Reading Canoeing Wild Rivers is like attending a master class in wilderness travel. Cliff Jacobson’s 30th anniversary edition of the classic Expedition Canoeing (now Canoeing Wild Rivers) is required reading for anyone planning or even thinking about a high adventure trip. This completely updated and revised edition features dozens of full-color photos, how-to illustrations, source charts, canoeing and camping techniques, and a chapter […]
High Adventure Planning
Podcast 255 – High Adventure!
… you know you’d like to go! Getting a high adventure trip off the ground sounds difficult, but you can make it happen for your Scouts. This week I’ll discuss some of the things you need to do to set up high adventure, and answer email questions about attendance at outings, and advise a new […]
Scoutmaster Podcast 220 – High Adventure
Sponsored By ScoutmasterCG.com Backers In this podcast We talk about high adventure, answer email questions on a ‘one man show’ and a bullying incident, and share a great Scoutmaster’s Minute. All this and your messages in the mailbag! Listen to Scoutmaster Podcast 220 Get The SCOUTMASTERCG APP Podcast Archive Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadSubscribe: […]
High Adventure Canoe Trip 4 – The Kitchen
On our high adventure canoe trip each crew packs and cooks food for a group of five to nine Scouts. Our menu is a combination of freeze dried and grocery store food that keeps the cost reasonable while providing good nutrition and good eating. After making adjustments to our menus and the kit we assembled to prepare it over […]
High Adventure Canoe Trip 3 – Portage Details
At the beginning of a high adventure canoe trip our portage packs our packs weigh about 60-70 pounds. This is quite a load for some of us but time has proven that even our smallest Scouts can handle them very well. As the trip progresses we eat our way light and by the last portage out the […]
High Adventure Canoe Trip 2 – Gear and Clothing
Any high adventure canoe trip requires selecting the right gear and clothing. I am pretty specific about what we carry on our trips because I know one thing for sure; in the case of where we are going: It’s All About Portaging In a place like Algonquin you’ll be traveling from lake to lake, and the lakes connect by trails […]
High Adventure Canoe Trip 1 – Overview
For the last nine years every summer our Scouts pile into a van and drive north to Ontario’s Algonquin Provincial Park for a week-long high adventure canoe trip. Our crews typically cover 40-50 miles of paddling and portaging during our stay. Two years ago we started alternating these canoe trips with a trip to Kandersteg International […]
High Adventure Plans
If you read and listen regularly you know I am a big promoter of High Adventure in Scouting. How are your plans for your next high adventure trip coming along? That’s right, you, how are the plans coming along? Here’s a few reasons why most of us don’t even get started: It’s too expensive. No, […]
AMC Guide to Outdoor Leadership
Outdoor leadership is different. Good administrative skills go just so far when leading a group in an extended outdoor experience. What works at a Troop meeting or in the boardroom does not always translate well on a week-long backpacking or canoeing trip. Scouting offers great administrative training and valuable supplemental training in outdoor skills and safety. What we […]
Troop Based High Adventure Program | Part 5
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, […]
Troop Based High Adventure Program | Part 4
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 […]
Troop Based High Adventure Program | Part 6
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 […]
Troop Based High Adventure Program | Part 3
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 […]
Troop Based High Adventure Program | Part 2
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 […]
Troop Based High Adventure Programs | Part 1
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 […]
Expedition Canoeing
Anyone planning a canoe trip of a few days or a few weeks will benefit from studying Jacobson’s careful treatment of the subject: he offers solid, tested techniques and then points out the many ways things could go wrong. He uses stories from his considerable experience to illustrate how important it is to plan carefully, not […]
