes with the chicken.
That's a combo. You know how good that was?
♪
-In this particular trip, initially we're acclimatizing
for some high altitude backpacking.
So we spent about four days in Rocky Mountain National Park,
as we anticipate going on to the Snowmass Wilderness
outside of Aspen, where we are going to be
climbing over 12,000 foot peaks repeatedly.
-Bro, we in Jurassic Park right now.
-Whoa!
-Oh, they getting on the trail.
-Now, that's gonna scare the shit out of somebody.
-They finna have a heart attack and a stroke.
♪
-How ya doin'?
-All you gotta do is just start with your feet.
-The first time I ever saw snow was, like,
probably that one time it snowed in Atlanta.
But that was my second time seeing snow.
♪
Well, what the heck, why is it so cold?
Dumb ass. Dumb ass.
[Indistinct conversations]
-Are you feeling some altitude, maybe?
What happened? Are you not sleeping as good?
Let me ask you a question.
Do you seem very energized right now?
-Kind of. -No, you don't.
You seem tired. Even sad.
-I don't know what be wrong with Nick.
I don't know.
But all of a sudden, like, he'll just distance himself.
You know, like, just get down,
like he's thinking about something.
-It's weird.
I'll just be in my own world.
I mean, I try to fit in sometimes.
Like, I try to change my personality.
But a part of me saying no, like, just be yourself.
So I be myself sometimes
-I think Nick,
he likes being surrounded by people,
except for when he's in his moods.
I know he likes to be alone.
♪
-I'll separate myself from the group just to,
like, connect with nature.
Because I've never seen nothing like this in my life.
♪
-Knock those balls out. There you go.
-One moment I'll be happy.
But then I think about one thing and my whole mood just change.
Like, I'll get depressed.
And then, people will be walking up to me.
And I'll just, like, isolate myself.
I'll be, like, I have, like, my own space.
I'll be, like, leave me alone.
When you was in the city, it don't stop.
Like, school, school, school, school, school,
weekend, weekends, work, work.
And, like, extracurricular, like, basketball,
after school program.
I babysit my niece and nephews.
It's like you're trapped in a bubble.
I'm tired.
-I'm concerned about you because we want you
to grow into someone
that is excited to be who you are.
You have to learn who you are.
What do I like? What do I not like?
And it's challenging to develop your own identity.
But I see that you're under pressure.
How often do you feel like you're dealing with sadness?
-Not every day, but it's like,
majority of times.
-What do you think you're sad about?
-I don't even know. It can be about multiple things.
It can be about family related, anything.
-You're not sure where they're coming from,
but you do feel them. -Yeah.
-And other times you feel really good.
-Yeah. -And we all go through this.
You're not the only one.
And you know that you have us to talk to, right?
Miss Ebonie is always there. You know I'm always here.
Any time you want to talk,
you know that we're here to talk to, correct?
-Yeah.
♪
-Home sweet home. Yes.
-We have got work to do.
We're going to have to get our backpacks out.
We've got to think five nights, six days.
♪
-Oatmeal.
-Why did I buy this?
-I got too much dry food, bruh.
-I don't know why you put it in order
if you gonna stuff it back in the stuff sack.
-Just checking.
-It's going to go back out of order.
♪
-Open the door, please.
That's how you do it.
-You're welcome, you're welcome.
-You're welcome. You're welcome.
-Now, let's go to an interesting conversation.
Tomorrow is Father's Day.
And part of my job, actually, at Wilderness Works
is to combat fatherlessness.
You know, when I was a kid, I was very lucky
because I had Pat and Ed Mickler.
When they were having trouble having children,
they went to an orphanage
and adopted me in 1958.
But they are not my parents.
And I never knew my father or my mother, right.
Ahmani, eight years without a father, okay.
You go and visit him at prison.
And then he calls you on the phone. He calls me.
And he sends letters, right?
What does that mean to you?
-Like, because he does all that stuff,
and I get to see him,
it's almost like he has been there even though he hasn't.
It's like he's trying to do his best as a father
even though he's incarcerated.
-My dad is on parole, but he has a really strict officer.
And it's weird because they treat him
like he's still a prisoner.
Like, he can't see me or anything.
He has to have, like, someone supervising him,
like he can't be trusted at all,
like he still is kind of in jail.
