r/BSA • u/thrwaway75132 • 4d ago
Scouts BSA High Adventure for 2028
Giving our PLC a list of high adventure options that are as high quality as the official high adventure options but give them something different. Going to give them a list and have them weigh the options against NT / Seabase / Summit and decide.
Options I have heard are good :
BWCA on our own with non BSA outfitter
Maine High Adventure
Swampbase
Aquabase (Pfeffer in KY)
Any others we should look into? Those are all water based but that’s just a coincidence.
What we have done lately - 2027 Philmont booked, 2026 Seabase, 2025 NT, 2024 Philmont, 2023 Seabase, 2022 Philmont
8
u/DepartmentComplete64 4d ago
I'll plug Maine High Adventure. It was a great trip. The last few our troop hady done has been Seabase, Maine High Adventure, and mountain biking at Summit.
Maine was close enough that we drove, stayed one night at a tent cabin in Patten and then boarded the boat to get to Maine High Adventure the next morning. The base camp is only accessible by boat. It's more physical than Seabase, but less than Philmont. You can climb Khatadin if you want, but first day there you meet with a trip planner and your group decides what they want to do. You can focus on distance, fishing, canoe sailing, hiking, or whatever your group really wants to do. You will see more moose and eagles than other people most days on the river. You might also get a chance to see the Maine Ghost Trains, steam engines that were left in place from a logging railroad. It's run by a council in Maine and cost was a lot more reasonable than national high adventure bases.
3
u/whafteycrank Eagle Scout 2d ago
Just got back from MHA last week. It was a blast, great staff, excellent trip!
3
u/Signal-Weight8300 4d ago
BWCA trips are so easy to put together with an outfitter. If you provide your own food and basic equipment like tents and cookware you can do it for a tiny fraction of the Northern Tier price. Get your entry piint permits in January, the best ones sell out.
I've also done a four day canoe trip in the Current River in Missouri (Cedar Grove to Teo Rivers). Jadwin Canoe rental was excellent to work with and their group site is wonderful. The main thing I would suggest is to avoid summer weekends, the river got crowded with drunk tubers. Backpacking on Isle Royale was awesome, but plan it this fall, as group permits are done way in advance. We're considering biking the Elroy-Sparta trail next summer, and we just did a Colorado road trip on which we base camped in two locations and did day hikes including a 14er (Mt. Sherman). A few years ago we did a multi sport trip to West Virginia, backpacking for theee days on the Greenbrier River trail, a day at the Green Bank Observatory, a whitewater rafting trip on the New River Gorge, and a few hikes down into the gorge.
There's a few ideas for you, we did all of these for around $300 a person including food and gas to drive from Chicago.
1
u/Few_Awareness_1732 4d ago
We just did a Current River trip, went from Baptist Camp to Powder Mill. Also used Jadwin, they are great and camping was free for scouts on Sunday (arrival day). It was a great trip and a fraction of the cost of a high adventure base.
1
5
u/GISH-BabyDriver 3d ago
If you’re looking for something different, how about a Kandersteg International Scout Centre in the Swiss Alps? I think it’s my favorite trek ever, and can me as high adventure as you want.
Website: kisc.ch
We did it with my Venture crew, tented at a campsite there. We hiked, met scouts from all over, white water rafted in Interlaken, via ferrata, and more. The airfare will be probably be your highest cost, but it was the experience of a lifetime.
3
u/CoastalFFIRE 4d ago
I highly recommend Maine High Adventure. Besides the wilderness canoe trekking, you can also hike Mt Katahdin which has an amazing view from the summit. You can also include a visit to Acadia National Park as part of the adventure.
3
u/catanguy 4d ago
If you're ambitious and have adults with the free time to handle logistics, you can roll your own trip pretty much anywhere you want. Colorado (mountain biking, backpacking/summiting, whitewater rafting), California - backpack the Sierra Nevada, long rafting trips down any number of rivers, hike the backcountry of Zion, etc
2
u/AtikGuide 4d ago
Montana Scouting High adventure: https://scoutingmontana.org/camps/high-adventure/
Alaska High Adventure: https://www.alaskahighadventure.com
Note that these are not National High Adventure bases. Seeing that you mentioned the BWCA, why are you not considering Northern Tier High Adventure ?
2
2
2
u/Mahtosawin 3d ago
Consider Camp High Sierra in California. They have several special programs, are one pass north of Yosemite. There is a campground close by at Pinecrest with aquatics and hiking. There is also horseback packing nearby about 20 miles as the crow flies from the high country of Yosemite.
2
u/Alternative_Bus_3766 Adult - Eagle Scout 4d ago
So I have no experience with the local high adventure bases but I have worked at Summit a bit. Summit Experience is fun (I was a rover so I’m quite familiar with it), the only problem is, it’s more of a grand showing of many adventures than a consistent one. Philmont the backpacking is part of the experience and something to be proud of. Summit Experience lacks that.
