Our Story

Back to Earth has been a labor of love from the beginning. The organization's founders, Eli Marienthal and Jesse Sachs, have been friends since they were students at Berkeley High, where they bonded over a shared love of wilderness and the arts. Reflecting on their own journeys through adolescence they began asking: “What did we need when we were teenagers? What kinds of relationships with peers and mentors did we long for, and where would we have found them?” From this inquiry, and with the guidance of their teachers and elders, Back to Earth has grown into one of Northern California’s premier youth wilderness immersion and rites of passage organizations.