-Where is your dad?
-My dad got shot at a hotel when I was 6.
-So he was murdered. -Mm-hmm.
-6 years old. Wow.
So here you are, a guy who's trying to
become a man.
And you got nobody to show you the way.
Let's talk about Clifford.
Clifford is going back to be at a party
to celebrate the release of his father from prison.
For how many years? -Eight.
-So eight years of his life has had no dad.
His mother struggled to raise four children.
Are you excited to see your dad? -Yeah.
-You probably miss him. -Yeah.
-Do you look like him? -People say I do.
-Is it difficult?
-Watching my mother trying to raise us is,
without a father.
-What time is it?
Y'all better hurry up.
It stink in this room.
When y'all gonna clean the room up?
Like, when? Clean this stuff up.
You're not going to clean this mess up.
-I didn't see a good neighborhood till I was,
maybe, seventh grade, eighth grade.
And it was just like a lot of fighting, gun violence,
robbery, drug trafficking.
And you know you don't want to be there.
But that's all you ever seen.
My dad, he would go to jail for like a year or two.
Get out.
He might stay out for, like, six, seven months, and go back.
And this time he might do a longer sentence
and then get out.
Do another sentence.
So it's, like, repetitive.
So I don't really have that connection
with my dad like that.
-Clifford, as a child, he was just kind of like quiet.
But I really don't see any traits from his father.
I just see all of me, pretty much.
Y'all want some cereal?
-I don't drink milk.
-So why are you not drinking milk?
-It's not good for you. -Milk not good for you?
Pizza not good for you. You still eat it.
After Cliff's dad and I broke up,
I met my three youngest kids' dad.
But he's passed away now.
-He had a heart attack in the car.
We were like this.
And I, like, when he passed away,
it was just like,
I really ain't got nobody now, for real.
Now we're really at rock bottom.
-So what did you buy for them to eat Saturday?
-I got everybody a six-piece and fries
and some rice.
-Individual? -Yeah.
-How much was it?
-It was $28-something, total.
-You should have just got a --
next time, you just get a family meal.
Don't try to buy everybody individual meals.
It's just me. It's just me.
It's me all day long, nonstop.
When anything happens
I have to be the one there to do everything.
♪
-I was at Parkside Elementary.
I was in fifth grade.
And Bill came to my school.
I was like, hmm, maybe I should give it a try.
So I gave Bill my mother's number.
I did feel skeptical at first.
I'm not going to even say I didn't, because it was like,
who is this man that wants to just get these kids
and take them out of town or teach them things.
Who -- what is his motive? You know.
-My first trip, when we went to Tybee Island,
I was just like, yeah, I love this program.
You know, you're a kid.
You know, you're in a three-story house on a beach
with positive people around you.
You can talk to them. And you're playing and stuff.
It was fun.
-Clifford wanted to go.
He was happy.
And all the quietness that are I seen kind of like stopped.
-Wild nature, it's like a drug.
I don't smoke, so, basically, I call it my high.
It just -- it just feels some type of way.
I can't explain it.
There's freedom and you don't feel none of the threats
and the pressure that comes in the city,
particularly in the hood.
You don't feel none of that because you're out there,
basically by yourself with the water
and the mountains and things like that.
And it's just a stress relief.
-Clifford has been on many,
many trips in remote wilderness across the United States.
And the younger kids are looking up to him.
So I'm very excited to see Cliff and his development,
and the direction he's heading in.
♪
-We've got four passes to do.
West Maroon Pass, Frigid Air Pass,
Trail Rider Pass, and Buckskin Pass.
This one is icy. We have to be very careful here.
-A pass is like, almost like a U.
And you climb up this mountain and you go through it,
through the U. And then you go down.
-A four pass loop is basically four mountains.
It's going in a loop is basically what it means like.
-Pack your trash. Bury all human waste.
If we have to go to the number two,
we have to dig a hole six inches deep.
And make sure you fill up the hole,
or whatever, when you're done.
And cover it up, et cetera.
Any questions? All right. Let go.
-Let go.
♪
-I love your socks, by the way.
Your socks are spectacular.
-Say no GAF.
-I mean, no GAF, okay?
♪
-I know I feel it in my toes.
-I do not take my shoes off when I cross the river, okay.
I recommend you do the same. But your shoes will be wet.
