Overnight Youth Camp near Mt. Rainier for ages 12 and up with prerequisite of the Out-of-this-World Wilderness Camp or two other overnight camps with us
This week is a combination of emergency survival training and traditional living skills. It’s filled with a variety of challenges where you take nothing for granted, learn to adapt, and focus on making good decisions in challenging circumstances.
The camp is an intensely fun way to put your survival knowledge to the test, designed to replicate a life “off the grid” without the luxuries of the modern world. We’ll spend time practicing building good habits – something that’s key to survival, and a missing part of many other survival training programs. We’ll explore community living and traditional skills, gaining proficiency with the arts of foraging, shelter building, water purifying, food preserving and fire carrying as we travel into the wilderness to live off the land.
Take your wilderness skills to the next level, even going out on a supervised solo Survival Experience if you like. We will challenge everyone to perfect the basics – like finding springs and purifying water, cooking over fires as well as camp stoves, building real practical survival shelters, mastering the fire steel with natural tinder, and seeing what it’s like to live off plants growing wild in Pacific Northwest forests, fields and wetlands.
Participants will begin the week together at our privately rented outdoor camp to focus on survival skills, then by mid-week, hike two miles to a more wilderness location and set up “solo trek” locations within walkie-talkie communication of your instructors, choosing whether to live off the land without food, shelter and/or modern water containers. Beginning with our 10 essentials, we train participants to progressively live with fewer and fewer of them by removing one per day. At the end of every survival trek, we return with a greater appreciation for, and understanding of, what it takes to survive in true emergencies.
In the end, we will return with a greater appreciation for, and understanding of, our modern luxuries. While a number of traditional skills will be explored, the primary focus of this week is on community; what it means to be part of a community and “what it takes” to flourish. Instructors will guide and advise the group; ensure participant safety and well-being; and lead guided activities. The group will decide how intensely to best tackle community challenges, such as access to clean water, food, and shelters.
Advanced Wilderness Education & Survival Experience Itinerary
Monday: Community Building & Icebreakers, Wildlife Trackers Training & Ethnobotany Hikes; Fifteen-Minute Fire Challenge; Traditional Fire Making; Campfire Songs & Stories;
Tuesday Morning: Advanced Navigation, Map & Compass Training; Wilderness Risk Management & Scenarios;
Tuesday Afternoon: Pack, Hike & Set Up Primitive Camp; Search for Survival Trek Locations;
Tuesday Evening: Scout Bubble Bivi Bed Eagles Nest Hobbit Hutch Challenge; Campfire Songs & Stories.
Wednesday Morning: Begin Survival Treks, or Wildlife Tracks & Bird Language ID Challenge;
Wednesday Afternoon: Begin Survival Treks, or Wild Edible & Medicinal Plant ID Challenge;
Wednesday Evening: Begin Survival Treks, or Human Tracking Scenario
Thursday: Survival Treks
Friday Morning: Review Survival Treks & Solo Experiences; Primitive Camp Conservation Restoration Work Party;
Friday Afternoon: 12-2 Celebration Brunch on Nisqually River; 2-4 All Camp Stalking Wolf Game; 4-5 pm Camp Family Storytelling Session; 5-6pm Departure (with optional $45 transportation to Puyallup for 8pm pickup at Blue Skye Farm)
Ages & Prerequisites
This camp is for ages 12 and up who have attended the Out-of-this-World Wilderness Camp or two other overnight camps with us in the past, or have been accepted into our IIT Program.
Pick-Up & Drop-Off Times & Directions
MONDAY Morning Starting Points & Times: Arrive between 12:00-12:30 at the Faith Baptist Church Campground, 28514 SR 706 East, Ashford WA 98304, located 6.5 miles past Elbe WA and one mile before the town of Ashford on the road to Paradise on Mt. Rainier. Sign-in and tent set-up will run from 12-1 pm, followed by campground and cooking orientation from 1-2 pm. We recommend parents depart by 2pm. Or for an extra $75 fee (complimentary for IITs and apprentices) campers can get dropped off at the Wolf Camp Home Office of Blue Skye Farm, 1026 14th St SW, Puyallup WA 98371 between 9:00-9:30 on Monday morning to ride down to Ashford with staff. Alumni flying into SeaTac Airport for this program may arrive Sunday, and we will provide airport transportation as well as dinner and breakfast for an additional $275.
