Planning Your Trip
This page covers many aspects of planning your trip to Wild Abundance in the beautiful Southern Appalachian mountains. We hope it answers any questions you’re sitting with, and makes your journey here easier and more comfortable!
If you have other questions that aren’t addressed here, feel free to reach out to us at admin@wildabundance.net. When you register for a class with us, you will also receive our thorough and helpful student handbook, which provides additional in-depth information about planning your trip to our campus and the surrounding area.
About the Asheville Area
All of our classes take place at our rural mountain campuses near Asheville, NC. Please see the bottom of each class page for specific information on where each workshop takes place. Most of our classes are based at the beautiful Paint Fork Campus, which is 30 minutes from downtown Asheville.
Our area is well known for its incredible biodiversity, lush forests, and generously flowing springs, creeks, and rivers. The city of Asheville is a destination for folks who love the outdoors and offers lots to see and do, including dozens of hip and delicious restaurants, microbreweries, and music venues.
Upon registration, you’ll receive a list of restaurants and grocery stores we recommend, plus great hikes and other local activities in our very detailed student handbook.
Transportation
Our two home campuses are 25-30 minutes from Asheville. They’re 40 minutes from the Asheville Regional Airport, and 2.5 hours from the Charlotte International Airport.
Public transportation does not come out to the campuses, but there are a variety of other ways to get here.
If you stay on campus and bring your own food for preparing meals, you likely won’t need a car during your class. You may want to run an errand or go out to dinner with fellow students, and if this happens, it’s highly likely that another student with a car will be happy to give you a lift.
If you’re coming without a vehicle of your own, here are some transportation options:
- Hire a shuttle to bring you from the airport to our campus, with an optional grocery stop on the way. We’ll share contact info for local folks who offer this service for $50-$80 each way.
- Rent a car with a group of fellow students. This is a great way to save on the cost of transportation, and also build connections. Sharing a car generally works best for groups who will also be staying together. We share contact info for each class so you can get in touch and make plans together. Everyone has a chance to keep their info private if they choose.
- Rent a car on your own. The price range is currently between $45-$200/day
- Ride share apps like Uber and Lyft will drive you from the airport to our campuses. To get a ride back, make sure to schedule your ride in advance. These services generally have similar prices as the local folks listed in our student handbook, but don’t include a grocery store stop.
Onsite Facilities
All students have access to our lovely outdoor kitchen equipped with a stove, hot and cold running well water, plenty of counter space, pots and pans, knives and cutting boards, bowls, plates, and utensils. The kitchen is a place where students gather to prepare food, and also to eat food together and socialize.
Our private outdoor showers with hot water are also available to everyone and are lauded by some students as one of their favorite parts of staying here. Our outhouses are always clean and cozy.
We provide charging stations in the kitchen so everyone can keep their devices working (though many students enjoy “unplugging” for at least some of their time here).
Accommodations and Lodging
There are several options available for lodging during your class. Local students often commute from home, some students enjoy staying on our beautiful campus, and others choose to stay in hotels or AirBnBs. Please visit our Accommodations page for more details and pricing.
Meals and Groceries
Meals are not provided during most of our classes.
Everyone is responsible for providing and preparing their own meals. We also strongly recommend that you bring snacks, especially for the building classes, as they are very active. Whether or not you’re camping here, you can use the outdoor kitchen to store and prepare food. We will provide you with a list of local grocery stores for gathering provisions, as well as information on our favorite restaurants for evenings when you’d like to dine out.
PLEASE NOTE: The Sanford Way campus DOES NOT have refrigeration on site; the Paint Fork campus DOES have refrigeration on site.
If you are coming to the Sanford Way campus for the Rewilding Retreat or Wildcrafted Apothecary Class, or if you have a lot of food and are coming to a building class (the fridge has limited space), please bring a cooler. We provide sturdy plastic bins to store non-perishable food away from critters like mice and raccoons in our outdoor kitchens.
The nearest grocery stores and restaurants are in Weaverville, which can be reached in 10-15 minutes by car. Asheville is 18 miles away, takes 20-30 minutes to reach by car, and has health food galore and tons of restaurants.
Students often enjoy going to Weaverville or Asheville for dinners together after class.
Weather and What to Bring
Wild Abundance is in the mountains, making weather here a bit different than the rest of the Southeast. During our class season (April through early November) it may get chilly at night in the spring and fall, and a bit sweaty during the day in the heat of summer, but overall our climate is quite pleasant. It cools down at night and isn’t as hot or humid as lower elevation southern cities. We are lucky to have minimal mosquitoes and other biting insects.
A week or so before your class, we suggest you check the local weather on an app like Weather Underground and pack/plan based on the most up-to-date predictions. Weather in the mountains is changeable!
You’ll get a class-specific packing list upon registration, but in general it’s a good idea to bring comfortable, layered clothing (including warm layers in spring and fall), simple rain gear, a water bottle, snacks and food, a sunhat and/or sunglasses, comfortable all-terrain footwear that you don’t mind getting a little dirty (closed-toed shoes if you are taking a building class) and whatever else you need to feel comfortable being outside in variable weather.
Childcare
Due to the hands-on nature of our programs, we do not allow young children during class time (exceptions are sometimes made for babes in arms for our Women’s Rewilding Retreat and our Wildcrafted Apothecary Classes, contact us if you are curious about this).
If your teenager wants to join you as a student, contact us at admin@wildabundance.net to find out if the class is appropriate for them, it likely will be.
If you need childcare for your kids, we will provide contacts for several local caregivers upon registration.
Community Expectations During Classes
We’re all about building community, but that doesn’t mean that you have to be super social or extroverted to participate in our classes. In fact, we believe that resilient communities need all kinds of people in order to thrive, and there’s not just one way to show up in a group.
If you’re more introverted, you’ll have a chance to take space during breaks and after class, and won’t be pressured to participate in group activities. During our programs we host opening and closing circles, along with Q&A sessions where everyone is invited to speak up, share about their experience, and bring their voice to the group. All of this is optional! We also have a question board where folks can simply write what’s on their mind if they don’t feel drawn to speaking in groups.
In order to keep our spaces orderly, and help students feel grounded and connected, we invite folks to sign up for small chores around campus during classes. These usually take about 5 minutes to complete, so there is still plenty of time to prepare food, take a walk, etc. outside of class time.
For those who are more outgoing, there are ample opportunities to chat and connect with fellow students who are also wanting that.
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