All right, here we go.
Cliff, I need your help.
-Bill had me actually stand in the water
to help him cross.
And basically I was just like, if I fall in the water,
I just fall in the water.
I got to make sure they get across.
Come on, bruh. -Ready, set, go.
-Because, you know, I'm a mentor, right.
Their safety matters more because they're younger.
-Keep going, keep going, move, move.
-Everybody got across safe.
But when I got out of the water, I couldn't feel my legs.
And they sting, like I got stung by a bee.
-You all did a good job.
By the way, if I were you, I would wipe off my face.
That whole side of you is just --
you like somebody who just got out of war.
-Yo, bro, low-key, that shit was fun, though.
That was fun.
-So this is where we are.
So really, tomorrow we will probably do two
and a half times what we did today.
We'll have to get up early and make it happen.
♪
-Hold up, hold this, hold this.
♪
They all over the place.
All over this campsite. It's crazy.
-So they can't get me now? -Yep.
-Our faces are safe.
♪
-Turn that shit down, bro. All right, all right.
-Okay.
-I watched a long vid. -What the world?
-I know it was something on the bottom of that.
-No, buddy.
Turn that junk off and then take it off.
-We gonna blow up. Real talk.
-This is black bear country.
Absolutely no food in your tent, ever.
♪
-I'll trade you some Cheez-Its for some flavors.
-Nah, I don't like Cheez-Its.
-Show him, man!
-All right, let me jump in.
-[Laughs]
-It's funny. It's banging, bro.
-Is that even fair? See.
-I don't know. You the one who traded with me.
-Ohh. -It's called take backs.
-Just try this. -No take backs.
-Everybody, we're gonna have a meeting.
-Let's bag it all up.
-Everybody's got a bag of food, right?
-Mm-hmm.
-How many cannisters do we have
that are actually have some room in them?
We got three that I can see, right?
-We didn't realize that we didn't have enough
bear cannisters, bear cannisters basically it help
when a bear comes and try to get your food,
they can smell it 'cause their nose are powerful.
So when they come, try to get the food,
they can't get into it.
-So here, you got these big bags of food.
Let's talk about what can happen here.
One, is if we're not able to secure the food,
the bear can eat the food.
Worst yet, somehow, it leads to bear interest in us
and the tents and somebody gets bitten.
Worse than that, there are stories of bears
pulling people out of their tent.
You guys didn't think about this over at the house, did you?
This is serious.
-When I first started,
Bill would talk about bears coming to get our food
or they can go through the tent,
they smell anything, they'll kill you for it.
I thought it was like, oh, all right,
that's not gonna happen.
But about three years ago, we were in Wyoming,
and I was in a tent.
All of a sudden, I hear, bear!
So I get up out the tent, I was going, like,
oh, no, this not a dream.
Look and it's like this brown grizzly bear
like 30 feet away from us just circling the campsite.
I didn't go to sleep probably 3:00 in the morning, paranoid.
Since then, yeah, I knew, like, it's serious.
Out of the stories I was hearing, it's serious out here.
-Let me tell you what, as we keep progressing,
we're going to get to a certain point which is the halfway point
it's also the riskiest point because if something happened,
we have all the way to go to come back.
Do we want to have to quit the whole trip
because we're making unwise decisions?
-Nope.
-This all my food.
-Because we didn't have enough bear cannisters,
we had to use the kevlar bag.
-Remember, we've got to be able to untie it, too.
Don't go too crazy.
♪
-I felt like I just zoned out.
And, like, you're just taking it all in.
And you're connecting with the animals,
like on some mind power trick, like, thing.
♪
-All our food, you know, was safe, we was happy.
So we pack up, we ready to go.
♪
-I feel like the pass is going to go up to
where those rocks are.
Bill was talking about, if it was a day
that we were going up a pass, that we needed to move fast
because if it was raining, you were up so high
that you could actually be struck by lightning.
-The climbing was the hardest.
And you'd look, and you see Bill,
like, a thousand feet away, up in the air.
He like a dot. And you're like, oh, my God.
Crazy.
-I can't breathe for nothing.
The air is too thin. I can't breathe.
I'm gonna faint.
Where we going, though?
-We all think it's food that fuels us.
And it does, of course.
But oxygen fuels us. It's amazing.
I feel like I'm going to faint.
