3rd Annual Base Camp California: Yosemite Edition

How It All Turned Out: A Recap on California’s 2023-24 Legislative Session for the Outdoor Industry
October 1, 2024
How It All Turned Out: A Recap on California’s 2023-24 Legislative Session for the Outdoor Industry
October 1, 2024

While planning our 3rd Annual Base Camp, we had the idea of trying to host our second flagship event in California’s most visited national park: Yosemite. Hosting an event in Yosemite is complicated as campsites are in high demand. Our Director, Lexie Gritlefeld, banded together with board members Cassandra Prenn-Vasilakis, Danica Carey, Steve McCann, and Yvonne Leow five months in advance. The group hopped on a Zoom call at 6:45 am on May 8th and at 7 am, everyone tried to book campsites on Recreation.gov. We walked away with five out of the ten sites we attempted to book. Success as far as we were concerned! We were going to host our first event in Yosemite National Park.

We’ve held our Base Camp event in two different locations prior: Bodega in 2022 and Tijuana River Valley in 2023. We like the concept of moving this event around the state each year as we represent a huge constituency and it allows us to have a better understanding of outdoor issues in different places throughout our great state.

On October 7, we kicked off our pre-Base Camp with a Board & Staff Retreat at Upper Pines Campground. We explored the new ADA-accessible paved hike up to Bridalveil Falls, ate at the Curry Village Pizza Deck, hiked up to Merced Lake (spoiler alert: not currently a lake), and held a four hour Board Meeting to discuss our priorities and functionality. It was a successful gathering that has set the groundwork for us as move into 2025.


[Left to Right] Lexie Gritlefeld, Ruby dog, Cassandra Prenn-Vasilakis, Shannon Fender, Matt Lyon, Scott Ammons, Danica Carey, Steve McCann, Yvonne Leow, and June dog during the Staff & Board Retreat. All images by Bryan Wuerker.

On October 8, Base Camp attendees arrived to join us at Upper Pines Campground. We kicked off the event with a happy hour, which gave way into a Panel on Sustainability in Textiles, which focused on SB 707 – the future Textile EPR Program in California. The panel was moderated by Lexie Gritlefeld and had panelists: Shannon Fender of VF Corporation, Danica Carey of Seirus Innovation, and Guru Larson of Columbia Sportswear Company. Following the panel, we had dinner provided by REI Adventures and hosted our Prop 4 & S’mores event, which included a talk about Prop 4 (Climate Bond) by our lobbyist Doug Houston of Houston Magnani. To wrap up Tuesday evening, we showed Free Solo at the campsite.


REI Adventures serving dinner to our members. Thanks, REI!

On October 9, we woke up with Yogasemite for an Early Rise Yoga session with our instructor Darby. Following yoga, we had breakfast and coffee. After breakfast, Senator Marie Alvarado-Gil gave a brief speech about her connection to the outdoors. She brought her family camping with us! Following the Senator, Scott Gediman, Public Affairs Officer for Yosemite National Park, and Chelsie Layman, Director of Sales and Marketing for Yosemite Hospitality LLC, gave us an overview of their work and an introduction to The Wahhoga Project.


Scott Gediman, Public Affairs Officer for Yosemite National Park, speaking to attendees about The Wahhoga Project.

We carpooled over to The Wahhoga Project, where we met Dino Brochhini, the Chair of the Wahhoga Committee, and other represenatives from The Wahhoga Committee and Echo Davenport, Yosemite’s Archeological Compliance Program Manager, to tour and learn about The Wahhoga Project. Wahhoga, meaning Village in Ahwahnechee, was where the local natives lived up until it was dismantled and burned in 1969 after Congress passed a law that people could not live in a National Park without being an employee.
The reinstatement and construction of Wahhoga, or the Indian Cultural Center, was approved by the Yosemite National Park Superintendent in 2019 and is considered by the seven affiliated Tribes of Yosemite to be the spiritual center of the park. It’s a place for Tribal ceremony and, eventually, public education but will most likely not be open to the public. One cabin, the Wilson Cabin, was moved in 1969 and has now been moved back to Wahhoga. We are grateful for Scott Gediman’s help and time in making this happen and special thanks to Dino for welcoming us to learn more and visit this project. If you are interested in helping to financially support the Wahhoga Project, please visit: https://www.southernsierramiwuknation.org/wahhoga


Attendees of the Wahhoga Project tour pose with the Wahhoga Committee before departing back to the campsites.

Following the Wahhoga Project, we breaked for lunch and received a visit from female professional climber and first ascenionist, Beth Rodden. Beth Rodden is one of the best female rock climbers of all time, and a globally recognized ambassador for the outdoor community. She has achieved a number of notable free climbs on El Capitan, the 3,000-foot monolith in Yosemite National Park, and has also established the hardest first ascent of a crack climb ever done by a woman. She has been climbing for thirty years, and she hopes to be climbing for thirty more. She lives with her family near Yosemite Valley, California. We heard from Beth about her experiences growing up as a professioanl athlete in the outdoor industry.


Professional climber Beth Rodden speaks at our Base Camp 2024.

After Beth’s talk, Yvonne Leow of our Board of Directors led a panel discussion on Equitable Access in Yosemite with panelists Ron Kauk of Sacred Rok, Tony McDaniel of the Yosemite Mariposa County Tourism Bureau, and Danica Carey of Seirus Innovation. The panelists talked about inclusivity, expanding outdoor access by reaching our youth, what representation means, how equitable access expands beyond racial inequities to adaptive access, and more. After the panel discussion, we held an Outdoor for All Workshop to address problems throughout the state.


[Left to Right] Tony McDaniel, Danica Carey, Yvonne Leow, and Ron Kauk durng our Equitable Acccess panel discussion.

Following the panel, we took a break for our happy hour and dinner. In the evening, we watched Valley Uprising. The next morning, REI Adventures made breakfast, we broke camp and cleaned up with Leave No Trace principles.


REI Adventures staff serving breakfast on our last morning together.

A few of our members joined the Yosemite Gateway Partners meeting at Yosemite Lodge before heading home. Thank you to our members that made the effort to join us in Yosemite National Park! You allowed us to dive into pertinent conversations about what our industry is facing and understand further about the issues important to our members.


Thank you to Yosemite Valley for providing the most scenic background yet for our Base Camp event! Images all by Bryan Wuerker.

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