Develop outdoor skills, enhance leadership and communication, and gain environmental knowledge in stunning settings. The goal of our Gap Year expeditions is to help you develop the confidence, knowledge, and integrity essential for effective leadership. Whether you are learning how to safely tie in on belay, deciding as a group how to navigate through new terrain, or setting up a minimum-impact campsite for the evening, you’ll be honing and practicing skills for life.   

• Build Connections:  Find connections with your crewmates based on support and respect (and fun, too!), and in the thick of challenges, discover there is more in you than you know.  
• Value Strengths and Strengthen Values: Discover your strengths, embrace independence, and practice compassion as you support your crew. 
• Learn Outdoor Skills: Hone your technical abilities as you become a master at ropes courses or swiftwater rescue techniques and Wilderness First Aid. Numerous certificates are available depending on the course, and up to 18 college credit hours can be earned along the way. 
• Upgrade Your Outlook: Return home with an enriched and expanded view of yourself, the world, and what’s possible. 

Outward Bound is accredited with the American Gap Association and is the longest running program in this elite group dedicated to providing safe, meaningful and high-caliber educational experiences to students.

Traditional 30-foot sailboats encourage teamwork and leadership like no other classroom. On an open boat with no cabin and no engine, the group will live closely together using only wind and oars to power their way. As they rotate responsibilities during the expedition, students learn the crafts of maneuvering under sail, coastal navigation, rowing and living aboard a small open boat. At night, students sleep on deck under a tarp and take turns at anchor watch under brilliant night skies.

Backpacking is an ideal combination of both team and individual elements, requiring students to dig deep on a personal level while also looking out for other group members. The mountains of Maine and New Hampshire are jagged and densely 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 mountain peaks, if the weather cooperates, the group’s hard work is rewarded with spectacular views across forested landscapes. Living and traveling with just a backpack is a simple existence, in which deceptively small choices can make great differences. To live well in the wilderness, 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 turns fetching water, and cooking satisfying meals. Students will also take turns in expeditionary roles, so that they have the opportunity to learn and gain proficiency in a variety of skills.

Northern New England is a renowned climbing destination, and our rock climbing sessions take place at some of the many granite crags and cliffs that make the region so famous. Students learn how to properly use harnesses, helmets, ropes and belay devices, and no prior experience is expected. Participants will start with the basics of tying into the rope, safely belaying each other and practicing efficient movement over rock using friction techniques, edging and crack climbing. As students build on their experience and skills, they’ll have the opportunity to develop more advanced climbing techniques and practice setting up top ropes and building anchors at various climbing sites.

Sea kayaks offer a mode of transportation in the Exumas that reaches locations inaccessible by sailboat and yacht. As we move beyond the heavily trafficked areas, this part of the course allows students to have more intimate interaction with the sea and land of this remarkable natural habitat. Students will have the opportunity to paddle both single and double kayaks, learning the techniques necessary to handle each craft. This allows students to work as part of a team but also develop individual skills on the water.

Students will have another chance to step outside their comfort zone and explore a new environment as they earn a PADI Open Water Diver Certification. This is a unique opportunity to learn about tropical ecology and coral reefs while participating in several dives to complete this certification. With Scuba gear securely in place, students transform into underwater explorers and experience the diversity of marine life firsthand.

Service projects are often incorporated into Outward Bound courses through coordination with local land managers, conservation groups, and government agencies or social service agencies. While in the wilderness, students are encouraged to practice service to the environment and their team by sharing responsibilities and following Recreate Responsibly ethics throughout the expedition.

Maine

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 Grafton Loop Trail 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 bear. Rushing waterfalls, clear twisting streams and spectacular views from rocky summits reward backpackers ready for adventure.

The upper reaches of the Androscoggin watershed are fed by the Aziscohos Lake, the Magalloway River, and the Rangeley Lakes. Indigenous Abenaki peoples used the Androscoggin as both a means of transportation between winter habitats inland and summer living on the coast as well as a source of food. Later the Androscoggin River was used to move logs to mills downstate during the logging boom of the 19th century. These days the lakes and rivers are used primarily by canoeists, fishermen and other recreationalists. Some of the portage trails here, such as those along the Rapid River, have been in use for centuries.

These regions are the ancestral lands of the Wabanaki Confederacy, which includes the Abenaki/Abénaquis, W∂last∂kwiyik (Maliseet), Penobscot, and Passamaquoddy nations.

Bahamas

The Bahamas Archipelago is a network of low-lying islands, shallow banks and deep blue waters just across the Gulf Stream from southern Florida. Originally inhabited by people moving north through the Caribbean from South America, for much of recorded history these expansive and remote islands served as hideouts for privateers, buccaneers, and pirates. The British colonized the islands in the 17^th century and controlled the trade and commerce of this important waystation in the Atlantic Ocean for many years. Over time, through a series of political and social upheavals, the islands transitioned into a haven for fishermen, woodcutters, salt-exporters and freed slaves from the United States and the Atlantic slave trade, and became an independent state in 1973. Now a destination for sailors seeking stunning and remote cruising grounds and those researching marine ecology, the Bahamas are home to a vibrant ecosystem and diverse culture. These regions are the ancestral lands of the Taino and Lucaya nations.