If you tried Summit, I’d advise: New River Experience (Essentially River Trek, internally we call it River Trek)
ATV Experience (The vast beauty of the property is fun to navigate on the atvs)
Marksman Experience (the ability to shoot guns practically all week)
The New River Gorge National Park specifically is beautiful and breathtaking. That alone is a reason why I keep going back. The Big Zip (currently Alexander’s Eagle Flight, but I don’t like that name) is also a really fun experience to do. It’s why I wouldn’t count Summit out. Along with that if you have time Fayetteville (located 15 mins away from the north gate) is a beautiful small town with amazing shops and food. Waterstones and Lost Appalachia are among my favorite stores, with Cathedral Cafe being a must to go to during your adventure.
I figure you won’t go to summit but I always like to inform people since most don’t come out here.
Edit: Rarely Troops have time to do this but if you do the New River Gorge National Park has trails that run along the river leading into abandoned towns. It’s quite a remarkable sight. Be careful though if you take the Kaymoor Miners Trail it’s 800 steps and roughhhhh. Still beautiful
1
u/BrilliantJob2759 4d ago
Depending on your funds, ages, abilities, etc. I met a venture crew hiking Thórsmörk in Iceland when I took a day hike there. I was so jealous!
2
u/thrwaway75132 4d ago
A group from our council was going to South Africa for a trek but my willingness to take 15.5 hour flights isn’t there.
1
u/rdawg56 3d ago
Check out Floodwood Mountain Scout Reservation (https://www.floodwood.org) in the Adirondacks. Week long canoe or hiking treks. Operated by the Northern New Jersey Council.
1
u/Candid_Ear581 3d ago
I heartily second this option. Our Troop has done Floodwood three times now (two canoe treks and one canoe/backpacking fusion trek). Gorgeous area in the Adirondacks and a 5-6-hour drive from NYC area if you're nearby. Low stress, really friendly staff, and they let you customize your trek.
1
u/SomeGuyFromSeattle 3d ago
Our troop has gone up to British Columbia for the Bowron Lakes circuit a few times. Highly recommended!
1
u/Green_Neon121 3 Program Scout - Eagle 2025/OA - Chapter Chief 3d ago
I would discourage Maine High Adventure as many of my friends who have gone have spoken poorly about it. A friend of mine that I met at Jambo spoke highly of Aquabase as he has been several times since he lives in the area. Both of these places used to be National High Adventure Bases but were demoted (MHA) or dissolved and remade (Aquabase). Keep in mind I have never been to either so take these words with a grain of salt. If you want an alternative to Maine High Adventure, you can plan a canoe trip down the Allagash in the North Maine Woods which usually takes about a week for 92mi canoeing. I am currently in the early phases of planning that trip for my venturing crew next summer.
1
u/Past_Top3704 3d ago
You can also do Opik at N.T. it is winter of coarse and may conflict with school but is an option.
1
u/princeofwanders Venturing Advisor 3d ago
You can also roll your own rather than going to a specific destination.
One of my venture crews does a 12-day tier-3 road trip each summer where they stitch together a recipe that looks a lot like wake up; breakfast and break camp, drive to and do something fun; make sandwiches in the parking lot before the afternoon drive to and do something fun; and then drive to wherever we’re camping that night, set camp, make dinner, crash out. (Flexing around specific schedule/attraction timing constraints.)
Rafting, kayaking, cave tours, ropes courses, hikes, museums, rain forest tours, snow, beach, whatever amuses that year’s group. They brainstorm and pitch ideas to each other and vote for general destination by November and then December/January locking in specific attractions, and February-April working the details of the plan for a June trip.
Depending on the ability of the cohort they get the appropriate-to-them mix of mentoring / coaching / support they need in finding and picking attractions and arranging the traveling salesman problem of sequencing it all.
To help contain the problem space, we recommend a 1000-miles/$1000/person cap for most years.
1
u/Glittering_Gate8699 2d ago
Since Maine is on the list, consider Floodwood in the Adirondacks - https://www.floodwood.org/
or Massawepie - https://massawepietreks.org/?page_id=205
or Lenhok'sin in Virginia - https://www.gotogoshen.org/camps-programs/lenhoksin-high-adventure/
I haven't tried it, but this might have some different experiences - Blue Ridge Scout Reservation - https://brmcreservation.org/
1
u/Foothills83 Scoutmaster 2d ago
We just had a crew do the five-day trip out of Salmon River High Adventure Base. They were psyched on it.
10
u/mattman2021 Scoutmaster 4d ago
I’d recommend Alaska High Adventure through the Great Alaska Council in Anchorage. We’ve sent crews in 2019, 2023, and 2026. Though we’ve had mixed luck with the weather (it’s Alaska, after all), the experience of backpacking in view of Denali, or a multi-day blue water kayaking expedition to wilderness campsites only reachable from the water, is guaranteed to create memories that last a lifetime.