Troop 421 High Adventure Trips

Philmont 2020

Philmont Scout Ranch first opened in 1938, and is the BSA’s premier high adventure backpacking program and training center located in Cimarron, New Mexico. Backpacking treks into the Sangre de Cristo Mountains in northern New Mexico range from 7 to 12 days, and can include horseback cavalcade and trail crew treks.

Troop 421 had a Philmont trek in 2019 and will have another trek in 2020. There are still spots available for the June 2020 trek if you are interested. Scouts must be 14 years old or 13 and have graduated from the 8th grade to participate. The cost is $1,025 / person plus gear. If interested in going to Philmont, please contact Chris Osburn at info@promoteyourwebsite.com.

Sea Base

Sea Base is a unique Scouting program that offers aquatics programs found nowhere else. Whether your interests lie in sailing, scuba diving, rustic camping on an undeveloped barrier island, fishing or a combination of all, this is the place for your Troop, Team, Crew, Sea Ship or Explorer Post. Sea Base serves around 16,000 participants annually.

Sea Base began in the early 1970’s as a local program in the Florida Keys called the Florida Gateway to High Adventure under the guidance of Sam Wampler, a professional Scouter from the South Florida Council. It offered primarily sailing programs using local marinas and chartered boats sailing to the Bahamas and back. As the idea caught on and grew, it joined the high adventure offerings of the National Council of the BSA along with Philmont Scout Ranch and the Northern Tier High Adventure Base. In 1979, Sea Base acquired a permanent facility on Lower Matecumbe Key and when this opened for Scouts in 1980 it was renamed the Florida National High Adventure Sea Base. As the popularity of this program grew, scuba diving was added and in 1984 the BSA received the gift of Big Munson Island from Homer Formsby. This undeveloped island offered tremendous program potential as an outpost for primitive camping, Robinson Crusoe style. During this time period the sailing program concentrated on sailing around the fabulous Florida Keys. New sailing programs were started that originated and ended in Marsh Harbour in the beautiful Abaco Islands of the Bahamas. Sea Base programs continued to excite the imagination of Scouts and Scouters, and as attendance grew the need for a second facility was obvious. Thanks to the generosity of J. Porter Brinton of Greenwich, CT, the Brinton Environmental Center opened in 2001 making Sea Base even better. Sea Base has continued to add and upgrade facilities and programs to meet the needs of Scouts.

Troop 421 has a trek going to Sea Base in Summer 2021. Check with Julee Manson for availability if you are interested in going.

Northern Tier

Northern Tier is the Boy Scouts of America’s gateway to adventure in the Great Northwoods. Each summer, Scouts from Northern Tier’s three wilderness canoe bases explore millions of acres of pristine lakes, meandering rivers, dense forests and wetlands in Northern Minnesota, Northwest Ontario, Canada and Northeast Manitoba, Canada. Northern Tier crews paddle in almost 6 million acres of exclusively canoe-access wilderness from the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness (BWCAW) of Minnesota to the Atikaki Provincial Park of Manitoba. Trips range in length from 6-14 days and usually include between 50-150 miles of wilderness travel.

Troop 421 had two treks venture to Northern Tier in July, 2019. Scouts must be 14 years old or 13 and have graduated from 8th grade to be able to participate.