Group Education Program offered: Leadership Course, Orientation Course, Environmental Service Coures, Educator Course, Unity Project Activities: Coastal canoeing, sea kayaking, backpacking, service work, ropes course, initiatives and workshops Minium Age: Canoeing - 12 years old. Sea-kayaking - 16 years old Time of Year: November - March Capacity: Canoeing - 8 groups of 10 students. Sea-kayaking - 2 groups of 10 students Minimum Course Length: Canoeing - 4 days. Sea-kayaking - 7 days Course Start Location: Everglades City, Naples or Miami, FL (Outward Bound does not provide travel to and from the course start location.)
Expeditioning Through The 10,000 Islands
Florida's Ten Thousand Islands and Everglades National Park offer a magical place within which to experience an Outward Bound Group Education Program - a place of glorious sunsets, abundant wildlife, remote wilderness and wide-open stretches of space. Expeditions travel by two person canoes, six person canoes or sea-kayaks. Some groups also hike or backpack through cypress strands and sawgrass sloughs.
As the name Ten Thousand Islands suggests, there are endless mangrove islands and keys to explore. Develop your paddling technique while expeditioning through rivers, bays and warm Gulf waters. Monitor and forcast the weather. Learn to predict tidal changes and utilize your knowledge of ebbing, flooding, raging, and slack tides. Navigating in the 10,000 islands is a challenge that requires cooperation your whole group for successful expeditions. Survey your surroundings for important landmarks. Shoot a bearing with your compass. Work with your crewmates to use a chart and determine your location. Then paddle hard to your next destination. Spend the night on a chickee, or camp on the beautiful white-sand beaches of Panther, Gullivan, Lulu and Pavilion Keys.Share personal stories or learn the history of local pirates, hermits, and homesteaders as the sun sets over the ocean.
On two person, tandem, canoe expeditions you paddle through mangrove tunnels, exploring areas of the Everglades that are hard to reach in other types of boats. Tandem canoes offer an opportunity to focus on teamwork and communication as you and your partner synchronize strokes and collaborate to navigate your boat. Utilize teamwork and ingenuity to board up your canoes and turn them into a floating platform - your home for the night.
North canoes hold up to six people and all their equipment for an expedition. Like the voyageurs who first used these craft, your group will need to work and live together with discipline and care. People in your group take turns at the helm to steer a coursein these fast, sea worthy craft.
Sea kayaks offer fast, sleek craft capable of crossing stretches of open water on the edge of the Gulf of Mexico. Practice your "wet exit" in warm, Gulf waters. Learn rescue techniques such as T-rescue, paddle float and Eskimo roll. "Raft up" on the open water for group discussions.
Take time out of paddling to hike inland or along Florida's shore. Your course may include one or more days of hiking expedition. Learn how to load your backpack before setting out to explore cypress strands and sawgrass sloughs. Discuss the human effect on this fragile landscape, and practice Leave No Trace ethics to minimize your impact on the area and preserve it for future adventurers. Participate in a service project that connects you to the environment and the people who live here.
Discover more about the rich cultural history of the area as you learn about the Calusa, Seminole and Miccosukee Native American tribes and other settlers who bravely ventured into this "last American frontier."
Natural and Cultural History
Everglades National Park is an International Biosphere Reserve, a World Heritage Site and a Wetland of International Importance. The Ten Thousand Islands is recognized as an Aquatic Preserve. This is a subtropical region, with temperatures generally between 60 and 90 degrees and about 60 inches of rain each year. The Florida Peninsula is believed to be the last part of the continental United States to rise from the ocean, making it the youngest region geologically. Only Alaska can claim a longer shoreline.
The Everglades is a shallow, slow moving sheet of water, which runs from Lake Okeechobee to the Gulf of Mexico. This "river of grass," which is 120 miles long, 50 miles wide and less than a foot deep covered nearly the entire southern end of Florida - about 4 million acres of cypress swamps, tropical hammocks, sawgrass sloughs, mangrove and barrier islands.
These vast wetlands provide critical feeding, nesting and migratory resting grounds for vast numbers of birds including wood stork, ibis, bald eagles, osprey, anhinga and roseate spoonbill. Animals include alligators, crocodiles, panther, raccoons, black bear and panther. Dolphin, manatee and turtles are often spotted in open saltwater.
Calusa Indians first inhabited the region 4000 years ago. Travelling by foot or canoe, these fisher-hunter-gatherers subsisted on the bounty of the coastal fauna. The Calusa built up islands from discarded shells to create dry land upon which to live. These islands remain today including Sunset Island, home to the North Carolina Outward Bound School's Florida Program. By the mid-1700's the Calusa were all gone due wars and disease brought by Spanish Explorers. Following European attacks in the 19th century, Seminole and Miccosukee escaped into the Everglades. Reservations for both tribes now exist in the current Everglades. During the 19th and early 20 th century, the Everglades also attracted European pioneers and renegades, creating a wild west culture.
Today, the acreage of the Everglades has shrunk to two million and that land is constantly burdened by a rapidly growing population of Floridians, which increases by 600 people per day. Canals and levees built to capture and divert water for human needs, such as drinking water, irrigation and flood control have disrupted the natural process of the Everglades. Pollutants, fertilizers and pesticides are also causing environmental issues.
Numerous restoration and conservation efforts have been initiated since the late 1980s. Although the Everglades still suffers from the rapid population growth in south Florida, it remains amazingly beautiful, magical and pristine. By introducing new people each year to the wonders of the Everglades, Outward Bound hopes to increase the number of people working to keep it intact, and help it grow and flourish.
As the name Ten Thousand Islands suggests, there are endless mangrove islands and keys to explore. Develop your paddling technique while expeditioning through rivers, bays and warm Gulf waters. Monitor and forcast the weather. Learn to predict tidal changes and utilize your knowledge of ebbing, flooding, raging, and slack tides. Navigating in the 10,000 islands is a challenge that requires cooperation your whole group for successful expeditions. Survey your surroundings for important landmarks. Shoot a bearing with your compass. Work with your crewmates to use a chart and determine your location. Then paddle hard to your next destination. Spend the night on a chickee, or camp on the beautiful white-sand beaches of Panther, Gullivan, Lulu and Pavilion Keys.Share personal stories or learn the history of local pirates, hermits, and homesteaders as the sun sets over the ocean.
Everglades National Park is an International Biosphere Reserve, a World Heritage Site and a Wetland of International Importance. The Ten Thousand Islands is recognized as an Aquatic Preserve. This is a subtropical region, with temperatures generally between 60 and 90 degrees and about 60 inches of rain each year. The Florida Peninsula is believed to be the last part of the continental United States to rise from the ocean, making it the youngest region geologically. Only Alaska can claim a longer shoreline.
Today, the acreage of the Everglades has shrunk to two million and that land is constantly burdened by a rapidly growing population of Floridians, which increases by 600 people per day. Canals and levees built to capture and divert water for human needs, such as drinking water, irrigation and flood control have disrupted the natural process of the Everglades. Pollutants, fertilizers and pesticides are also causing environmental issues.