by LIBBEY HOLEWSKI
Summer is just around the corner, and Appalachian Expeditions (aka APEX) is thrilled to be entering its ninth season of day camps and overnight expeditions in Tucker County.
APEX is the dream of my husband, co-founder and executive director, Alex Snyder, who has been exploring the outdoor places around Davis his whole life. Alex’s ancestors moved to Davis in the late 1800s and early 1900s, bearing the names Forsythe, Ujcic, and Gnegy. Alex’s grandparents, Victor and Ruth (Gnegy) Ujcic, moved from the area to start their own family in Baltimore, but Davis always held a special place in their hearts, and they returned often to share it with their grandchildren.
Alex remembers many trips to the family home in Davis, driving the windy, curvy roads of Highway 93 (before the “new highway” came in), singing polka songs, and looking forward to outdoor adventures. At that time, the house belonged to Alex’s Uncle Jack (Jack Gnegy), who many locals remember fondly for his sense of humor and weekly card games in the backyard barn on 8th Street.
In 2014, Ruth was ready to pass the house on to the next generation, and Alex happily volunteered to take over care of the family home, move to Davis, and start a business that would help get people outside to enjoy all of the places he loved exploring so much as a kid: APEX. Incorporated as a non-profit in 2018, APEX’s mission is to inspire awareness of and appreciation for the central Appalachian Ecoregion through adventure, community, and sustainable living skills.
Alex and I have spent our careers leading people of all ages on adventures in wild places. We love living in Davis and love sharing it with APEX participants who come back summer after summer for fun, adventure, time in nature, and connection to both people and place. We try to lead as many trips as we can manage to keep our boots on the ground and stay connected with the individuals and families who keep coming back. And we also hire and train competent, passionate outdoor leaders who do an awesome job. This brings a small family feel to the business that is important to everyone.
Reaching local youth has always been a priority for us. In 2019, APEX ran the first Tucker Community Backpacking Trip (TCBT). This five-day experience for kids from Tucker, Preston, Randolph, and Garrett Counties is an introductory backpacking trip for 10- to 13-year-olds.
Now in its eighth year, the trip is on again for 2026 from June 8-12. The application deadline is May 1. The cost of this trip is $1,075, but any participant living in and attending school in Tucker, Preston, Randolph, or Garrett County is automatically eligible for an $865 scholarship, bringing the cost of the trip to $210.
We are able to offer scholarships because of generous donations and fundraising by our Run For It team. If you are a recipient of this scholarship or would like to contribute to these scholarships for local kids, please consider joining our 2026 Run-For-It team or making a tax-free donation directly to Appalachian Expeditions on our website. This annual fundraiser event is put on by Tucker Community Foundation and will take place on Saturday, September 26, in Davis.
For those participants living outside of these counties (Tucker, Randolph, Preston, and/or Garrett), please check out our Mountaineer Backpacking Trip (MBT). Participants eligible for the TCBT can also use these scholarship funds for the MBT.
Additional scholarships are available for all of the APEX programs. For the past three years, APEX has granted more than $30,000 in scholarship funds to families. And we’re proud of the fact that we’ve never said “no” to a scholarship applicant. This summer, we hope to enroll 12 kids in the TCBT, which will be led by Alex, Lynk Suesli (a high school senior from Parsons, who attended the first TCBT as a participant in 2019), and Iris Dubansky (first-year student in Garrett College’s Outdoor Leadership and Adventure Education program and former APEX participant).
Last fall, APEX ran the first-ever Tucker County Outdoors, a program with the public schools to provide outdoor education to middle schoolers in Tucker County. Each grade (5th, 6th, 7th, and 8th) got to spend one day working with APEX and numerous other organizations in the area, learning about natural sciences tied to their grades’ specific science learning standards. Schools were mixed together and split into four groups, with each group visiting four rotations led by different partners. These days were a huge success and a highlight for the kids, who loved spending the day outdoors.
APEX is thrilled for the opportunity to expand this program to eight days in the 2026-2027 school year, fulfilling the dream of reaching more local youth and showing them the spectacular places in their backyards.
APEX continues to grow, we’re always looking for new people to get involved: students, instructors, local businesses, and financial supporters. We look forward to continuing to build and expand APEX programs and helping participants learn about themselves, their communities, and this wild and wonderful place where we live.
Find out more at www.appalachianexpeds.org or call (717) 873-7509.
Libbey Holewski is the Appalachian Expeditions Programs Director.
This article was originally published in the Tucker County Observer.