Registration for a 2024 NCAC-sponsored Northern Tier crew is now open. You will be headed to the flagship of Northern Tier, the Charles L. Sommers Canoe Base. Since 1941, Scouts have embarked from here on wilderness canoeing treks into the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness in Minnesota and the Quetico Provincial Park in Ontario. This is an eleven-night, twelve-day trip.

CREW SIZE: A Northern Tier crew has a minimum of six and a maximum number of eight participants with at least two adults and a majority of youth participants. The number of yout’s must be equal to, or more than, the number of adults. There is one crew available on this trip date.

REGISTRATION: Please follow these instructions to register and make online payments for all crew members. This trip is available on a first-come, first-served basis. It is being offered as a Provisional Crew made up of individuals from several units or it may be booked entirely by one single unit. For the latter (single unit) option, at least six participants (the minimum crew size) must register and pay their initial deposits together at one time. Here are directions for registering for both of these crew types:

REGISTERING AS A PROVISIONAL CREW OF INDIVIDUAL PARTICIPANTS: If you are signing up as an individual, or in small groups of several individuals, click Register and sign up for available openings. The number of Youth and Adult openings remaining are shown on the next page in registration. NOTE: Once again, this trip is available on a first-come, first-served basis. If this crew is full, please register on the wait list. If there is sufficient interest, an additional trip may be requested from Northern Tier

UNITS WITH SIX OR MORE PARTICIPANTS: To register a unit with six or more participants, a Registration Contact should be designated. This person must be 21+ years old and ideally be the crew adult Lead Advisor. This person will also be responsible for entering crew information in the BSA Event Management System once this NCAC registration is complete. This role can be transferred to someone else if circumstances change. The Registration Contact should register at least six participants and pay the $700 initial deposit for each. You may enter the names of all unit participants and provide the deposit payment for all, or have them register themselves (see below). Registering and paying the deposits for a crew of at least six participants will reserve the trip for your unit. Please be aware that any openings in a crew of less than eight may be filled by individuals or NCAC.

CREW SIGN-UP: Immediately after the Registration Contact has reserved the trip, each crew member should visit this web page, complete the registration process and each pay the $700 deposit. Family members (i.e., one or more youth and adults) may register together. Keep your Registration Number to re-enter the system for future payments.

TRAVEL: NCAC arranges all travel for NCAC crews by group airfare and chartered ground transportation to save costs. NCAC Crews meet at the designated airport and travel in Scout uniform as a group to and from the Washington, DC Area. There will be no possibility for crews or individuals to travel independently.

PAYMENT: The total estimated cost for each participant is $2,095. This includes the Northern Tier fee, group airfare and other expenses.  There are cost options that require a crew decision on type of canoe and trek location, and some tour and meal expenses will be borne by the crew. An initial deposit of $700 is required. The final payment is estimated to be $695 and will be determined by March 15th, 2024. Note that the Northern Tier fee is per trek, not per individual. A crew with less than the maximum number of participants will have higher per person costs. You are strongly encouraged to max out your crew size to minimize individual expenses. See the table below for the payment schedule.

Payments may be made with a credit card or an e-check. A 3% surcharge applies to all credit/debit card payments; e-check transactions are free. Late fees may apply to payments received after the published due date deadlines.

TRAINING: A High Adventure Committee-sponsored training session will be held in the March/April 2024 timeframe. Attendance by the entire crew is expected.

Direct questions to John Blackwell. HAC Chair, at john.blackwell@goosecreekdistrict.org or Eric Smith, NCAC Director of Camping, at eric.smith@scouting.org.