I feel dizzy, right?
And then I just breathe slowly.
I take about, maybe, 20 breaths.
And slowly, I just come back to life.
It's amazing. And I get like -- it's like fuel.
It's crazy. All right, let's go.
♪
-Getting to the top, it was a lot to take in.
Just seeing these high mountains and these trees, these valleys,
and all this other stuff.
I felt like I was on top of the world.
♪
-Right up until that time, I didn't know whether our group
could actually successfully cross these passes
that are close to 13,000 feet.
But I saw, once we did our first pass,
that we were able to do so.
And I was more confident about coming passes.
-Y'all want to do the trail?
It's probably going to be a little bit longer.
Or do y'all want to go down the snow,
where we could just meet Bill most of the way?
-Bro, I'm trying to slide.
Real talk. -Y'all trying to slide?
-Because if we -- -We have no other choice.
-Y'all try to slide. -Let's do it.
-Let's go, brah. -Down the snow.
Real talk. We goin'.
Oh, oh, we goin'.
Oh, we goin'.
-Whoo!
-Oh, nah, I was not doing that.
I was not going for that because,
first of all, that's stupid.
Second of all, it's not intelligent.
And third of all, you're getting your clothes wet
and it's cold outside.
Come on now.
I was the smartest out of the whole group.
-When I get home, my mom finna cook me some white rice,
some tofu, and some black beans.
-Shut up, brah.
-I'm gonna get -- nah, I'm gonna make some pancakes.
-Chill out. I don't want to talk about food right now.
-I'm gonna get -- I'm gonna really make it, too.
I'm gonna put that shit on the pan.
-Because if I start thinking about food, bro,
I'm going to start thinking about trail mix.
And that's all I have.
Now I want pancakes.
What the -- -Huh?
-What?
-A bee tried to sting me.
-What? -What he do?
-A bee tried to sting me.
-He says bee was -- -No, it did not.
-Yes, it did.
-Bees do not just go out of their way to sting people.
When they sting people --
-You must have aggravated him in some way.
-All I heard was this buzzing sound, right.
Then I looked to my right.
I see, like, this thing, and its stinger is pointing towards me.
I see his legs drop down.
Then it's, like, freaking pointed towards me.
Then it's coming.
-You must have aggravated it or something.
-Y'all never believe me.
-Boy, you're smoking too much crack, boy.
♪
-Hey, we are not going --
we're going to have to go back if we don't find this shoe.
Why are we taking out shoes off
and walking around barefoot anyway?
We need to figure out where did Sean go?
And go there. So just don't go aimlessly looking around.
We have to find out from Sean where did he go?
All right, let's keep looking.
-We spent a good 20 minutes like looking for his shoe.
It was under a log, but Bill's talking about some,
if we do not find his shoe, we're going back.
-What would have happened if we lost a shoe?
-Obviously, we was not going back because he paid a lot
of money for this trip.
I appreciate him for that, but.
We found the shoe, we just -- we kept on going on.
♪
-Oh, my legs are burning. I cannot feel my legs.
Oh, oh.
It was cold. My socks was wet.
I didn't have the right food.
I had a whole bunch of Clif bars.
Let me get some Snickers, man.
It was tough.
♪
-We have to go over that pass.
You see that -- -Oh.
-It looks like a golf course up there.
-Passing one pass is tough already.
So when you got to go over two of them?
No. [Scoffs]
-Dang, we got to do two passes today.
-Know what I mean, right?
-Oh, this is tough.
-No.
-Is backpacking easy?
-No.
-This is a whole different kind of world.
This is a hard world, right?
And I think most of the people I know are too soft.
This is not their element.
This is my element.
I guess one question is, is this your element?
Nick, what is your element?
-To be honest, I don't know.
-You might be too young to know, right?
And too inexperienced.
What do you think, Ahmani?
-Honestly, I don't really know if this is my element.
I mean, I do like being outside and all.
But I don't really know if this is --
-If you had an alternative, would you pick the alternative
or would you try to come to a place like this?
-I would probably pick the alternative.
-So you probably would not come here?
I don't want you to come back unless you want to.
And with Ahmani, I think Ahmani is hinting
that he really doesn't want to.
So it's not for everybody. It's something to think about.
But I do hope somebody here would like to come back,
either here or wherever we go.
