Our Vision
Restoring the souls of those who care for the souls of others.
Pathway Outfitters exists for a simple reason: most people who spend their lives caring for others rarely stop to be cared for themselves.
We guide people into wilderness experiences that create real space for rest, beauty, and renewal. We serve pastors, therapists, counselors, social workers, nonprofit staff, and anyone carrying the weight of a demanding vocation. Days on the trail. Mornings on the water with a fly rod. Soon, an easel and a blank page. Each one is an invitation to set down what you have been carrying and remember who you are.
Our trips are designed for people in caregiving vocations, and anyone longing for rest is welcome. Every trip is offered free of charge, because we believe you cannot give from an empty place.
Our Story
Pathway Outfitters was founded in 1998 by brothers Mark and Scott Nesbitt, both youth pastors who believed that wilderness has a unique power to form the human soul. It began as an adventure camp for students in the mountains of Vermont.
Scott passed away in 2000. His conviction that the outdoors is not an escape from real life but a pathway deeper into it remains the heartbeat of everything we do.
In the years since, that conviction has carried Pathway a long way: backpacking and canoe expeditions across New England, immersive retreats in Chicago, and spiritual formation partnerships around the country. Twenty-five years of guiding people toward rest have taught us one thing above all. The people who most need these experiences are the ones who spend themselves caring for everyone else. That is who we serve today.
Pathway is now rooted in Middle Tennessee, led by Mark Nesbitt, Anglican priest and lead pastor of Trinity Anglican Church. We are a small, all-volunteer organization woven into the region's churches, counseling communities, and nonprofits. Our trips travel wherever the water is clear and the woods are quiet.
What We Do
Backpacking
Two- to three-day trips into the backcountry. Small groups, excellent gear, good food, and enough silence to actually arrive.
Fly Fishing
Half-day outings on quiet trout water. Slow, meditative, and restorative by nature.
Coming Soon
Plein air painting and poetry and writing hikes, each designed around attention, beauty, and creative presence.
Soundtrack Collective
A companion project offering self-guided digital retreats that combine music, poetry, art, and Scripture, for the moments when wilderness is not accessible but the need for stillness still is. soundtrackcollective.org
Our Values
Peace
Inspired by Wendell Berry: "I come into the peace of wild things who do not tax their lives with forethought of grief." We create space to set down what you've been carrying.
Hospitality
A great trip means great gear, great food, and people who are genuinely glad you came. That is the standard we hold ourselves to.
Growth
Real change happens at the edge of a ridge, a river, or a quiet moment of clarity. We create the conditions. The rest is up to you.