Maine Appalachian Backpacking for Adults
This Maine Appalachian backpacking journey is an opportunity to face new challenges in a unique wilderness environment and team setting.
Take a break from the daily grind and explore the remote stretches of the northern Appalachian Mountain range on our or 8-day Maine Appalachian backpacking expedition. Over mountains and trails you will learn to camp and travel simply, relying only on your group and what you can carry on your back. In a phased teaching progression, you will learn beginner-level, then intermediate and advanced skills in mountain navigation, weather observation and campsite selection. You will share leadership and expedition responsibilities in a rotation throughout the trip, and then come together with your group each evening to reflect on the day’s progress, challenges, and successes. Through living and working closely together, your group will practice more than wilderness travel skills—the habits learned and strengthened through this backpacking expedition will serve you for life and prepare you for whatever challenge comes next.
UPCOMING COURSES
Course # HWAB-2521
Age 18 and up
Days 8
Cost $2,840
Dates 5/18/2025 - 5/25/2025
APPLY NOW
This means a course has several open spots and is actively processing applications.
Course # HWAB-2621
Age 18 and up
Days 8
Cost $2,840
Dates 5/17/2026 - 5/24/2026
APPLY NOW
This means a course has several open spots and is actively processing applications.
APPLY NOW
This means a course has several open spots and is actively processing applications.
APPLY NOW – Almost Full
This means there are three or fewer currently available spots left on a course. To secure your spot click Apply Now to begin an application!
JOIN WAITLIST
Once a course has reached capacity, three waitlist positions become available. To join a course’s waitlist, click “Join Waitlist” to begin the application process. A $500 deposit is required. This $500 deposit includes a $150 non-refundable application fee and a $350 tuition payment. The $350 tuition payment is refundable only if you cancel your waitlist application or if an open position does not become available. If a position does become available, the applicant will be applied to the open position and the Application and Cancellation Policies of the Regional Outward Bound School will be followed, including forfeiture of the $500 deposit if you cancel 90 days or less prior to the course start date.
Waitlist applicants are encouraged to complete all required admissions documents while awaiting an open position. Positions may become available up to two weeks prior to the course start date. Applicants may only apply to one course. We recommend applying to a course with open positions instead of a course that is accepting waitlist applications. If you have questions, please call 866-467-7651 to speak with one of our Admissions Advisors.
CALL TO APPLY
This means a course is very close to its start date. Although it is unlikely to secure a spot this late, you can call the National Admissions office at 866-467-7651 to discuss your options.
COURSE IS FULL
When a course has reached maximum capacity, meaning all spots and the three waitlist spots are occupied, a course will read “Course Is Full.” This means applications are no longer being accepted.
CLOSED
As a course nears its start date, the availability status may read “Closed.” In this event, a course roster has been finalized and applications are no longer being accepted or processed.
Backpacking is an ideal combination of team and individual elements. The mountains of Maine are rugged and wooded and the trails are remote, narrow and often steep. Students travel on wilderness footpaths, navigating on and off trail throughout the journey. From atop the mountain peaks, if the weather cooperates, the group’s hard work is rewarded with spectacular views. Living and traveling with just what one can carry on their back is a simple existence, in which small choices can make deceptively great differences. To live well in the outdoors, all crew members must share the chores that turn a camp into a home, including setting up tents and tarps, creating a kitchen area, taking a turn fetching water and cooking satisfying meals.
Among the mountains of Maine are rocky crags that offer beginning, intermediate and challenging rock climbing. After learning to use climbing equipment, tie knots and belay each other, students test their balance, control and mental strength in the vertical world. In addition to stretching the limits of what they think they’re capable of, climbing hones their coordination, flexibility and grace on the rock. Depending upon the expedition route, technical rope activities may include a “via ferrate” or “Tyrolean traverse.” Climbing presents many individual challenges for students, while the team must work together to set systems up, communicate clearly and support each other throughout the climb. Rock climbing on adult backpacking courses is dependent on the weather and other conditions.
The Solo experience provides an important break from the rigors of the expedition to give students quiet time to reflect on their Outward Bound experience. With the basics of food and equipment, and with safety a top priority, students will take some time away from the group to be alone at sites of their own, using the wilderness skills learned during the first parts of the course. Campsites are chosen to offer as much solitude as possible (yet be within emergency whistle-signaling distance of other group members). Most students spend their Solo time journaling, drawing, or just thinking and resting as they process lessons learned and focus on their goals for the future. Instructors check on each participant at regular intervals. The time students spend on Solo depends on the length of the course.
The mountains of western Maine and northern New Hampshire comprise the northern end of the Appalachian mountain range. Within this region, the White Mountain National Forest, the Appalachian Trail, the Carter-Mahoosuc Range, the Hundred-Mile Wilderness, the Grafton Loop Trail, Bigelow Preserve, and the Caribou-Speckled Mountain Wilderness all offer classic backpacking terrain. These spruce-fir and hardwood forests are home to hundreds of species of birds as well as moose, deer and black bears. Rushing waterfalls, clear twisting streams, and spectacular views from rocky summits reward backpackers ready for adventure. These regions are the ancestral lands of the Wabanaki Confederacy, which includes the Abenaki/Abénaquis, W∂last∂kwiyik (Maliseet), Penobscot, and Passamaquoddy nations.
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Getting Started
If you are ready to enroll on a course click the enroll button next to the course you wish to select or you can enroll over the phone by speaking with one of our Admissions Advisors (toll-free) at 866-467-7651.
To secure your spot on a course you must submit an enrollment form and $500 deposit that is applied toward the total cost of the course and includes a $150 non-refundable enrollment processing fee.