Scouting America has four unique high-adventure bases throughout the United States offering scouts an incredible outdoor experience that they will remember for a lifetime! The National High Adventure bases offer specialized programs from backpacking treks, to canoe expeditions, and to ocean adventures. Troop 1 West Roxbury assembles a crew of scouts to visit a high adventure base every 3 years.
During the summer of 2022, a crew from Troop 1 West Roxbury visited Philmont Scout Ranch in northern New Mexico where they embarked on an immersive backcountry backpacking trek through the rugged and beautiful mountains of the largest youth camp in the world. They saw an authenticated fossil footprint of a Tyrannosaurus Rex and ancient petroglyphs drawn by Ancestral Puebloan people that inhabited the lands thousands of years ago, experienced some of the life of the lumberjacks who lived on the lands 150 years ago, and enjoyed the thrill of summiting Mount Baldy at 12,441 feet.
During the summer of 2025, a crew from our troop visited the National High Adventure Base in the U.S. Virgin Islands where they crewed the sailing vessel French Maid for one week during which they learned how to sail a ship, sailed around the islands of St. John and St. Thomas, learned the history of the Virgin Islands, snorkeled with sea turtles in the Virgin Islands National Park and explored underwater shipwrecks.
The true thrill of a High Adventure trek lies in pushing past your perceived physical limits in a safe environment with other scouts, trading the noise of modern life for the rhythm of the trail, ocean, wilderness or lake, and conquering the steep or deep alongside your crew. Is your scout prepared for the next high adventure?
The destination in 2028 is entirely up to the scouts! Any scout who is brave enough can join! Possible future destinations include the Summit Bechtel Reserve in West Virginia, Northern Tier in Minnesota, Philmont Scout Ranch in New Mexico, a return to Sea Base in the Virgin Islands or Florida Keys or a council run high adventure base like Chilkoot High Adventure Base in Haines, Alaska. What will your scout choose?