The National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS) and North Coast Adventure Centers partners to offer a first-of-its-kind course on the North Coast!  This will be NOLS's first expedition on the Far North Coast of California.  Brought to you by North Coast Adventure Centers.

This 7 day course will take place on the Lost Coast of California where you’ll be backpacking along miles of road-less Pacific coast and through a mix of Douglas fir, grasslands, and chaparral. Some days you’ll hike along wide sandy beaches, while other days will challenge the group with miles of boulders, drift logs, or rocks covered with slippery seaweed. On the coast the moon will govern the day more than the sun, as the rise and fall of the tides determine when you can travel and where you can camp. At times the route may require leaving the beach and finding a route into the uplands due to the high tides.

While hiking the coast, it is common to observe seals, sea lions, ospreys and bald eagles, and an abundance of sea birds such as loons and cormorants. The cold oxygen-rich water supports some of the most productive tide pools in the world—urchins, anemones and sea stars abound.

The expedition will be an introduction to backpacking and risk management skills through leadership experiences in the backcountry. Unlike many guided travel adventure programs, our expeditions focus on leadership training—learning and practicing your own travel and camping skills, introducing you to leading an expedition, and taking on increasing levels of personal and team responsibilities for the technical and interpersonal aspects of the course. You will learn to travel competently in coastal terrain using map and compass skills, tide charts, hazard evaluation, and route-finding techniques.