New Asheville business melds outdoors and massage - Asheville Citizen-Times

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Ascend Adventure Wellness may be the first business of its kind offering a day of hiking in the Pisgah National Forest followed by an outdoor massage and spa treatments. Angeli Wright/awright@citizen-times.com

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Caroline Richardson massages Alison Sher in tent surrounded by a bug net at a campsite set up by Ascend Adventure Wellness in the Pisgah National Forest on Friday, July 7, 2017. Clients enjoy the campsite and spa treatments, as well as relaxation in nature after a day hike with the adventure spa. (Photo: Angeli Wright/awright@citizen-times.com)Buy Photo


PISGAH NATIONAL FOREST - Lying on a massage table, half naked, but modestly covered in sheets, Alison Sher breathed deeply and quietly.

Massage therapist Caroline Richardson rubbed oil deeply into Sher’s shoulders and gently turned her neck and head side to side.

Sweet, soft music of running water and happy birds drifted through the spa. Not from an iPod, but the real deal – a spa in the woods, music and earthy aroma courtesy of nature.

Sher emerged from the open air massage tent, with a stretch and a satisfied “Aaahh.” All from the work of the new business Ascend Adventure Wellness, combining the healing properties of the outdoors and massage all in one.

"It was easy to drop into the zone. The music of nature is better than new age electronics," said Sher, 30, after her outdoor spa treatment.

"It was very easy to feel relaxed while able to be more receiving of the massage."

Recovering from a bad car accident with multiple injures, to her body and her mind, Sher had recently moved from Hawaii for better medical treatment. When she arrived, she happened upon this ultimate combo.

It is the “Ah hah! moment" creation of Tessa Lauren, who opened Ascend Adventure Wellness this summer, blending her skills as a massage therapist and an outdoor educator.

While Western North Carolina is awash in hiking clubs and private hiking guides, and you can’t throw a hot stone without hitting a massage studio, spa or wellness retreat, how many that combine both, in a day? Not one that Lauren could find in her two years of research for the new business, she said.

Using that Asheville entrepreneurial spirit that leads people to blend their passions into money makers, like cycling and beer drinking (Amazing Pubcyle), or yoga and farm animals (Yoga with Goats), Lauren has blended massage and the great outdoors.

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Tessa Lauren, owner of Ascend Adventure Wellness, takes in the beauty of the campsite where she set up the mobile spa in the Pisgah National Forest on Friday, July 7, 2017. (Photo: Angeli Wright/awright@citizen-times.com)


It follows on the heels of the popular “glamping,” or glamorized camping with a soft bed and electricity instead of wearing headlights and sleeping on the hard ground.

Lauren’s business is all about renewal in the outdoors, with a glampy touch. Speaking and moving in a nurturing, calming way herself, Lauren takes clients on a day hike to a scenic spot in the Pisgah National Forest, where she has a permit to run her business. The hike, catered to the individual, can be a mile-long, easy walk to a waterfall, or a 6-mile mountain trek to a 360-degree view.

But the real payoff with each hike is base camp, and top of mind and tongue for everyone on a recent Ascend Adventure.

The camp is a dreamy set-up deep in the woods, along a creek, complete with a massage table and therapist in an open air, mosquito-netted, room-sized tent, sunlight peeking through the trees.

Another tent offers a private, portable flush toilet – yes, a water flushing toilet – with “The Tao of Pooh” and "Zen Mind." Clients can take a hot shower in another tent with provided soap, shampoo and conditioner, or slip into an anti-gravity chair to simply be still – “gla-mage” perhaps?

“People love the idea of having a full day to renew, instead of just one hour,” Lauren said. “They can get away from technology, and usually can’t use their phones even if they wanted to.”

