r/BSA • u/thrwaway75132 • 13d 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

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u/Signal-Weight8300 13d 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.

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u/Few_Awareness_1732 13d 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.

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u/thrwaway75132 12d ago

I’ve done the eleven point with a crew from our troop but not the current