UCSD - University of California - San Diego

04/21/2026 | Press release | Distributed by Public on 04/21/2026 03:00

Is Wilderness Orientation the Ultimate Digital Detox

Published Date

April 21, 2026

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Before their first term even begins, incoming UC San Diego students have the chance to sign up for an overnight orientation trip with a twist. Now in its 35th year and available to all incoming students, Wilderness Orientation offers once-in-a-lifetime opportunities to discover the strength within yourself, ready yourself for college and immerse yourself in nature with your fellow new students.

This isn't just hyperbole - as a newly-minted first year student 34 years ago in 1992, I went on UC San Diego's 10-day backpacking trip to the Cottonwood Lakes for Wilderness Orientation. And decades later it stands the test of time as one of the highlights of my life. It tested my physical endurance, strength and mental fortitude and introduced me to the sheer, jagged beauty of the rocky Sierra Nevada Mountains.

When Wilderness Orientation launched in 1991, two trips were offered: backpacking and sea kayaking. Now, the trips have grown to include numerous options including backpacking, sea kayaking, surfing, canoeing, research at sea and a multi-adventure trip to Catalina Island.

The trips are a true digital detox: A chance to live within the moment and experience nature in an up-close and personal way, interacting with one another and the natural world without the distractions of technology.

UC San Diego's sea kayaking Wilderness Orientation trip in 2001. Alison Black (center) and friends. (Photos by Alison Black)

Alison Black, a lecturer in education studies at UC San Diego, went on Wilderness Orientation's sea kayaking trip to Mexico in 2001 when she was an undergraduate on campus. For Black, her trip "kicked off a lifelong journey of self-discovery and hope," she says.

"Nature and being out in the wilderness for an extended period of time can help folks realign, re-tune their perspective, sensory systems, and regulation so they realize that not only can they get through really hard things, but they might even be able to enjoy it," she says.

A core moment in each of the trips is the 24-hour solo. Students are given the opportunity to spend a full day and night alone in the wilderness - with whistles in case of emergency and leaders within shouting distance if necessary. But the solo experience is intended to be a time for reflection and way to see and understand your own inner strength. (Spoiler alert: It works.)

After 21 years, one of Black's two standout memories from her trip includes that solo experience and her sense of accomplishment after successfully completing something that was emotionally and mentally challenging.

"I had never done that before because I'm the youngest of three siblings and being alone wasn't an option," Black says. For her 24-hour solo she was in a little nook along a section of the beach lined with rocky caves. "It was so beautiful," Black says. "It felt like I was on this remote stretch of land and then there was the ocean that went on for miles."

Having the mental fortitude to spend the night alone in the cold and dark and then finding comfort in the breaking dawn and the realization that the earth could - and would - hold her was unexpected and long-lasting, she says.

UC San Diego's Wilderness Orientation trip to the Cottonwood Lakes in 1992. A view of Mount Langley with group members walking along a lake, left; Catherine Poland standing on the edge of a meadow, center; and the entire group atop Mount Langley, 14,032 ft elevation. (Photos by Catherine Poland)

As for myself, I spent my 24-hour solo in a stand of trees high in the mountains, with my sleeping bag tucked against a large boulder on the edge of a small valley containing a tiny lake. Contemplating the vastness of the stars as I watched them through the night, the crispness of the air and the minutiae of the rocks and plants surrounding me is still a memory I can conjure up immediately and vividly despite the passage of more than three decades.

Wilderness Orientation trips take students out into the natural world to be experienced in unexpected and thrilling ways. For me, hiking and then scrambling to the very top of Mount Langley (14,032 ft elevation) and absorbing the enormity of the sky and the landscape above and below me, and then watching a small plane fly past below where I was standing was thrilling, surreal and a moment of complete clarity about the scale of the world around me and my place in it.

For Black, this took the form of a moment when she and the others in her group needed to surf their kayaks into the beach on a foggy morning. "We were all quite intimidated because the waves were a bit big, but the most beautiful thing happened as we were surfing: A pod of dolphins started swimming on either side of us, just a few feet away from each of us, and they made us feel like we were safe," she says. "It was really quite an experience because it felt like they were showing us how to be in the waves almost, or playing with us or somehow intrigued by us. It was really fascinating. And it just made us feel - I remember we all talked about it later - like 'Okay, we're going to be okay, we got this."

That sense of growing a new community through face-to-face interactions is a core value for Outback Adventures. The Wilderness Orientation trips focus on providing space for participants to learn to rely on and trust others.

On her trip, "we had a lot of deep conversations," Black says. "We were from very different walks of life and we were bonded by this experience." Slowing down, having fun and tackling the challenges as they arose brought the group together and also offered valuable lessons for college, Black continues: "I think that that is really a beautiful thing to help keep in perspective: That college is hard and you're going to get through it and you can take your time and really focus on being present."

The Wilderness Orientation shirts for 1991, 1992 (front and back), 2001, 2007 and 2025. (Photos courtesy of Outback Adventures)

As they were in the beginning, these are nature-first and cell-phone-free trips. While the original trips were that way simply because it was highly unusual for anyone to own such a luxury item, now it's by design.

"For some people it might not be a selling point," says Tessa Opperman, the outdoor leadership programs manager for the UC San Diego Outback Adventures program. (Opperman went on a Wilderness Orientation backpacking trip to Mineral King in Sequoia National Park herself as an undergraduate in 2007.) But the end-of-trip evaluations show that for many students, having the opportunity to get away from their phones and focus on in-person connections with their peers is seen as a huge benefit, she says.

And as part of that tech-free life, the trips also focus on teaching every participant crucial outdoor knowledge. "We teach a lot of the skills that you need to be not just self-sufficient, but also to take care of others in the outdoors," Opperman says. "Outback is about educating students so that if they go on a backpack trip with us, then they can feel like they have the skills to be able to go backpacking again on their own because they've learned everything," she continues. "We really value education: We're not going to cook for you. We're going to teach you how to set up a dragonfly stove and cook on it."

And this sense of ownership and learning extends to the student guides who lead the trips, as well. Each Wilderness Orientation is an opportunity for incoming students to see the successes of their older peers. All the trips are led by student guides who have been highly trained and certified, notes Simon Teale, the outdoor education director of Outback Adventures.

To become a group leader, students need to complete an apprenticeship, the in-house Outdoor Leadership Certificate program, and become a certified Wilderness First Responder, just as professional outdoor guides are certified, Teale explains. Every trip offered has a primary route and a backup route planned in case of inclement weather, wildfire or other situations that might dictate a change of plan, and all leaders are in contact with leadership to ensure that any emergency need to evacuate can be carried out.

Find out more about Wilderness Orientation and the variety of 6- to 9-day-long trips that will be offered before the Fall 2026 term: For incoming first-year students these include a backpacking trip in the Sierra Nevada, sea kayaking in Baja California, surfing in Baja, canoeing the Colorado River in Black Canyon, Monterey Bay Research at Sea and Catalina Island Adventure. And for transfer students a backpacking trip in the Sierra Nevada and kayaking and snorkeling trip to Catalina.

Beginners, those with a long history of adventuring and everyone in-between are embraced in the program.

"We really value education: We're not going to cook for you. We're going to teach you how to set up a Dragonfly stove and cook on it." Tessa Opperman, Outdoor Leadership Programs Manager, UC San Diego Outback Adventures
Wilderness Orientation through the years. (Photos courtesy of Outback Adventures)
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