Adult Courses

Taking a well-deserved adult vacation offers joyful predictability. There’s time off to do what you want, visit places that you’ve maybe never seen before, and return home with some great photos of friends and family. Then, for most of us, it’s back to a predictable grind. By mid-week, we’re back to being the same employee or boss that we were when we packed up and headed out for vacation. 

What The National Center for Outdoor & Adventure Education (NCOAE) offers outdoor enthusiasts — including adults who are curious about backcountry travel — is an alternative to your typical adult vacation. We prepare, set up, and guide life changing adventure-based adult education courses for anyone looking to learn new skills — or those sharpening existing skills in the outdoors, enabling them to return to daily life with new insights into leadership and how to protect our natural resources. 

We can even help you pitch your trip as a benefit to your employer. Who knows? Adventure-based education may be the future for your organization’s workplace employee engagement. (more…)

Well, it’s official. We’ve just wrapped up and put a bow around another successful season of adventure-based programming in the Pacific Northwest, with all of our expeditions originated from our base of operations in Maupin, Ore., alongside the wild and scenic Deschutes River.

And, of course, we here at The National Center for Outdoor & Adventure Education (NCOAE) are already making big plans for next season’s explorations of the Pacific Northwest. Our custom trips feature a range of course options to fit every organization’s or adventurer’s schedule, all set against the background of some of this country’s most breathtaking terrain — the rugged and remote Cascade Mountains. During your trip, you’ll be guided through deep canyons, hike along alpine meadows, traverse cold-mountain streams, explore cascading waterfalls, and enjoy remote mountain passes.

For the 2022 season — in addition to custom programs for schools, youth organizations, and other groups — we continue to offer a range of (more…)

The National Center for Outdoor & Adventure Education (NCOAE) has forged an academic relationship with the University of North Carolina Wilmington (UNCW) that will see UNCW students earning up to six academic credits for participating in and completing educationally-focused backcountry expeditions thousands of miles from campus and lasting up to a month.

Beginning next spring, UNCW students can study in magnificent outdoor classroom settings that include Chile, Patagonia or Alaska. As a result of this accord between the university and our North Carolina-based outdoor adventure organization, these adventure courses are now counted among the approved academic activities for the university’s Department of Environmental Sciences (EVS) students.

The trio of field courses — timed to coincide with scheduled breaks during the University’s 2018/19 academic year — provide UNCW students with some serious hands-on outdoor activities and lessons that are pretty much guaranteed to (more…)

Here at The National Center for Outdoor & Adventure Education (NCOAE), we offer a wide range of outdoor education and adventure courses, ranging in length from a week to an entire semester. And what that does is offer our students a choice based on their particular circumstances, interests and needs.

By offering dozens of adventures from which to choose, students can easily find a course that fits their schedules, skill levels and price. I think it’s pretty well guaranteed that no matter the length of the adventure, you will have an incredible time. Further, you will be offered a great learning opportunity and most likely attain goals and outcomes that you never dreamed possible.

However, I have a bias. And as our staff development director and an instructor, I have every right to have an opinion, based on years of observation. And that bias is this: I believe the longer the course, the better the experience.

I base this assessment on a number of factors, not the least is an opportunity for me to (more…)

If you believe being in the backcountry allows for a freedom that can’t be found anywhere else, or that backpacking and river rafting by their very nature sets a subtle but intentional pace that’s good for your soul, then our September 7-13, 2015, Women’s Wilderness Initiative course in North Carolina is tailor-made for you and what you stand for.

The National Center for Outdoor & Adventure Education’s Women’s Wilderness Initiative is a one-of-a-kind backcountry experience enabling women of nearly all ages to ditch a spouse, kids, job and/or college coursework for seven days focused just on themselves. That’s because your role on a Women’s Wilderness Initiative course is to unwind from your day-to-day tasks, focus on setting personal objectives, develop new technical and leadership skills, and have fun in the Great Outdoors with a group of like-minded women.

By the time you show up for our North Carolina Women’s Wilderness Initiative course, we’ve handled all of your logistics. You food is purchased, meals are prepped, the van is gassed, and the route is already vetted and selected.

Feel a little intimidated by the thought of hiking in unfamiliar territory or navigating rapids along the French Broad River? Not to worry. Our North Carolina Women’s Wilderness Initiative is perfect for women who are not regular rafters and backpackers. The trails we navigate are mostly flat and the river is easy to navigate.

Our all-women team of certified instructors wants you to walk away from this trip with a (more…)

Here at the National Center for Outdoor and Adventure Education (NCOAE), we’re especially proud of our Women’s Wilderness Initiative, which enables women of nearly all ages to ditch the spouse, the kids, the job and the college coursework for a full seven days and — instead of all that — focus on themselves.

Notice we didn’t use the word “pamper.” As a matter of fact, the only pampering that goes on during these weeklong wilderness excursion is mental in nature. That’s because we take care of everything. By the time you show up for our North Carolina Women’s Wilderness Initiative course, we’ve already handled the logistics. The food is purchased, the meals are prepped, the course transport van is gassed, your gear is ready and the route is already vetted and selected.

Your role on a Women’s Wilderness Initiative is to unwind from your day-to-day tasks, focus on setting personal goals, develop additional leadership skills, and have fun backpacking in the great outdoors and river rafting with a group of like-minded women.

We’re firm believers that being in the backcountry allows for a freedom that can’t be found in an urban or suburban setting. Backpacking by its very nature sets a subtle pace and we only go were our feet can take us.

Things slow down tremendously when you’re on the trail, and this allows for (more…)