Adventurers
(9th-12th Grades)
In Trail Life USA, troops are organized according to biblical principles in Proverbs 24:3-4, reflecting developmentally appropriate groupings of boys (K-U-W-L): Woodlands Trail (Knowledge), Navigators (Understanding), Adventurers (Wisdom), and Guidon (Life).
Adventurers are high school-age teens who are ready and willing to make big decisions. Where Navigators focus on ranks as they become capable outdoorsmen, Adventurers focus on awards that represent increased independence and leadership skills.
While the younger age-level programs are much more structured and defined by specific program materials, the Adventurers program is purposely less structured and more flexible for older boys to customize according to their interests and goals. A unique aspect of the Adventurers program is that different patrols can actually choose to engage in different program emphases. There is the potential to operate multiple Adventurers patrols as if they were separate units. One patrol could be engaged as a backpacking crew. Another may enjoy a variety of high adventure activities. Yet another may choose to focus their program efforts around watercraft. And finally, another patrol might be more engaged with planned coed activities with the high school-age Patriot girls from the American Heritage Girls troop. The point is that the boys at this age can work together socially in a group setting to determine their own interests as a group, and then to pursue those interests in a very rewarding way.
The First Officer and Second Officer, as high profile youth leaders, oversee the Adventurers program. Patrol Leaders are selected to head each patrol.
Adventurer Ranks And Awards
Both Navigators and Adventurers begin their trail to the Freedom Award with the Recruit Trailman Rank, moving upward through all six ranks. To ensure each Trailman approaching the Freedom Award is of sufficient maturity, the upper ranks (Journey, Ascent, and Horizon) may only be earned as an Adventurer. In addition to these ranks, the Ridgeline Award is the highest honor that may only be earned as a Navigator:
Journey Rank
The Journey Rank may only be earned by an Adventurer. To earn the rank, a Trailman must have earned the Ready Trailman Rank, meet troop participation requirements, and earn a cumulative total of fifteen Trail Badges, including all nine Core Skills Trail Badges, any one True Freedom Trail Badge, and any five additional Trail Badges. He must complete twenty hours of service each program year, demonstrate leadership to the troop, and draft a plan for completing at least four Freedom Experiences as an Adventurer, including two minors and a major. A board of review is required.
Ascent Rank
To earn the Ascent Rank, a Trailman must have earned the Journey Rank, meet troop participation requirements, and earn a cumulative total of twenty Trail Badges, including all nine Core Skills Trail Badges, any three True Freedom Trail Badges, and any eight additional Trail Badges. He must complete twenty hours of service each program year, demonstrate leadership to the troop, and complete at least one Freedom Experience since becoming an Adventurer. A board of review is required.
Horizon Rank
To earn the Horizon Rank, a Trailman must have earned the Ascent Rank, meet troop participation requirements, and earn a cumulative total of twenty-five Trail Badges, including all nine Core Skills Trail Badges, all six True Freedom Trail Badges, and any ten additional Trail Badges. He must complete twenty hours of service each program year, demonstrate leadership to the troop, and complete at least two Freedom Experience since becoming an Adventurer. A board of review is required.
Freedom Award
The Freedom Award is Trail Life’s highest honor. To be considered for the award, the Trailman must have earned the Horizon Rank, meet troop participation requirements, and complete a total of four Trail Life-approved Freedom Experiences as an Adventurer, including two in one major field, one minor in a second field, and one additional minor in a third field. The Trailman must also complete the Adventurer Worthy Life Award, complete a Freedom Servant Leadership Project, and complete a Freedom Award Board of Review.
The Seven Frontiers
As a maturing Trailman (Woodlands Trail program), you see the Branches from your experience on the Woodlands Trail become Frontiers (below) as you continue along the trail. There are both Required and Elective Trail Badges on these Frontiers, and your Freedom Experiences will require that you put into practice the knowledge and skills learned through these Badges. All of these elements help you become the well-rounded man you desire to be.
The Seven Frontiers provide both structure for advancement and personal growth objectives that will make you a better man – more like Jesus, Who is our example.