But you know you'll have to be tough.
All right, let's go.
♪
-I've never seen nothing like this before.
-Yeah. You can't get it all in one view.
-It's like the snake. -Yeah, Snake River.
♪
-Listen, you gotta be sure you're ready to go, correct?
-Yes. -Good.
♪
-If I slip, I'm just gonna slide down.
-Bruh.
-Oh, it's, like, it's so much snow over there.
-Eh. I can't do this.
Oh, I know my trick again. Hell naw.
-If that works, yo, do it.
-Once we had got down the pass
and were almost at the campsite,
the trail had went covered by snow.
And I remember I was right behind Bill.
And it was, like, scary.
-It's like a steep hill of snow, almost straight.
-One wrong step and you could just go
tumbling down the hill or straight into the lake.
-Hey, bro, I'm going down.
Who was you telling? -Bullshit, boy.
-What? -Walk this way.
Walk this way. -I'm gonna die.
I'm gonna die. -Chill out.
-I don't know how I'm going to do this.
-I mean, you're not going to die.
♪
-We're crossing it one-by-one.
So you have to put one foot in front of the other, stay low,
and don't look down.
And everybody's safety's in hand.
♪
-Go to your right a little bit.
Go to your right.
-I think Sean realized that his life was at stake.
-I think he looked down and he was like,
I'm not going no further.
-Sean, can you come down a little bit,
and go over that way?
-The snow looks easier.
-Then he got so scared that, like,
he couldn't move no more and he just stopped.
-The snow is better.
♪
-All right, listen.
You were hesitant about crossing, correct?
-Mm-hmm. -Okay.
If I'm with you, can you follow me?
-Yeah.
-Now this has to be an absolute yes.
-Yes. -Okay.
Okay, what you want to do
is lean into the mountain, the snow side, right.
-Mm-hmm. -Do you understand?
And you put your foot in the foot steps
that are there already made.
And you just look at the footsteps only.
And you look this way.
Okay? -Mm-hmm.
♪
-Sometimes you have to take a big step.
I want you behind me.
Are you behind me? -No.
♪
-Keep going, keep going.
Good job, good job, good job.
Good, good, good, good, good.
Good, good, good.
♪
I got to hold your hand, didn't I?
All right. Let's go set up camp.
-Come get your sleeping bag.
-Let's, uh...[clears throat]
reflect on today.
When we're crossing almost a diagonal snow field
and if something happened that we don't expect
and somebody slid down, that was a long way down.
Almost all the way to the lake.
I don't mind river crossings.
I don't mind crossing passes, it's tough, high altitude,
blah, blah, blah, that, I don't want to do.
That's not what I'm here to do.
We're here to connect with wild nature,
not to risk our lives.
And that was too close for me to be comfortable.
♪
-When you first arrived at that snow,
how did you feel?
-I was gonna die.
-You was, like, scared? I was scared.
I had to go step-by-step.
It took me at least, like, 20 seconds to do each step.
When I got there, I was relieved.
I was like, it's over. I'm straight now.
[Sighs]
-I'll give you my mashed potatoes.
-Aah! -Aah!
-It's dud.
-You lost it. You lost it.
-Hey, we won.
Man, I'm going to give each of y'all one third of a penny.
♪
-This is not an easy place to get to.
There's a pass on that side.
-That one was probably the hardest.
It wasn't as high as the other ones, but the trail
was sort of a zigzag and it took a long time.
-[Breathing heavily]
My stomach hurt.
-With the high altitude thing,
I would look and see Nohea, like, breathing hard, basically.
♪
-I cannot walk no more. -[Speaks indistinctly]
-I have altitude problems.
I have so many emotions right now.
I'm getting aggravated at the most tiniest things.
It's like, if my shoes get stuck in mud, I'll get so mad.
♪
-My stomach is just...
-I thought I was trying to go slow, but I couldn't stop.
And then I slipped on a rock. I almost died.
♪
-Come on, bro. We got to get out of this pass.
I know it's hard, but we've got to get out of this pass.
Come on, bruh. You need to get up.
-Wait two minutes. -Two minutes.
Two minutes then you're going up.
-Okay.
-Gonna wall all the way up that pass.
-Okay.
-No matter how slow you do it,
we walking up that pass without stopping.
-I'm getting up.
