I actually had to do the whole SUWS Idaho thing. Cedu's was a fucking cakewalk compared to that. Big difference on a 4 day solo where Cedu gives you good and where you have to kill mice!
Oh god, the CEDU wilderness expeditions were one of the few somewhat enjoyable things I did at that place. Seriously, for the most part, our asses were pretty well taken care of on those trips. Especially since I went to RMA and Dan Krumpatich managed most of them. In fact, we often really enjoyed them because we got to eat shit we couldn't eat at the school, such as crappy instant fruity oatmeal, and mac n cheese, and candy bars, and my favorite, sardines. We also had good quality packs, tents, sleeping bags and other gear.
Yeah, the hiking/skiing was hard, but the staff were actually with it and knew their shit and kept an eye out for things like dehydration, hypothermia or frostbite. I once got yelled at cause I went out in the snow with my boots untied.
And you're right, the four day solo was a snap. One big assed bag of GORP (That I finished pretty much the first day.) But who the fuck cares? You're away from all of those other fuckers and can do whatever you want. I wasn't even hungry. Some kids came back and they were all whiny about not eating, and relieved to be off solo, and I was exactly the opposite.
The only thing that sucked about the wilderness expeditions was that they would occasionally have raps. I don't think we had one on our challenge, though.
Yeah, comparing that to SUWS is like apples and oldsmobiles.