Heritage Frontier
A Trailman’s Heritage can refer to practices or characteristics that are passed down from generation to generation. It’s the head start you were given by the explorers, inventors, builders, reformers, and defenders who came before you. It’s what a trail man is as an American, with your heritage forged from great dreams, hard work, and heroes’ blood. As a Christian, it is the great faith of patriarchs and prophets who caught glimpses of Gods’ glory. In short, it is the combined influence of everything that came before you.
A study of your heritage should give you an appreciation of the opportunities. Your forefathers have given you an awareness of how your heritage has shaped you, a commitment to remember its significance, and a resolve to avoid the mistakes others made.
Hobbies Frontier
Hobbies allow you to expand your horizons and put your main interest into perspective. Some hobbies have led people into careers that changed the world. Your hobbies may not become a career, but they can still play a significant role in who you are.
Hobbies can sharpen your mind, improve relationships, fitness, and relieve stress. They can send you on adventures, expand your knowledge of science and art, and teach you valuable skills
As your experience grows, you may contribute part time in a field that requires specialized knowledge, equipment, or preparation. These jobs may be as tame as helping with landscape maintenance at your church, as challenging as volunteer firefighting, or as technical as cinematography. Volunteerism is a great way to combine a hobby with service.
Life Skills Frontier
You will master at least four vital Life Skills on this frontier.
First Aid training Fosters a regard for the value of life and the reduction of suffering.
Emergency Preparedness equips you with rescue skills now because you won’t have time to learn in the hour of greatest need.
Family Man emphasizes growth that prepares you to be a worthy husband and father, who knows how to find fulfillment, maintain healthy relationships, and strengthen the image of your creator. God within you.
Personal Resources prepare you to be a good steward of your time, talents, presence, and finances.
Outdoor Skills Frontier
To place your feet on the cracks and know their character of stone, to Wade through the sea of prairie grass, or to find yourself lost in the murmur of a cold mountain stream, or some of life’s most memorable experiences. You can enjoy these adventures and share them with your friends you make in your troop.
During your frontier ventures, you may realize how the challenges and opportunities you face outdoors, parallel your future life. A camp duty roster and an employee job description have much in common; so do feeding your patrol and providing for your family. As you master your outdoor skills and use them with the right attitude, you are preparing for a success in your future roles as husband, father, and citizen.
Science And Technology Frontier
We travel, read, listen, and watch to learn.
We also gather knowledge through scientific research. Some of what we learn allows us to do new things or to do old things better.
We treat disease better, communicate better, calculate faster, and explore farther because of the dedicated work of scientists, inventors, and engineers.
Your Trail Life troop leaders understand that these changes shaped the world you live in. They want you to understand these fields of study so you can be part of that shaping process.
Science adds to mankind’s knowledge through a carefully controlled process, called the scientific method. Its strength is to build up a source of proven knowledge that can be relied upon. Its weakness is that it can only investigate what can be observed and tested by humanity. It cannot prove something does not exist; it can only prove something does exist if it can be directly or indirectly observed. The scientific method cannot make moral judgments or separate beauty from ugliness. It cannot tell you why things happen or how they happen. In that sense, many of the greatest truths of our existence lie beyond its scope. We need both faith and science to gain, even a rudimentary grasp of the wonders that exist around us, and those that lie deep within us.
Technology is the use of knowledge to solve practical problems. Since it is built upon knowledge, great advances in technology usually follow great advances, and science. Applied scientific knowledge is a powerful force, but it comes with great responsibility.
Sports And Fitness Frontier
The Sports And Fitness Frontier will expose you to opportunities to improve physical skills possessed as well as develop new ones.
Great confidence comes when we discover we can improve our personal fitness. We are spirit, soul, and Bonnie. Just as we can feed and strengthen our spirit through prayer and study of Gods’ word, and we can strengthen our mind through study, we can also strengthen our bodies through sports and fitness.
You’ll be challenged to complete goals and function as a team, to push yourself to do better, and to own skills.
Values Frontier
Someone would argue that the progress he’ll make on the values frontier is the most important of all. And they may be right.
Your values shape you and give you the structural integrity both to stand strong in difficult times and to love people you may disagree with.