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Caroline Richardson massages Alison Sher in tent surrounded by a bug net as Sara Hawk relaxes in a chair with a book at a campsite set up by Ascend Adventure Wellness in the Pisgah National Forest on Friday, July 7, 2017. Clients enjoy the campsite and spa treatments, as well as relaxation in nature after a day hike with the adventure spa. (Photo: Angeli Wright/awright@citizen-times.com)


Laeo McDermott, an Asheville father of a 3-year-old, and mushroom connoisseur, was a first-timer on an Ascend Adventure outing last week, curious to see what it was all about.

“Nature is already healing,” McDermott said, as a dragonfly came to rest, and stay awhile, on his shoulder. “I think it’s an amazing idea to combine the two. It’s that intangible feeling that people get in nature.”

Lauren grew up in the city setting of San Diego, not a big outdoors person. Things took a turn when she went to work for the AmeriCorps National Civilian Community Corps, a federal program in which participants travel regionally to work on relief and service projects.

That led her to the North Carolina Outward Bound School, working in the Asheville area and Atlanta leading backpacking, whitewater canoeing and other outdoor skills adventures.

“For some people, coming into the outdoors can be a challenging experience. I wanted to create an easy way to get outdoors, get the amazing benefits of massage and allow them to develop a long-lasting relationship with the outdoors,” said Lauren, who is certified in Wilderness First Responder and CPR.

Lauren got the business off the ground by placing an ad for “a nature loving massage therapist.”

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Laeo McDermott, left, and masseuse Caroline Richardson cross a bridge as they hike to Moore Cove Falls with Ascend Adventure Wellness in the Pisgah National Forest on Friday, July 7, 2017. Clients of the outdoor, portable spa go on a day hike of varying lengths before relaxing at a campground with massages and other spa treatments. (Photo: Angeli Wright/awright@citizen-times.com)


Caroline Richardson, a massage therapist, had just been on a solo camping trip, reveling in the peacefulness of her campsite.

“I thought, ‘This is cool. How can I do this in my regular job?’”

Just after returning to the real world, Richardson saw the serendipitous ad and now is one of the base camp therapists.

“Here it’s inherently natural and beautiful and refreshing and rejuvenating,” Richardson said. “It’s a gateway into the wilderness experience.”

The small group started off on the adventure last Friday at the Pisgah Ranger Station. They took a short drive and hike to a waterfall. Along the way, they crossed paths with a centipede, which led to a conversation on the tastes of creatures – when centipedes get frightened, they exude the smell of vanilla, if you lick the bottom of a daddy long legs spider, it tastes like lemon.

They ate wild-growing wineberries, stopped to identify plants, flowers and mushrooms and watched a rattlesnake slither across the path and into the protective underbrush.

On trips, some people like to talk about nature non-stop, she talks about the Leave No Trace ethic and her own relationship with nature, but some like to be quiet and let nature speak for itself, Lauren said. She has also found that a hike with a stranger lets people open up and use her as a sounding board for their personal lives.

Lauren said trips can be private, “public” in small groups at scheduled times, or for a bachelorette party or other celebration. Outings come with a 60-, 70- or 90-minute massage, and other spa treatments such as a sugar scrub. The basic “Essential Sanctuary” package starts at $169 and increases as do the types of trip.

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Tessa Lauren, owner of Ascend Adventure Wellness, explains the flushable toilet with privacy tent she has set up at a campsite in the Pisgah National Forest where she would bring clients for massages and spa treatments after a day hike. There is also a similar set up for a hot shower at the campsite. (Photo: Angeli Wright/awright@citizen-times.com)


Not cheap, when you consider a hike on your own can be free, and a massage in town is half the price. The clients so far have been mostly tourists wanting to take in everything that’s “so-Asheville,” but Lauren is starting to get calls from locals, such as McDermott, who said a guided hike lets him not have to think about where he’s going.

Sara Hawk, of Barnardsville, also a massage therapist, came to see how an outdoor massage would feel.

Standing in front of the waterfall, she said, “I can feel the negative ions from the water.”

At the campsite, she settled into the anti-gravity chair under a shade, with the “Pooh” book.

“This is awesome,” she said. “It instantly relaxes me.”

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