Paddle and hike your way to adventure

Paddle a canoe through ancient waterways. Climb to the tops of high peaks. Savor cinnamon rolls and pizza you’ll make on a camp stove. On this course for 14- and 15-year-olds, you’ll learn about canoeing, backpacking, and leadership so you can start exploring the wilderness. On the canoeing section, you’ll learn about paddling and loading a canoe and will explore lakes where you can see fish swimming on bottom and beavers building dams. During the backpacking section, you’ll learn to navigate with a map and carry a backpack, exploring the Adirondacks’ ridges and peaks. You’ll learn about the area’s ecology as you move from lakes and rivers to mountain ridges. Whether you’ve camped before or it’s your first time, this course has something for you.

Leadership will be an important part of this course. Helping your friend learn to pack their canoe becomes an opportunity to practice in peer leadership. Pushing yourself to meet new challenges becomes a lesson in tolerance for adversity. Helping solve an argument is an opportunity to practice communication. By the end of this course, you’ll walk away with new friendships, experiences to help you grow as a leader, and the confidence to start exploring the wilderness.

Information for Parents: The NOLS Difference

At 14-15, your teen’s brain is in a critical rewiring phase—where experiences now become traits later. While camps keep teens comfortable, a NOLS course gives them tools to navigate an uncertain world. Hiking through New York’s remote mountain ranges, topping alpine ridges, and discovering clear alpine lakes teaches them that the world is big, beautiful, and not revolving around them. We teach through natural consequences: if the tent isn’t set up right, they get wet. No nagging, just feedback that builds responsibility and judgment. You’re investing in the adult you want to send into the world.