About us
The Gateway Challenge Course base camp and ropes facilities have been operational since 1989. At that time, roughly 90 acres of piney woods were donated by the Temple Foundation with the scope of an unsurpassed wilderness experience in mind. Since then countless at-risk teens, school groups, adults in recovery, families, church groups, and corporations have benefited from the services provided by our exceptional staff. Through this staff, the camp is equipped with over 18 years of ropes course experience and certification, 20 years of backpacking and camping, 10 years of river guiding and fly fishing, and over five years of wilderness medical training.
Our staff
Doug Douglas, Experiential Programs Coordinator
Doug found his way onto a ropes course at the old age of 8 years old! Don’t think that he settled for being a participant, he was setting up the elements and instructing in the same year, under the guidance of his father of course. As a teenager, Doug was backpacking, and canoeing throughout East Texas and Oklahoma. From that point forward, Doug has become the fly fishing aficionado of Gateway leading countless school groups, alternative education classes and troubled teens into the wildernesses of Utah, Colorado, Oklahoma, and Texas on backpacking, rafting, camping, canoeing, and fly fishing trips. Doug is reaching his fourteen year mark as a certified ropes instructor by AEI, and has maintained his Wilderness First Responder certification through WMI for over five years. In his spare time, he ties his own flies, fly rods, and raises his 4 year old daughter, Micah, with his wonderful (and thankfully cooperative) wife Wendy, in Lufkin , TX.
Jeremy Overby, Group Leader
Jeremy found his way onto a ropes course at the old age of 18! Before that time, Jeremy was backpacking, and canoeing throughout East Texas. From that point forward, Jeremy has become avid outdoorsman for school groups, alternative education classes and troubled teens into the wildernesses of Utah, Colorado, Oklahoma, and Texas on backpacking, rafting, camping, canoeing, and fly fishing trips for Gateway, various Churches and Cross Trail Outfitters for over thirteen years. Jeremy is reaching his fifteen year mark as a certified ropes instructor by AEI, and has maintained his Wilderness First Responder certification through WMI for over four years. In his spare time, he hunts and fishes across the US, and loves to take his three small children fishing, with his wife Chastity.