Davidsonians Outdoors: How Three College Paddling Buddies are Sharing Their Love of Nature Through Outdoor Hospitality
August 12, 2026
- Author
- Caroline Roy '20
At the end of a long week of classes at Davidson College, Anna Bracco ’02, Shelton Steele ’01 and Jonny Adler ’01 would set out to spend their weekends in the wilderness. Sometimes, they’d go on paddling excursions or backpacking trips with Davidson Outdoors, but most memorable are the trio’s whitewater kayaking adventures on West Virginia’s Gauley River.
“We’d come back to campus with grins on Sunday afternoon, feeling refreshed even though we had homework to catch up on,” Steele said. “It was an escape — a secret world outside of the normal college experience.”
L-R: Julia Failey ’02, Matt Arbuckle ’02, Shaw Hipsher ’03, Anna Bracco ’02 and Shelton Steele ’01 after a paddling trip
Jon Adler and group of friends after a tough but rewarding day of paddling on West Virginia’s Gauley River.
Today, all three alums own and operate outdoor hotels in places they love, providing escapes and secret worlds for customers. Steele’s Wrong Way River Lodge in Asheville, North Carolina, gives guests easy access to watersports along the French Broad River; Bracco’s Earthshine Lodge in Lake Toxaway, North Carolina, provides a scenic setting for outdoor education and group retreats; and Adler’s MadBush Falls is a home base for biking and skiing in the mountains of Vermont.
While they each found a different path into the world of outdoor hospitality, their time on Davidson’s campus and their weekend adventures helped shape the self-confidence, discipline and leadership skills they needed to take the leap. All three are passionate about sharing their love of nature with others and, in true Davidson fashion, are driven by a strong sense of community, service and place.
From Summer Camp to Entrepreneurship
Steele and Adler first met at Camp Mondamin, a summer camp for boys located in Western North Carolina. Like Davidson, it’s a place that had a profound impact on their lives and helped cement a love for the outdoors.
“Camp Mondamin was all about individual life sports,” Adler said. “We didn’t focus on competition or awards, but there was no shortage of pushing yourself. If you wanted to kayak, you had to get all your strokes right and roll 15 times before you could go out on the river. We learned that hard work always led to results.”
Adler and Steele both had counselors at Camp Mondamin who happened to be Davidson alums. Without this connection, Adler, who grew up in Vermont, may have never applied.
Both returned as counselors at Camp Mondamin, and after graduating from Davidson, they kept in touch through seasonal raft guide work and their network of friends.
After years in Asheville working in the craft beer industry, Steele and his co-owner Joe Balcken opened Wrong Way, located in the heart of the city along the French Broad River. They envisioned a place that combined outdoor lodging, water activities and easy access to the surrounding community. Today, they remain especially focused on drawing in locals, as well as out-of-town guests, with food, festivals, events and music.
Wrong Way River Lodge (Asheville, North Carolina)
Wrong Way consists of 16 A-frame cottages and a communal River Lodge along the French Broad River Greenway.
On Sundays, as part of their revival series, Wrong Way invites guests and the broader Asheville community to come together for live Bluegrass and hot dogs.
Steele and co-founder Joe Balcken, both former river guides, built Wrong Way together with the firm belief that outdoor experiences have the power to improve people’s lives.
Wrong Way hosts RISE, an annual fly fishing festival celebrating the fly fishing culture of the French Broad River.
“At Wrong Way, I still feel like a guide sharing with others my connection to the outdoors,” he said. “I wanted to start a business that reflects who I am, guided by passion and good values. Davidson helped shape that definition of success for all three of us.”
Meanwhile in Vermont, Adler followed Steele’s lead. He wanted to create something new for biking enthusiasts in his home state, and when he found a defunct hotel in the center of Green Mountain National Forest, he knew it was the perfect location to revitalize the area.
Like Wrong Way, Madbush Falls Riders Outpost is built to intentionally connect with local culture and surrounding communities. Many of its builders, investors, employees and guests are local Vermonters, all passionate about protecting the natural landscape while making it accessible to others.
“The best part about working in hospitality is seeing people discover something new for themselves,” Adler said. “Much like at summer camp and at Davidson, we place an emphasis on self-reliance. When people feel capable, I get to see them at their best and happiest.”
Madbush Falls Riders Outpost (Waitsfield, Vermont)
When Adler purchased the property that would become Madbush Falls, it was an old motel that had been vacant for more than 20 years. Today, it is a year-round hub for biking and outdoor activity in Vermont.
With biking trails just outside your door, Madbush connects to a vast network of trails throughout Green Mountain National Forest and the Mad River Valley.
Guests stay in the main lodge, luxury cabins or Creekside tents, all with easy access to the community restaurant, rider’s outpost, saunas and more.
Thousands of miles of trails are almost all volunteer-built and volunteer-maintained by over 10,000 members from 2 dozen chapters of the Vermont Mountain Bike Association. All of them are free for everyone to enjoy — a true feat of community connection and collaboration.
The Madbush property includes a swimming hole and waterfall on the premises.
Creating Community
Adler and Steele, two-thirds of the Davidson Outdoors paddling trio, have consulted and supported one another over the past five years as their businesses grew. In all that time, they had no idea Bracco was operating her own outdoor lodge in the North Carolina mountains.
Bracco and Steele reconnected for the first time in years when she brought her team of staff to Wrong Way for a leadership retreat. She explained that she’d been working in outdoor hospitality since 2019, when she fulfilled her lifelong dream of purchasing Earthshine Lodge.
First opened in 1989, Earthshine sits between Asheville and Brevard and offers a multi-use space where guests can find adventure, community and restoration. Throughout the year, the lodge hosts professional retreats, school groups, weddings, artist residencies and workshops on anything from nature photography to fly fishing.
Bracco fell in love with the space when she first visited as a high school student for a leadership training program. After Davidson, she worked in industrial psychology, and when Earthshine went on the market, she knew she wanted to bring her leadership knowledge back to the place she loved.
Earthshine Lodge (Lake Toxaway, North Carolina)
For three decades, Earthshine Lodge has provided its guests with extraordinary experiences to connect with themselves, others and nature.
Bracco purchased Earthshine Lodge in 2019 and now splits her time between Lake Toxaway and her home in Davidson. Her two sons, like Steele and Adler’s children, have grown up visiting the lodge and spending time outdoors.
Among Earthshine’s one-of-a-kind offerings — hiking with llamas.
Bracco was first introduced to Earthshine as a high school student. Today, the lodge still places an emphasis on outdoor education, getting student groups out of the classroom and into a hands-on environment.
“I’ve always subscribed to the idea of servant leadership,” she said. “For me, it’s not about results or driving numbers; it’s about getting people outside and leading by example. There’s a lot of day-to-day technicalities involved in running these places, but the most important thing is helping all different kinds of people get closer to nature.”
In the past several years, all three Davidson Outdoors alums have supported the places they care about through times of difficulty, stepping up for their communities in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene in Western North Carolina and, in Adler’s case, a historic flood that swept through the Vermont mountains during Madbush Falls’ first summer. All three have children who have grown up alongside their businesses, and all three are excited to see how their scenic home bases will continue to grow.
They keep in touch as colleagues and entrepreneurs, swapping advice and remembering the long weekends they spent together on the Gauley River.
“Davidson leaders stand out because of their focus on ethics and trust-based relationships,” Adler said. “Each of us values doing things honorably, even if it means choosing the hardest path at some point. Looking back on my days with Davidson Outdoors, I couldn’t have been in a better place with better people.”