♪
-Nice.
♪
Let's get it.
♪
I'm just tired.
Shit.
♪
-Helping Nohea, I kind of felt a responsibility to do it.
One, because he was my tentmate.
And two, really because he's a dear friend.
So, like, doing that, it motivated him
and it motivated me.
-I like seeing that.
Somebody basically the same age
or, like, a leader, stepping up to the plate,
realizing things have to get done.
Or we have to help each other to get through this trip.
And, basically, Ahmani took a lot of leadership,
things he usually don't do.
It's, like, he's on the right track.
♪
-Think about it. We did West Maroon Pass.
We did Frigid Air Pass.
We did Trail Rider Pass.
And today, we did -- -Buckskin.
-Buckskin Pass.
And here we are at the end of the circle.
And you've completed this circle.
You crossed four passes.
You went up to 12,500 feet four times --
very, very challenging.
Like I said, when you get home, your friends
won't even know what you're talking about.
♪
-Why your hands got bigger, bro?
-My hands -- I feel like they really did.
-What can we tell younger people
as we introduce them to Wilderness Works?
-You're going to have your ups and downs.
Like, you're going to have hard times.
But you're going to have easy times.
Either way, like, it's worth it.
-I felt pretty good, I guess.
It was hard, but at least I got through it.
-I really am proud of you. I was worried there.
-At the time, I thought, because I was so unsure,
that I didn't like it.
But now I realize how big that was and, like, what I did.
Just going over four passes,
seeing these wild animals.
There's a huge world out there.
And there's so much to discover.
So it took me a while to realize, like,
if it was my element or not.
♪
-When you first go out into nature,
you're not used to having everything
for seven days in one bag.
When you do it time after time after time after time, like,
that button just turns on, like, dang,
this is actually a world I never seen before.
And you realize the freedom of it.
Basically, it opens, like, plugs in your brain.
When they were like, this is a once
in a lifetime moment, and Bill corrects us,
he's basically telling us, like, you can continue doing this.
And you can help other people get out here
and keep coming back.
-It felt like I was playing a game,
but it was like real life.
Once you reach one pass, you got, like, level one,
level two, level three.
And you passed the game.
And it just made me feel proud,
because I just went and did 24 miles.
Imma get mine.
-And by the way, Ahmani, I want you to know.
You're right for wilderness.
You may not know it, but you are.
Kids are so used to virtual reality.
By having a real experience, really being at 13,000 feet,
the real experience is far superior.
And they discover that on the trail.
That's very gratifying.
-Check me out.
-This is make-up.
-No, it's not. -It's make-up remover.
-It removes dirts, right?
-No. -Did I get a mustache?
♪
-It's like snow.
-Yeah, it's actually called snow sugar.
-Oh, that's funny.
-What do you plan on being when you grow up?
-A personal fitness trainer.
-Okay, that's cool. -But that might change.
-True. Things have changed. -Work from here.
Yep.
-What a masterpiece.
Two fry. -Right.
Clock out. -Oh, my god.
I sat out here for a hour.
-Golly. -[Laughs]
Got on a, um... -Had nothing?
-Yeah.
He officially out, like,
when was the last time you seen your daddy?
-When I was 10. -10?
-Yeah.
-11, 12, 13, 14, 15.
-Yeah, he about 40 now.
You nervous? -Why I'm nervous?
Are you nervous?
-I'm just ready to see him again.
-And when you talk to him, tell him how you feel.
-I don't know how I feel.
-Are you mad at him? -No.
I'm probably not mad 'cause I probably was sort of
used to it.
There wasn't days where I was just like,
I ain't got no daddy or whatever.
I'm just disappointed. -Got used to it.
-Yeah, just got used to it.
-Come on in.
-I just got here.
Yeah, I got him.
No, he got me back.
-What's going on with you? -Nothing much.
I just came from out of town with the program I'm in.
Colorado for a month.
I just flew back yesterday. -What'd you do out there?
-Backpacking, wilderness, stuff like that.
Backpacking.
-I think he was kind of like shocked, like, this is my son?
Yeah, this is your son.
-I'm just excited to see you. You know?
[Speaks indistinctly]
-I think he likes it 'cause he realize that I'm different
from him, like, he wasn't on the right track.
And him seeing me doing these opposite things that he did
I guess is like, oh, my God,
he's actually doing something with his life.
