Our Story
35 years of healing. One path at a time.
Trail Mavericks Retreats grows from a living lineage — Spirit Riders Lodge, founded by Mikel Carmon in 1991.
The Beginning
Spirit Riders Lodge
In 1991, F. Mikel Carmon founded Spirit Riders Lodge in the high desert of northern New Mexico — not as a business, but as a practice. A place where people could come to slow down, get honest, and reconnect with the parts of themselves that modern life tends to bury.
For 35 years, the lodge has operated quietly and intentionally — never chasing scale, always protecting depth. Mikel built it on a simple conviction: healing doesn't have to be complicated. It requires clarity, honest tools, and a guide who has done the work themselves.
The Facilitator
F. Mikel Carmon
M.A., C.S.C., EEM-I, EAL
Mikel's path into healing work began long before Spirit Riders Lodge had a name. Trained as a counselor, she spent years studying the intersection of psychology, energy medicine, and the body's innate intelligence — eventually earning credentials that span four distinct disciplines.
Her Master of Arts in Counseling gave her the clinical foundation. Certification as a Shamanic Counselor deepened her understanding of meaning, purpose, and the role of the sacred in everyday life. Advanced instruction in Eden Energy Medicine — under Donna Eden herself — opened a new dimension of working with the body's energy systems directly. And over 20 years of Equine Assisted Learning practice brought it all into the arena, where horses became her most honest co-facilitators.
Every Trail Mavericks retreat is personally facilitated by Mikel. Not delegated. Not outsourced. She shows up for every session, every ceremony, every morning walk. That's not a marketing promise — it's how she has always worked.
Credentials
The Philosophy
Healing is not difficult.
You just need a compass, and some tools that actually work in life.
— Mikel Carmon
The Trail Mavericks approach is rooted in a belief that most people already know what they need — they've just lost access to it. Stress, habit, and the accumulated weight of unexamined patterns create distance between who we are and how we live. Between what we feel and what we say. Between who we love and how we show up for them.
The work of a Trail Mavericks retreat is not to fix anything. It's to restore access. Through ceremony, energy practice, guided reflection, and time with horses, couples rediscover the clarity and intention that brought them together — and leave with tools to sustain it.
The Energy Medicine Foundation
Donna Eden's Energy Medicine
A significant thread running through every Trail Mavericks retreat is the work of Donna Eden — one of the world's most respected pioneers in energy medicine. Eden's foundational insight is that the body is not merely physical: it is made of energy systems that can be seen, felt, and worked with directly.
Her framework identifies nine distinct energy systems — including the meridians, chakras, aura, Celtic weave, basic grid, five rhythms, triple warmer, radiant circuits, and electrics — each playing a role in physical health, emotional balance, and relational vitality. Eden's teaching that 'energy is the medicine and you are the healer' is not a metaphor. It's a practical instruction.
Mikel trained as an Eden Energy Medicine Instructor and has integrated these tools into her facilitation work for over two decades. At Trail Mavericks retreats, couples learn a daily energy routine they can practice together at home — simple, effective, and grounded in 35 years of clinical and personal application.
Ready to begin?
Spots are limited and filled by personal inquiry. Reach out to start a conversation with Mikel.
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