Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness (BWCAW)

Over 10,000 years ago, continental-sized glaciers scraped their way across much of Ontario and northern Minnesota leaving deep ruts, ravines, and holes in their tracks. Eventually, as the glaciers melted, these ravines filled with water, creating a seemingly endless interconnected web of lakes and rivers.

In 1978, the United States designated over 1-million acres of this Northern Minnesota landscape as a protected wilderness area called the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness (BWCAW). Because no roads, power lines, or motorized craft may enter its borders, the BWCAW has remained relatively unchanged since the glaciers receded. The BWCAW extends nearly 150 miles along the Canadian border and encompasses more than 1,000 lakes and rivers. Over 1,200 miles of navigable routes lead to over 2,200 campsites and provide an unparalleled opportunity to travel by canoe and dogsled.

In the winter, the BWCAW transforms into an even more severe and remote wilderness. While more difficult, winter enthusiasts’ travel over frozen lakes and rivers by dogsled, cross-country ski and snowshoe. Winter in the Boundary Waters is mesmerizing, peaceful, and exhilarating. It is a place of spectacular extremes, trackless snow, bracing cold air, glowing warm embers, and powerful silence.

Homeplace, Voyageur Outward Bound School Basecamp, Minnesota

Homeplace is located at the edge of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness in northern Minnesota. Situated where the Kawishiwi River meets Birch Lake in the Superior National Forest, the Voyageur Outward Bound School basecamp provides an ideal location for launching/ending BWCAW paddling and dogsledding trips, and practicing white water paddling skills. The surrounding boreal forest also makes Homeplace a great location for spotting moose, wolves, beavers, deer, woodpeckers, eagles and black bear.

This course will involve a variety of activities with each day focusing on something slightly different. The course is designed to give you an introduction into lots of different winter activities and skills! You can expect to experience and practice the following things during your course:

Winter Skills 

You'll learn how to thrive in the winter environment. What to wear, how to stay warm, how to build fires and cook food over them, and how to set up a wall tent to create a warm reprieve from the weather. 

Cross Country Skiing

You'll learn the basics of cross country skiing, and how to move along trails, across frozen lakes, and through the woods. While very different than downhill skiing, cross country skiing is a beautiful way to enjoy the snow! 

Dog Sledding

You'll meet our sled dogs and learn how to care for them, and about their lives as working dogs. Sled dogs have a long history of working with humans, and they bring a lot of energy, excitement and fun to this Outward Bound experience. As you get to know the dogs you'll build up to going on a dog sled ride, and travel with the dogs down trails near our basecamp. Dog sledding is not a passenger sport, and you'll be engaged in helping steer the sled and work with the dogs to travel. 

Sauna and Dip

First invented in Finland thousands of years ago, taking a sauna is a special winter activity. A wood stove heats up a little cedar lined cabin, where you and your group will sit in the heat until you are ready to cool off. Then you'll head outside with your teammates and jump through a hole in the ice into the lake to rinse off, and then return to the cozy sauna to warm up again. While it sounds a bit scary, it feels like going to the spa, and is an exciting part of the winter experience! 

Basecamp Life

You'll spend your course staying in a rustic cabin at our basecamp with heat and electricity, but no running water. Bathrooms are found in a washhouse nearby. You'll cook meals together each day, often having lunch out in the woods during your adventures. Evenings will be spent reflecting as a group on the days activities, and preparing for the following day. 

Day 1 - Arrival, meeting instructors, thermo regulation 101, gear distribution

Day 2 - Ice lessons & travel, skiing, team building outside, fire 101, meet the dogs

Day 3 - Dog sled run with staff (in the sled & on runners with staff), lunch over the fire, wall tent evening for dinner

Day 4 - Winter olympics with various skills, students cook their own dinner over the fire

Day 5 - Travel home after breakfast

Wilderness Leadership Expeditions

Theory of Change: 

Learning > Leadership > Responsibility

On Expedition, each participant learns and executes a specific role each day to support safe and successful group wilderness travel and survival, activating peer and personal leadership through trust and vulnerability. Participants develop character and community together-- more resilient and compassionate people, for a more resilient and compassionate world.

The Leadership Expedition develops key social-emotional skills across four Domains of Thriving, leading to vital character outcomes for success. Outward Bound promotes belonging, strength and purpose for developing leaders through hands-on intra and inter-personal skill development. 