-This your daddy.
-I think I got a picture with him.
-I've never traveled in the mountains
or nothing like that,
but it brought Cliff a ton of energy.
-That's me? -Yeah, that's you.
-He was like, Mom,
it's something other than just Atlanta,
other than just Georgia,
outside of, you know, just these four walls.
Matthew's trying to get a job, too, now.
He's trying to step up and keep his grades up
because I'm like, look at your brother.
He's doing good.
Even the other kids, they respect him now.
I thank him.
Like, I really thank him for being a good child.
Now I feel like I can brag a little bit.
Yeah. [Laughs]
-Oh, yeah, that snow was no joke.
-That's you?
-That's me right there.
-I was the first one to join Wilderness Works
out of my family.
They was like, Nick, can I come with you
because I've been missing you.
I'll be like, all right.
-Sonny, stand up.
Are you related to Brandon?
-I'm happy for them.
I just want to see their reaction when they get
inside, like, wilderness, like,
I just want to see how they react.
No!
I'm not going to say I fully matured,
because I know I didn't.
Not going to say a pure lie.
But I'm not finna let depression take over my life.
-So some of the kids
that come here are living in shelters.
And Ahmani knows what it's like to be homeless.
And I'm very proud of Ahmani
because he has stood tough all this time.
Look at him.
-There was one in particular at City Camp,
I did see myself in.
He was in the same stuff that I into when I was that age.
-Well, yeah, I felt the same thing.
It was all unpredictable.
And I don't know where I would go or anything.
And nothing -- I don't know what would happen.
Or who would be here or anything.
It was really stressful, like Ahmani said.
Oh, yeah.
-Ahmani can let these kids
know that it doesn't stop here.
That they call it transitional housing
because you're not meant to stay there,
but transition into something better.
Red rover, red rover, send Lucas over.
If you expose yourself to more than just what
the system offers you,
there's no limit to what you can become.
-When you were out there in the mountains,
when you guys reached the top,
did it feel like you guys were in an Atlanta building,
all the way up there?
-First, climbing the pass is hard.
I mean, it's tough.
So once your get up there and you get to the top,
and you see where you came from, and you point,
and you feel the wind, you're, like, on top of the world.
You feel like you accomplished something.
-These guys have done major, major, major stuff.
And there's even more you can do.
There's no limit. People who think big do big.
The question is, how many feel like this
is something you would like to do?
I do believe that the group of people
that have experienced wilderness
could make this go way beyond what I've done.
Can you and Cliff take the first group upstairs?
There's a series of chain reactions.
And that's exciting.
-Kick the other light on. -I got you.
-We've still got, like, 10 more minutes.
-Yeah. but you can talk, but talk quietly
because you're going to bed.
-Okay.
-[Indistinct conversations]
♪
-It's like mountains behind mountains, behind mountains.
♪
Wow, those boys are incredible.
"That's Wild" left me feeling inspired, hopeful,
and with the realization that I should definitely
get out of my Brooklyn apartment every once in a while.
Here to help me go a little deeper
are Derrick Johnson, president and CEO of the NAACP.
-Thank you. -And Terrence Terrell,
Emmy Award-winning actor and author.
Thank you for having us.
Thanks to both of you for coming on
and talking about this film. Let me ask you this.
What was your reaction upon seeing the film?
My first reaction, I'mma just be honest,
was, "Oh, here we go. White savior, right?"
But as soon as this film started to go on
and getting into more of it,
I found out that Bill,
who's doing this amazing thing with these kids,
he literally went through similar situations
that most of the kids that he's mentoring.
Pain is colorless.
This is about the lack of exposure.
What happens when you put people in situations
where they have never been exposed to
and how'd they deal with and overcome adversity?
It's crazy to watch any -- a kid of any stripe
at 12 years old doing these things with,
you know, with other kids. Let me ask you this, Derrick.
You're from Detroit, correct? -That's correct.
What was your connection with nature in Detroit?
Did you -- Did you go out camping and fishing,
hunting, things like that?
I can recall that first time --
Kids in my neighborhood,
you know, it was a culture shock.
Not only was it a culture shock because we were camping,
it was a culture shock because there was several races there.
There was Black and white kids.
And so when you mix in kids from different backgrounds,
you know, you find people start off
zeroing in on what's different.
