"The experience was a confidence-builder for my son. He learned he can meet challenges outside his comfort zone and feel good about himself for sticking with things when the going gets a bit rough." – Parent Testimonial
This course is an opportunity to challenge yourself, discover and experience the value and benefit of wilderness travel, and improve leadership skills in an outdoor and ecologically rich environment.
This course is an opportunity to challenge yourself, discover the value of wilderness travel and improve your leadership skills in an ecologically rich outdoor environment. You and your crew will pack all your food and gear required to live on the trail for eight days before leaving our Philadelphia base camp located in East Fairmount Park. Your crew will begin by backpacking through the million-acre Pineland Reserve on the Batona Trail. Then trade your backpacks for canoes to practice your paddling technique on the winding Mullica River. You’ll learn about the ecology of the Pine Barrens from a Pineland Naturalist and discover the importance of the Delaware River Watershed through our accredited experiential watershed curriculum. At the end of your course, you’ll return to base camp to challenge yourself on the Aerial Teams Challenge Course with the support of your crew.
NOTE: For the health and safety of students and staff in the COVID-19 pandemic, students may be required to travel to course start by private transportation. Please work directly with your Course Advisor for your course for the most up-to-date and regionally-focused travel options. All students and staff must provide a current negative COVID-19 viral test result before arrival to course and/or consent to having a COVID-19 test administered at course start. Outward Bound requires students and staff to follow COVID-19 protocols for 14 days prior to course start and while traveling including physical distancing, wearing a mask in public, and frequent and thorough handwashing. For complete “Health and Safety Practices for Outward Bound Expeditions,” click here.
This course starts within the next week. Please call us at 866-467-7651 to assess the possibility of applying for this course!
Classic Courses
Are you ready to take a journey that will change your life? You won’t look at day-to-day drama the same way after you’ve conquered a high mountain ridge, made a boat obey your command in windswept waves or slept under the stars watching bats swoop overhead. Joining an Outward Bound expedition changes you. Your crew, your Instructor, your route and your adventures will have a profound and lasting impact on you as you rise to meet exhilarating natural challenges in some of the country’s wildest places.
Build skills, form connections: Learn and practice wilderness, teamwork and leadership skills. Find connections with your crewmates based on support and respect (and fun too!), and in the thick of challenges, discover there is more in you than you know.
Value strengths and strengthen values: Uncover your unique character strengths, develop your leadership abilities and learn how to let compassion in to everyday life by pushing your own limits and working alongside your peers.
Demonstrate mastery: As you gain confidence in new skills, take on more decision-making responsibilities. Work together to achieve team goals, solve problems and succeed both as individuals and as a group.
What you’ll learn: For High School students, the opportunities to carry more weight (literally and figuratively) and make impactful decisions with accompanying consequences fills the expedition as you go through numerous trials and triumphs. It’s all about independence.
After you come home, many of the character, leadership and service traits you uncovered on your expedition stay with you, helping you navigate your daily life with more resilience and success.
Photo courtesy
of Bridget O'Hara
Photo courtesy
of Bridget O'Hara
Photo courtesy
of Bridget O'Hara
Photo courtesy
of Bridget O'Hara
Photo courtesy
of Bridget O'Hara
Photo courtesy
of Bridget O'Hara
Photo courtesy
of Bridget O'Hara
Backpacking
During the backpacking portion of this expedition students will learn the necessary skills for wilderness travel including navigation, appropriate packing techniques, wilderness hygiene, backcountry cooking, Leave No Trace principles, group hiking and tarp sleeping systems, and safety protocols and procedures. Students will be physically and emotionally challenged as they work as a team to accomplish goals and put what they learn into practice. Students will acquire the technical skills needed to be successful on this expedition, as well as the interpersonal skills needed to thrive in their daily lives back at home and in school. Students do not need prior backpacking experience for this course, but should bring an open mind and willingness to learn new skills!
Photo courtesy
of Ryan Harris
Photo courtesy
of Bridget O'Hara
Photo courtesy
of Bridget O'Hara
Photo courtesy
of Bridget O'Hara
Photo courtesy
of Bridget O'Hara
Photo courtesy
of Bridget O'Hara
Photo courtesy
of Bridget O'Hara
Photo courtesy
of Bridget O'Hara
Photo courtesy
of Bridget O'Hara
Canoeing
Students will learn paddling techniques in a tandem canoe as they navigate the pools and currents of the Mullica River. The crew will learn to tie knots and use technical equipment to develop their campcraft skills. Together, they’ll learn to work as a team to maneuver down river, and use their leadership skills to support one another through this new terrain.
Photo courtesy
of Ryan Harris
Photo courtesy
of Ryan Harris
Photo courtesy
of Ryan Harris
High Ropes Course
Students will finish their expedition at our base camp at The Discovery Center – a serene, urban oasis and nature-based learning facility located in the heart of Philadelphia. Here students will have the opportunity to go outside of their comfort zone atop the Aerial Teams Challenge Course and gain greater confidence in their skills and abilities.
Outcomes
Students will recall and demonstrate learned skills to live and travel with their crewmates on the river and trail. Students will have the opportunity to become proficient paddlers and practice river navigation and rescue skills on the clam, narrow waters of the New Jersey Pinelands Reserve. Students will learn Leave No Trace principles and demonstrate their campcraft and backcountry cooking skills as they backpack along the Batona Trail . Additionally, students will develop greater trust and self-confidence as they apply learned communication and problem-solving skills on the river, on the trail and on the challenge course.
Course Area
The Pinelands National Reserve is the first National Reserve in the nation, founded in 1978. In 1988, UNESCO also re-designated the Pinelands as a single-site Biosphere Reserve. With over a million acres, the reserve occupies 22% of New Jersey's land area and it is the largest body of open space on the Mid-Atlantic seaboard between Richmond and Boston. The Pinelands are home to dozens of rare plant and animal species as well as the Kirkwood-Cohansey aquifer system, which contains an estimated 17 trillion gallons of water.
These regions are the ancestral lands of the Lənape Haki-nk (Lenni-Lenape) nation.
SAMPLE ITINERARY
DAY 1
Course Start- introduction to campcraft and paddle school on flat water (an introductory lessons to flatwater canoeing, rescue skills and river navigation)
DAY 2-4
Transport to Pinelands National Reserve; receive a guided tour on Pinelands ecology with a Naturalist. Backpack through the Pinelands on the Batona trail and learn wilderness camping techniques, (Leave No Trace, group travel, back country cooking)
DAY 5
Backpack to canoe portion; launch site on the Mullica River. Learn technical paddle skills, like river dynamics and navigation. (Potential Solo experience)
DAY 6
Paddle back to backpacking trail
DAY 7
Transport to Philadelphia for the Aerial Teams Challenge Course (reflection, goal setting, feedback)
DAY 8
Course end graduation celebration and crew BBQ
Course Stories
"The experience was a confidence-builder for my son. He learned he can meet challenges outside his comfort zone and feel good about himself for sticking with things when the going gets a bit rough." – Parent Testimonial
If you are ready to enroll on a course click the enroll button next to the course you wish to select or you can enroll over the phone by speaking with one of our Admissions Advisors (toll-free) at 866-467-7651.
To secure your spot on a course you must submit an enrollment form and $500 deposit that is applied toward the total cost of the course and includes a $150 non-refundable enrollment processing fee.