Quest H20 2025

Today’s blog post takes you behind the scenes of Tawonga’s 2025 H20 Quest. A group of ten young adventurers and three wilderness leaders went out on a three-week trip across California, engaging in a wide variety of outdoor activities spanning from backpacking to rafting, and everything in between. Enjoy highlights and photos below from this quest! We have a feeling these questers may be back for more next season after an amazing experience out in the California wilderness!

Quest Leaders

Elli Lavon, Ntokozo Zozo Dlamini, and Jack Demain

Questers

10 Questers entering 9th and 10th grade

Quest Itinerary

• From the Bay Area, heading into the Sierra Nevada Mountains to prepare for a backpacking trip through the famous Yosemite National Park.  
• Backpacking through the park, sleeping under the stars and swimming in crystal clear water to cool off.
• Heading up to New Melones Reservoir near Sonora and spent time on the water – swimming, boating, and tubing!
• Hiking to Calaveras Big Trees State Park and immersed amongst the redwoods, taking hikes and learning about hidden caverns.
• Next stop: fishing and paddle boating on Lake Alpine, located south of Lake Tahoe – gorgeous views and some “first-time-for-everything” moments!
• From Alpine to Tahoe! 3 days hiking, camping, stand up paddle boarding, and more!
• Back west to the South Fork of the American River for white water rafting, getting to take on class 2 and 3 rapids!
• Continuing west, to Point Reyes, for an overnight sea kayaking trip in Tomales Bay (with a stop at a trampoline park along the way)
• Saying our goodbyes to nature and back to the Bay Area.

Quest Highlights

• Learning to cook amazing meals together as we needed some refueling from long days.
• Tubing and free swimming off the pontoon boat on New Melones Reservoir.
• To bond together and get through challenging moments, a group motto was, “You cannot experience the good until you face the bad.”
• The hike to Chilnualna Falls was one of the hardest things on the trip, but also one of the most rewarding.

Quest Leader Inspiration

Quest leader Elli reflects on why they led this Quest:

“Quest provides wilderness leaders and the kids an opportunity to become united in a micro-community, evolving eventually to a place where the group totally co-exists together. This is an extremely rewarding experience for the entire group as a whole as it builds a deep sense of trust and fun. Quest impacts kids’ lives by showing them how to be self sufficient, have safe fun, and model how to have amazing multi-day trips of their own.”