Domains of Thriving:

Belonging,  Courage,  Physical Engagement,  Reflection

Character Outcomes:

• Teamwork
• Self-Awareness
• Social Responsibility
• Assertiveness
• Perseverance
• Physical Confidence
• Self-Regulation
• Group Relationships

Minnesota’s weather can be unpredictable with a wide range of temperatures.  Between December and March Minnesota temperatures can range from -40 to 40 degrees Fahrenheit, but -20 to 20 degree nights and days are the most common. Days are typically very sunny with bright blue skies. Wind and snow are common.

Weather is always a factor when traveling in the wilderness and it adds an exciting element of challenge to each course. Learning to handle varying weather conditions is essential to a successful wilderness course. 

Click here for more information about Preventing Illness on Your Expedition 

While you are not sleeping outside and traveling expedition-style, you will be physically active every day. For that reason, we recommend you prepare for the experience. Please utilize the resources below to physically and mentally prepare for your course. The more preparation you do, the better your experience will be! 

VOBS Course Preparation Guide

Winter Course Life - A Student's Perspective

Physically Preparing for a Dog Sledding Course - A Staff Perspective

WINTER: Preparing and eating tasty meals in the backcountry is part of the Outward Bound experience.  

Under your instructors' supervision, you and your crew will prepare group meals in a camp setting over an open fire. Meals are eaten as a group and may start off with group announcements, appreciations, or an inspirational quote. We use this time together to reflect on the successes and challenges of the day and to plan what is to come for the following day.   

Your group will travel with all the food you need for your expedition. For some longer courses, our support staff meet up with your group in the wilderness to restock your food. This meet up is called a “re-supply.” 

Our courses are physically rigorous, and our meals emphasize protein and carbohydrates to re-fuel your body. All course food is packable and non-perishable. We use a mix of dehydrated foods, fresh fruits, and vegetables. Our goal is to provide meals that are familiar. However, we ask that you be open to trying foods that may be new to you. 

Participants should not bring their own food or snacks unless authorized to do so by your Course Advisor.   

Our Food Pack Out Process  

All meals at Outward Bound are cooked outdoors in remote camp settings. We work diligently to provide familiar and tasty foods, and we acknowledge that our food options are limited while we are on expedition, away from our supply facilities.  

We depend on clear and accurate food allergy and dietary restrictions disclosed during the admission process to adequately plan and pack your group’s meals and snacks before your course start. Our processes are not designed to accommodate last minute dietary requests or to loosen dietary restrictions originally disclosed.  

Dietary Restriction Options

• We can accommodate vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, soy-free, nut-free, and various other dietary restrictions
• Soy Milk (Oat milk for those with soy allergies)
• Sunflower butter and nut-free trail mix for those with nut allergies
• Beans and hummus for vegetarians and dairy-free/vegan options
• Gluten-free noodles and oats (all our granola is gluten-free)

MEALS AT OUTWARD BOUND

The following list represents common meals on winter courses at Voyageur Outward Bound (this is not a menu)

Breakfasts

First Breakfast

• English muffin or bagel with sausage or bacon (veggie sausages, bean burgers, and TVP (soy-protein) patties for vegetarian/vegans)

Second Breakfast

• Breakfast bar of granola, grapenuts, oatmeal, etc. with warm water
• Granola (locally made in Ely, MN) with milk (powder)
• Oatmeal with fixins’ (raisins, pumpkin seeds, cinnamon, sugar)
• Cheesy Grits
• Grape Nuts cereal with Milk (optional: add honey or vanilla pudding powder)
• Eggs and Hashbrowns

“Squirrel Bags” (food for the day, kept with you so you can eat as you go through the day)

• Meat, cheese, dried fruit, nuts
• Meal replacement bars (house-made, three kinds: flappers (oat-based bar with raisins), “nina bars” (granola base with chocolate and peanuts), and peanut bars (peanut butter base with chocolate chips)

Cracker O’Clock - snack boost when you get to camp

Dinners

• Wild Rice Soup
• Spaghetti with Meat Sauce (ground hamburger)
• Pasta Carbonara - Alfredo Sauce with fresh eggs, peas, bacon
• Curry with Chicken or Tofu

Drinks

• Tea (both bags and house-made chai mix)
• Cocoa
• Coffee
• Drink Mixes (Lemon-Lime and Orange)