YOUTH SUMMER CAMPS

Bushcraft/Woodland Immersion Experience (Life in the Leaves)

Inspired by Walt Whitman’s words: “Now I see the secret of the making of the best persons. It is to grow in the open air and to sleep with the earth.”

This session will begin and end in the forest; we will not be at our Base Camp facility. We will make our home with what we carry on our backs. The goal is to live simply in a basic Bushcraft camp in the woods, making accoutrements from the natural world, exploring our beautiful surroundings, fishing in the streams, breathing the fresh air! We will have adventures to find “cached” supplies that will help keep us sustained, but we will have to work together as a team! Campers will solidify their backcountry cooking and fire skills by cooking their own meals over fire each day.

Previous experience at Buffalo Cove or another wilderness camp is strongly suggested. A base of fire and knife skills would be a great foundation to launch from.

Homestead Skills and Crafts

Have you ever wanted to spend some time immersed in the traditional skills of the Appalachian homestead? Join us in our Base Camp valley this session, and we will dive into traditional woodworking, basketry, fiber craft, medicine making, homestead animals, cooking over the fire, leathercraft, wildcrafting, gardening, traditional archery, and much more! Come join us for a spell and leave full of knowledge and skill in the “old ways!”

Explorers

During Explorers Camp, we build a foundation for self-awareness, appreciation for nature, and outdoor adventure. We focus on building community and the wonderful aspects of friendships and fun! A solid skill set is introduced around the foundational earth skills: Fire, Fiber, and Flint (the use of sharp edges). We also explore “earthy” arts and crafts, traditional archery, woodworking, and more! This session will take place in our Buffalo Cove Base Camp.

EARTH Camp

This is a more advanced program hosted at Basecamp. We will be taking all skills to the next appropriate level while in Basecamp and introducing new and more complex outdoor skills, concepts, and practices. Campers should expect to be out “in the field” at least 4 out of the 12 days during this session applying these skills. This might be a backpacking trip, canoeing trip, a wilderness survival scenario…or a variation/combination of all three!

Participants should come with some backcountry/wilderness experience under their belt. We certainly do not expect you to arrive as seasoned outdoors folk, but this is not a session for campers brand new to the outdoors! We will break our session into smaller teams for our outings based on interest area and experience level in hopes of accommodating a wide variety of campers’ experiences.

River Walkabout (Invite Only)

This is our most advanced and demanding program. We have been cultivating a crew of campers for several years who are now ready for some real backcountry adventure! Day one will be in Basecamp preparing for an 8-day adventure on the River! Then this team will be out, sustained by what they carry, until the last day of camp. You may be asked to arrive with a certain level of basic physical fitness and a practiced skill set so you can be an accountable asset to your team!

Shadow Scouts

The Craft of the Scout is about Awareness and Knowledge. Awareness of your surroundings: natural patterns that rise and fall, how to blend and flow. Awareness of yourself: how you feel, how you react. Awareness of your neighbors: birds, plants, or animals. Journey with us into the forest shadows and learn the ways of the Scout. We will dive into tracking, teamwork, survival, martial arts, trail craft, tool creation, stealth, sneaking, and epic games…all with a healthy dose of fun!

Woods Runners

Have you been to Explorers Camp (or a similar experience) but aren’t quite sure you are ready for EARTH Camp or another of our more intense sessions? Then this is for you! This is an intermediate step for those “bridging” the gap.

We will increase our learning experiences, building upon the basics that were introduced in Explorers Camp. There will be plenty of crafting, pond swimming, and learning new (and more advanced) woods skills! These subjects will include intermediate fire and knife use, wilderness survival, wildcrafting, nature awareness, and much more! We will incorporate an overnight adventure to introduce some trailcraft and backcountry basics.