But then over time, once they get to know each other,
you begin to come together about what you have in common.
Absolutely.
And, Terrence, what was your experience with the outdoors?
Well, at first it was a culture shock.
But then also just knowing that my mother was pushing us
into that to let us know that there was more in the world.
When you see it, you can actually believe it.
One of the major themes I thought in the film
was Black joy.
I saw the boys just like, you know, just cutting it up
and chopping it up, having fun with each other, being free.
What significance do you think
that plays, those images on screen?
I think it's extremely important
that you show them having fun,
but also you project to other young adolescents
who are watching it to say it's okay to be happy,
it's okay to play, it's okay to build relationships
with -- with your counterparts in a space
where you can feel safe.
It's a beautiful thing, and we should embrace it.
I also think that what the film did to its credit
was that it -- it kind of showed
a gallery of different characters of color.
What was displayed to me was that Black people
aren't a monolith.
Did you -- Did y'all feel the same way?
I have a 15-year-old son.
I understand the struggles he go through as an adolescent
trying to find himself in the world.
And so it was good to see this film
and those young men in that setting
where they can be adolescents
and not be judged as adults, monsters, or criminals.
That's really important because how we are viewed on the screen
is how we are treated in public policy or in the streets.
Right.
You're already programmed out the gate.
Like, run if you see a police officer.
Don't do this.
Don't put your hand in your pocket when you're in the store
because you'll be accused of stealing.
So it was really good to see them in those different arenas
and just watch them be children.
I think one of the common themes in the movie
was breaking cycles.
Does a program like this, a wilderness program like this,
does it fly in the face of the stereotype, you know,
Black folks don't camp?
Well, first of all, it is a myth.
I mean, Black folks do almost everything.
If you give our young people
an opportunity to overcome adversity
and you equip them with the skills and have patience,
they can and will overcome.
I did camp as a -- as a kid,
and I was the only Black kid in my Boy Scout troop.
And I knew that once I left the -- the city,
the country and the wilderness beyond
was like white man's land.
I'm wondering to what degree we have to work
to not -- to not be stuck or ghettoized in the cities.
We also need to start watching how we say things to children,
because even like what you just said,
Jordan, you said "white man's land," right?
So automatically, you say that, as a little black boy,
you, like -- automatically there's borders and boxes
that already happened within our minds, right?
Because it's white man's land or it's a white man's country
compared to this is whatever you want it to be.
But let me ask you this, alright?
So in 2020, we had Christian Cooper,
a well-known birder here in New York.
And I'm sure you know about the -- the famous case.
It raised the question, you know,
can Black people be in the forest, in wilderness,
even Central Park without them being perceived as a threat?
Well, racism is real.
The structural is personal, and it exists.
And so no matter where we are in this system of America,
race is a factor that people take into account.
Yes.
You go out and you're automatically seen as a threat.
So then we automatically start trying to compromise with that,
like not really using our voice with our bass.
We start talking high-pitched just to make sure
everyone around us isn't threatened.
We don't want to walk in our presence
because we're concerned if somebody is gonna see that
as a threat compared to just seeing us as a human.
We shouldn't have to, you know, apologize for our presence.
So moving forward, what do you feel could be positive steps
to -- to get more young people --
more young people of color out into the forest,
the wilderness, you know,
to see the -- the majesty of the country's interior, all that?
We are locking in poverty
in a way in which it's based on geography.
The question of refunding communities
because we have overfunded law-enforcement agencies
and putting back in place
the type of support becomes important.
We can't keep talking about this -- these situations
and not doing anything about it.
Representation.
Even now,
being I was the only Black series regular on my show,
I know that I'm in that space
to help other people like me get in that space.
I'm really pushing representation
'cause we have to see it to believe that you can do it.
If you don't even know that it exists,
you can't even dream it, right?
So you have to see it to be able to do it and achieve it.
Well, there you have it.
Telling impactful stories and discussing ways to create access
can help make the outdoors more equitable
for kids and adults alike.
And we can all be part of that conversation and change.
Well, gentlemen, any time you want to go out into nature,
I-I'm down for it.
Thank you for your candidness and sitting down with us.
Thank you. Thank you all.
Come back next month for another great film
and another honest conversation.
Does anybody else want trail mix right now?
♪