Allan Kafley spent most of his childhood in a refugee camp in Nepal. His father told him about traveling through jungles, mountains, and forests in the family’s native country of Bhutan. “But those things were a fantasy because I was growing up in a refugee camp,” says Kafley. “I knew nothing about that.”
In 2008, Kafley moved to Seattle, where he now works as the multicultural outreach manager for ECOSS, a Seattle-based urban environmental nonprofit. There, he often leads trips for people who are like he once was—new to this country, new to English, new to outdoor recreation, and without a reliable way to get to a trailhead. This summer, though, the local transit agency, King County Metro, is launching its second year of seasonal service, allowing anyone to get to a trailhead the way Kafley once traveled around Seattle: by bus.