Robert Forto reports from Moab after Bryce Canyon yesterday and Arches this afternoon. The drive between them ran Scenic Byway 12 out of Bryce through Grand Staircase–Escalante.

Three nights on the road: Bryce, Moab, Glenwood Springs tomorrow, then Estes Park Wednesday afternoon from the east (Trail Ridge closed). AEE starts Thursday at the YMCA of the Rockies.

Bryce and Arches are public parks. They stay open whether or not anyone arrives with a conference badge. Short days, limited entry, roads that ice over, that’s the constraint on the way to Estes.

teamandtrail.com

aee.org

On 3 October 2026, a $919 deposit cleared. It holds 13–25 June 2028: thirteen days, a climb of Kilimanjaro, and a safari in the parks to the north. One seat.

This is The Load We Carry, from Team and Trail. Michele Forto hosts. Robert Forto is the one going and answers four questions at the end.

Team and Trail Foundation does not fund holidays or charity-challenge vacations. That rule is already on the application page. The $919 is a deposit on a seat, not a gift. The campaign does not cover flights, tips, vaccines, or a personal kit unless the board changes that in writing.

A gift is restricted to one grassroots award in Tanzania after the recon, porter education or gear, or one community partner, in the Foundation’s usual $500–$5,000 range, and to the public record (essays and this audio). Unused funds stay in outdoor-access awards. They do not become airfare.

The paying climber is not the team. The guides, cooks, and porters are. The screen is the Kilimanjaro Porters Assistance Project, the Kilimanjaro Responsible Trekking Organization, or an equivalent the board can see. No partner has been named. Colleagues who want the mountain book their own seats. No one promises a summit. They promise a report and an award.

Essay: teamandtrail.com/the-load-we-carry/why-we-are-going

Next episode (later in November): Fair Labor on a Mountain.

Michele Forto traces the November route before Robert rolls: Metallica at Sphere on Saturday, noon Sunday out of the lights, Bryce Canyon that night, coffee in Tropic and Highway 12 toward Moab, Arches or Island in the Sky, I-70 through Glenwood Canyon, Carbondale coffee, Estes Park from the east because Trail Ridge is likely closed. Then the Association for Experiential Education conference at the YMCA of the Rockies, November 12–14.

This is not a travelogue. Team & Trail did not build a 501(c)(3) to post sunsets. The parks on that corridor: Zion, Bryce, Capitol Reef, Arches, Canyonlands, Glenwood Canyon, Rocky Mountain National Park, are public classrooms. If the people teaching on that land are underfunded, exhausted, or performing instead of practicing, the land pays, and so do the kids who get one first trip.

Michele’s ask: support programs that still work when the founder is not on the sled and the weather is not pretty. If you know an organization doing honest outdoor leadership on a thin budget, send them to the Foundation.

Field notes: teamandtrail.com

Conference: aee.org (ASCEND: Growing Community, Elevating Practice)