(bright whimsical music begins) - How's everybody doing?

We're at Morrow Mountain State Park.

Welcome, welcome to our Camping with Cradle experience this weekend.

I'm Keith Cradle, of course.

Camping with Cradle is a program built around taking young minorities camping for the first time.

So we specialize in backpacking, camping, and hiking.

Have you ever slept outside before?

Our demographics for us are 12 to 17, and primarily African American male.

- [John Branscum] Is this something you don't normally get to do?

- Nah.

Hiking, yeah.

But camping outside, sleeping outside, no.

(tarp crinkling) - First night is always camp set up, you know putting up a tent, so Tenting 101.

You gotta turn this thing over.

Y'all got it upside down.

Many of them probably haven't put up a tent before.

Find nature's hammer, a rock with your foot.

Then that goes in here, pull out the other one.

- I like it.

I ain't gonna lie, it's a good experience so far.

Putting up the tent was hard for me a little bit.

I ain't gonna lie, I gotta practice that a little bit more.

But other than that, I'm having a good time so far.

That's it.

(zipper scraping) - Secondly, learning about the park that they're in.

And so they have a lot of internal knowledge about where they are, where the park came from, how it was formed, when it started, what's inside the park.

Everyone has a headlamp, it's gonna get super dark.

If you haven't been out in the outdoors before, it's gonna get dark.

They learn about the environment, they learn about the trees, they learn about fauna, flora, things like that.

And also, no trace.

So how they can continue to keep our park system clean for the people that come after them.

We strive to make sure that one, that they recognize that the outdoors is for everybody.

So we do that through diversity and diversity conversations, and knowing what the outdoors is, how it can be therapeutic for them.

And that they belong on trails and campsites around North Carolina.

(meat sizzling) You definitely need the money, to pay for all the gear, the equipment, and the food.

We understand that to get outside can cost people a little bit of money.

And we bridge that gap by paying for all the outings for these kids.

So they can come out here free of charge.

And just have an opportunity to sleep under the stars, in the outdoors, for the first time.

- [Program Attendee] That was my first time making s'mores in like a good three years.

- I slept good.

I didn't go to sleep 'till about like two in the morning.

- Typically, you know, it's a morning hike.

All right, we're staying on the one way, 2.5 mile track, blue blazes.

Make sure you follow 'em on the tree.

Headlamps of course, for now, make sure you can see 'em.

- [Keith Cradle] We average maybe two to three miles on the hike.

So depending on where we are, which park we're in that could be a very uphill steep climb.

- [John Branscum] Man, how you feeling right now?

- Tired.

But we got a long way to go.

- Yeah, it's personal for us.

And for me.

Because you know we recognize that the outdoors in and of itself is therapeutic.

It can be life changing, you learn a lot of life skills.

And so, every kid should have an opportunity to experience this.

So when we think about, again, cost barriers, we think about access barriers.

Where are some of the parks located?

Some of the best parks might be two to three hours from where they live.

And if they don't have a car, if they don't have transportation, then this is a way to get them up here to enjoy that, to see it.

And then, when we know the numbers, we have to fix 'em.

- I'm like, I like that it's a Black organization.

My uncle had told me it was, he was like Hey, we're gonna go camping.

And then I was like, who all gonna be there?

And he was like oh it's a Black organization.

I was like yep, I wanna go.

You feel me?

Because I want to be more connected with my people about this stuff, not just like on the phones, not just like playing a game.

But like out in nature and all that.

Give you a different vibe out here.

Different taste of life.

- There they go, the champs are here.

That Camping with Cradle team.

- Hey Ma.

We just, I think finished the hike.

We at the top.

- How y'all feel?

Y'all did good.

And it's only 6:40, look at that view.

Everybody else still sleeping.

- That's beautiful.

- Yeah.