High Adventure

PROGRAM OVERVIEW Hanna Venture Base offers week-long treks catered to what your group wants to accomplish. From kayaking in the Apostle Islands to backpacking in the Porcupine Mountains, Hanna Venture Base welcomes all that strive for the ultimate challenge of experiencing the outdoors. No trip is impossible if your Scouts have the imagination and courage to attempt it. Wisconsin River – Canoeing Adventure Canoe for six days on the lower Wisconsin River and earn your 50 Miler!...

Conversations of high adventure trips usually center on the B.S.A’s popular and heavily promoted big three – Philmont, Seabase and Northern Tier. Council high adventure programs usua;;y focus on putting crews together for trips to these three destinations but there are hundreds (if not thousands) of other places for Scouts to experience a high adventure trip. With a little ingenuity, planning and vision every Scout can participate in a high adventure trip....

PROGRAM OVERVIEW Sail School Bahamas runs a superb range of sailing adventures for Scouts that offer excellent value for money. Your group can learn how to sail while traveling from island to island in the Sea of Abaco in the beautiful northern Bahamas. Our main focus is ensuring you have FUN, so each morning you can discuss your options with your Captain and the pace of the trip is decided by you....

PROGRAM OVERVIEW Canoeing Sailing Backpacking Climbing Waterskiing Floodwood Mountain Scout Reservation is a high adventure base located in Tupper Lake in the Adirondacks. It is owned by the Northern New Jersey Council, Boy Scouts of America. Floodwood specializes in hiking and canoeing treks. Floodwood itself is a base camp from which canoeing and hiking treks leave. While at base camp, crews can partake in waterskiing, water tubing, climbing, repelling, archery, day hikes, or advancement....

PROGRAM OVERVIEW * Canoeing * Sailing * Backpacking * Climbing * Kayaking * Cycling * Mountain boarding * Trimaran sailing * War canoes The trekking program at Sabattis Adventure Camp is unmatched by any Scout Camp in the region, all crews get Kevlar canoes, the latest in cooking equipment (both jet boils and/or whisper lites) along with comfortable PFD’s and properly sized paddles. All needed food is supplied and each crew gets a trained Voyageur to accompany them and to help navigate the Adirondack park....

PROGRAM OVERVIEW Canoeing Backpacking Kayaking Treks are open to individuals, troops or crews who can choose between a canoe/kayak trek on the Hood Canal, a large arm of the Puget Sound spending times at various locations OR hike in the Olympic Peninsula, an untouched parcel of forest located in Washington State. LOCATION DESCRIPTION Camp Parsons is located in the Olympic Forest and Park’s “untouched” wilderness. There are not any roads that venture into the peninsula itself, only trails....

The success of any high adventure program is more about the people you go with than the place you go. A prime trek in Philmont, the crown jewel of Scout Camps, under crystal blue skies in moderate temperatures with no bugs and five star meals becomes a slow death march with a dysfunctional, poorly prepared, poorly led crew. Likewise a few days hiking in less inspiring environs as it rains day in and day out with a constant diet of instant ramen with a sharp crew who knows their stuff leads to lifelong golden memories....

Training and skill development is important to the success of a Troop based high adventure program. Adult Advisor and Youth Crew Chief Training – All trip leaders should take advantage of online courses offered by the BSA. Youth protection and Weather Hazards is a good idea for any trip as well as activity-specific courses: Trek Safely, Safe Swim Defense, Safety Afloat and Climb on Safely. The online training is only available to registered adult leaders the information can be shared with youth leadership and crew members....

Detailed preparation is the key to any successful high adventure program. Place State, provincial or national parks are the most likely destinations. Each will have it’s own particular rules and procedures. Information gleaned from the web is a good start. Online trip reports and reviews can be quite informative. I’d suggest that once you have the information you think you need pick up the phone and call someone at your destination and confirm that the information you have is correct....

On one of our first Canoe Trips to Canada we sat around our campfire the first night after getting to our hard-won campsite. A long day of paddling and portaging and a frustrating search for a camp site (during which we became separated) had me pretty wrung out. I was lamenting over a couple of mistakes I made that day to one of my fellow adult leaders who looked up from the fire where our dinner was cooking and said; “Well, here we are camped out on a lake in Canada and I am just about to enjoy a steak dinner!...

Where to go and what to do for your high adventure program? The simple answer is just about anywhere and just about anything. It may be a week of backpacking, canoeing, touring, cycling, boating or the adventure of your choice. You don’t need to travel very far, look at nearby state and national parks, talk to your Scouting colleagues, check out council-based programs at local summer camps. Once you have an idea of a destination making the trip a reality requires four things:...

Philmont, Seabase and Northern Tier are the three most familiar national High Adventure Bases, there are dozens of other Council Based Programs. Thousands of Scouts participate in and enjoy the big three high adventure bases each year. I have colleagues in Scouting who recommend them highly. At the other end of the high- adventure spectrum are the Troop and Crew-based high adventure programs that explore less known territory. Our rationale for building our own high adventure program is based of a few logistic and philosophic criteria;...