Once each semester (mid-September in fall, late May in spring), students and staff pack up and head out for multi-day backcountry camping trips (five nights, six days). These trips are opportunities to explore magnificent Northwoods natural areas, build confidence in outdoor skills, and study in the “outdoor classroom”. Students and staff, in groups of 8 – 12, backpack or canoe in locations such as the Sylvania Wilderness, Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore on Lake Superior, or along the North Country National Scenic Trail in the Upper Peninsula’s Trap Hills. Students do need to provide personal clothing and footwear, but Conserve School provides all technical and group gear, such as tents, stoves, backpacks, dry bags, sleeping bags and pads, and water purification systems.

Students and staff members get to know one another well during these trips, and student friendships grow stronger. Students and staff are split up into small groups so that students can experience the sense of being alone with nature — a small group set against a backdrop of miles and miles of uninhabited wilderness. Expedition groups always follow Leave No Trace principles, cleaning up carefully after themselves, keeping their noise level down, leaving natural items where they belong, and being gentle with trails and campsites.