Adventure Treks: Pacific Northwest Adventure Program Overview & Recommendation

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Choice Camps Recommendation of Adventure Treks: Pacific Northwest Adventure

For more than a decade, Adventure Treks has been taking students on exciting wilderness adventures to some of the most scenic places in North America. Adventure Treks inspires students to develop a lifetime love of the wilderness and outdoors, and with it a corresponding conservation ethic. Adventure Treks’ small group experience allows students to join a powerful inclusive community, form friendships with outstanding role models, develop leadership skills, improve self-confidence, thrive without electronics, slow down, and gain a wider perspective on life.

Adventure Treks has an exceptional safety record that has earned the organization a variety of awards and commendations. With a focus on people and quality, Adventure Treks forms long-term relationships with students, their families, instructors, staff, and outfitters. For students looking to meet new friends, learn leadership, gain confidence, and challenge themselves through exciting outdoor adventure and wilderness activities, Adventure Treks may be the perfect choice.

Trip Description

For 19 days, you'll paddle, hike, and laugh more than you ever thought possible on the Pacific Northwest Adventure. This adventure is a great introduction to the outdoors and to the Adventure Treks community.

How many teenagers get to summit an active volcano? Climb Mount Saint Helens and stand on the top, looking into the crater that is still smoking from the eruption in 1980! Backpacking on the beach in Olympic National Park offers sunsets you'll remember forever. The second backpack, in the North Cascades, provides plenty of inspiring vistas and plenty of time to build a tight-knit community. Sea Kayak for three days among seals and starfish, and look for the legendary 800-pound octopus beneath water in Port Townsend Bay. Rock climbing in Icicle Canyon is a great challenge, and your two whitewater rafting days are fast-paced roller coasters.

Staff Overview

Each Adventure Treks experience is staffed by at least 6 instructors for 24 students. Adventure Treks’ mature and certified instructors are incredible role models; their average age is 27, all hold college or advanced degrees, and many are teachers or professional outdoor educators the rest of the year. All instructors attend 8-14 days of specific Adventure Treks pre-course training. In early summer, the senior staff converges for additional training.

Over 70% of Adventure Treks instructors return every summer, several for their fifth, sixth, or seventh season. Returning instructors know the wilderness areas that they visit and have the skills necessary to run safe activities.

Setting & Accommodations

During the Adventure Treks program, most nights are spent sleeping in tents. Students camp with two other participants of the same sex in a four-person tent. Some nights are spent sleeping out under the stars. Adventure Treks provides all tents and tarps.

If you have to shower every day, Adventure Treks is probably not the program for you. Students can expect three to four showers on their trip. Participants will get to swim frequently, and experienced staff members will instruct students on how to maintain personal hygiene in a wilderness context.

Safety Standards

Adventure Treks received the 2008 "Safety First" award from Markel Insurance for excellence in safety education. All instructors are medically certified as an EMT, Wilderness EMT, or Wilderness First Responder. The organization has worked with over 8,000 students in the last 30 years without any hospital stays or serious injuries. Students are taught to develop "expedition behavior" from certified and experienced instructors.