Minnesota to Mexico Fall Semester

This is an 81-day semester length course. It includes three sections; a classic expedition by canoe into the north woods border country of Minnesota, desert, cross-cultural backpacking expeditions in Big Bend National Park and down into north central Mexico, exploring Copper Canyon. This is a premier international semester. Students who enroll should be prepared to participate in multiple physically challenging expeditions, service, cross-cultural home visits and study and to participate in the demanding Outward Bound semester curriculum.

Minnesota’s Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness is one million acres of rugged forest and crystal clear lakes, it is ancient granite cliffs and trails through cedars and hundred year-old pine. Camp at designated campsites, cook over and an open fire, hear loons, wolves, see bear and moose, and enjoy this classic expedition travel experience.

After a cross-country road trip, you’ll arrive in the Chihuahuan Desert and a whole new world. Big Bend National Park is a remote and vast wilderness with the 7800” Emory Peak in the center, visible for miles around. Learn desert travel in Big Bend and then drive south of the border to Copper Canyon. Copper Canyon is a series of canyons that together are deeper and wider than the Grand Canyon. Meet Tarahumara Indians and walk the trails that have been use by their community for thousands of years.

Outward Bound Semester
The Minnesota to Mexico Fall Semester is designed to develop your technical outdoor skills and to enhance your leadership, communication, environmental, and teaching skills—all while you train in methods of wilderness travel in a variety of environments in Minnesota, west Texas and Mexico. You will be able to transfer these skills to challenges that you meet throughout the rest of your life. This course has particular emphasis on cross-cultural visits and education as well as exploring the history of westward expansion.

Your decision to attend this course is an important commitment and should be made with complete awareness of the course’s depth, challenge and complexity—this is an adventure in which you live Outward Bound values in the field for 81 days. The majority of your time will be spent in a group of 7 – 12 people. Your group-mates may very well become your best and lifelong friends; at times, they may be your biggest challenge. It is our goal to teach you the skills to live and work together effectively with a diverse group of people. Everyone will be expected to maintain a spirit of compromise and respect differences. Ultimately, how effectively your group works together and how much you learn will be up to you.

When you commit to an expedition, you enter a dynamic learning situation, in which what you will learn directly relates to what you’re doing. You will need to master skills, face challenges, and solve real and immediate problems. You will work on becoming a member of a team: listening to others, giving and receiving feedback, and expressing your ideas. You will learn leadership techniques within that team, discovering how best to incorporate each other’s opinions and work with each other’s strengths. Because the success of the expedition depends on your collaborative efforts, an ethic of service is tightly woven through all of our courses. Some opportunities will occur within your group: helping a teammate, coaching them up a steep hike, preparing food for the group. Others will present themselves within a larger community as organized or informal projects.

The Outward Bound Difference
Our goal is to teach you and your fellow team-mates how to bring leadership into your lives. By focusing on a progression from wilderness skills to team to leadership skills and exploring issues like environmental stewardship, compassion and group living, you will see things you couldn’t see before. This course is ideal for fit, motivated older teens and a great way to spend the summer before college. Successful completion of your course demands mastery of skills, trust, fitness, confidence, tenacity, leadership, initiative and compassion. The promotion of these qualities, and the discovery of what’s in you, is the purpose of Outward Bound.

This course may be the hardest thing you have ever done. Outward Bound philosophy maintains that by facing the challenges the course will offer you, you will emerge physically and mentally stronger, with an increased mastery of expedition skills as well as a better understanding of your own capabilities. We think that the payoff is well worth the work, but you should be aware of what you’re getting into and excited about tackling the challenges.

Course Description
Start with an extended expedition by canoe deep into the Boundary Waters Wilderness Area. Learn camp craft, navigation, Leave No Trace camping principles, paddle strokes, cooking, basic first aid and communication skills. All these skills will form the foundation of the team work and skill development that you and your group will rely on for the rest of you 81 day odyssey from the northern most border of the US to southern most border of the US and then crossing into Mexico. In Minnesota you will sleep in tents, cook over and open fire and have a classic expedition experience. After 3-4 weeks in the north woods, a ropes course and 2-3 days or climbing, you and your team will set off on a cross-country road trip. Stop along the way to visit historic sites or participate in service projects. You will be car camping on this section of your trip. When you get to the desert and step off the van, it may take a moment for your eyes to adjust to the big sky and vast light filled landscape.

Adjust your team and your skills to desert travel: topographical map reading, water treatment, hydration, camp craft skills and new group dynamics will be your challenges as you venture into Big Bend country. Big Bend sits on the border with Mexico, on the Rio Grande. It is a place where the US and Mexico blend into one community and is a perfect environment from which to launch your journey into Mexico.

Travel the ancient trails through Copper Canyon and live among the Tarahumara Indians, they will welcome you into their home and you will get to know people belonging to one of the most intact cultures in the world.

NOTE: Semester courses are demanding physically and socially. Students who are unmotivated or stuggle with inappropriate behaviors on course may be expelled. Students who are expelled are not eligible for a refund. You and your family should be prepared to make a commitment to being in a relatively formal educational setting for the entire length of the course.

Important Note: Pack weight is between 50 and 70 lbs dependent on participant's body weight. Packs on courses in Alaska weigh more because of additional gear brought into the field. We encourage students to test out a pack that is this heavy prior to choosing this course.

NOTE: This course is an international semester. The final phase of the course takes place in Mexico. You and your group will drive together across the border. Passport is required.

To enroll in this course click the enroll button next to the course dates that work for you. To shop comparatively on line visit our Advanced Course Finder or better yet call one of our expert Admission Advisers at 866-467-7651. Course tuitions listed below do not include our Application Fee or Transportation Fee.

Region: Minnesota

Activities: Desert backpacking, rock climbing, canyoneering, service, canoeing, solo, service and final expedition

Additional Information:
Application Fee
Transportation Fee

Dates	Days	Age	Focus	Location	Tuition	Course	Enroll
09/16/08 to 12/05/08	81	18-30	Semester	Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, Big Bend National Park and Copper Canyon Mexico	$9795.00	MIS883