FRIDAY Afternoon-Evening Pick-Up Options: We recommend arriving around 4 p.m. to participate in our end-of-camp storytelling from 4-5 p.m. at the entrance to our primitive camp along the Nisqually River, and directions will be provided for that. If you can’t make it to pick up your camper before our 6 p.m. departure cutoff, then for an additional $50 (complimentary for IITs and apprentices) we can provide transportation to Puyallup for pick-up at approximately 8 p.m. on Friday; or for $175 including dinner/breakfast, participants can stay overnight with us be picked up in Puyallup on Saturday in the late morning or afternoon, or for $275 including meals, participants can stay overnight with us and get dropped off at SeaTac Airport anytime Saturday afternoon or evening.
Camp Leaders
Kim or Chris Chisholm will be on site all week directing staff instructors at our hallmark 6-1 average student-teacher ratio that’s so critical for safe and profound outdoor experiences. Read our FAQ’s for more details and check out camp testimonials dating all the way back to 1997.
Tuition
Tuition for this camp week is $875 if qualified (otherwise $975 if needing to repeat the Out-of-this-World Wilderness Camp before leveling up) including any applicable taxes and fees, but as part of the wilderness skills training this week, you will need to purchase personal food and cooking gear, hiking boots, and water filter for your camper, as well as practice meal preparation, tent set-up and water filtration in advance of attending. Click here for the full packing list, and don’t forget to click on the second tab for food shopping. If your budget is tight this year, please click here to apply for financial aid from the Max Davis Scholarship Fund.
Registration Process
STEP 1 – Reserve your spots in camp by $250 deposits per overnight camp week via one of the following methods:
• Zelle using our email address with that extra “e” on skye plus try to add a note including camper name/age, camp start date/theme, plus your CONTACT INFORMATION (phone number is fine if system doesn’t allow sharing email) if we don’t already have your info since Zelle doesn’t automatically share that with us, or follow up right away with an email;
• Or use Venmo to @Chris-Chisholm-13 but again, try to add your contact information, camper name, program theme and dates, or follow up via email;
• Or use Credit Card or Apple Pay by clicking here and please consider adding 3% using this payment method ($7.50 on $250 deposit)
• Or call us between 9am-9pm at 425-248-0253 with a credit card to register over the phone (if we are screening for spam, leave message to have us call you back, or just text us to call you regarding camp registration)
• Or use PayPal system appearing below after January 1st.
(STEP 2 – If this is your camper’s first year with us, complete our once-in-a-lifetime Registration Form within one week of making your deposit. In case you’re having trouble downloading or making a copy of our Google Doc , please email us for a Word or PDF version of the registration form, and again, complete within one week to maintain your reservation. If your camper has attended Wolf Camp in the past, a new registration form is not needed.)
STEP 3 – Pay balance during your summer camp weeks. We’ll email you an invoice this spring with camp prep info and balance payment options. All payments are non-refundable unless we refuse your registration. However, if you cancel (at any time for any reason is fine) we will save your payments as credit for you to use in future years, or you can choose to have us move the funds into our scholarship account if you prefer. The best practice is to make the minimum deposits to register, and then wait to pay the remaining balances during summer, but you are also welcome to pay your balance in advance if you prefer.
Refund Policy: Payments are not refundable unless we don’t accept your application. If you cancel for any reason, you may receive a full credit good through the following calendar year on appropriate and available programs listed on our schedule, although an additional deposit may be needed to secure your spot in the future program. If a program you sign up for is canceled and not rescheduled at a time you can attend, you may receive a full refund except in cases of natural (weather, geologic, wildfire, etc) disasters, grid failures, epidemics, government shutdowns, conflicts or curfews, or other unforeseen emergencies making it unsafe for staff and/or attendees to reach or use program locations, in which case all payments made will be held by us without expiration date for your future use in appropriate/available programs of your choice. Reasons include the expenditure of funds (property rentals, advertising, materials, admin staff time, etc.) long before programs take place, i.e. deposits make it feasible for Wolf Camp to schedule programs in the first place, but our mutually understood agreement is that Wolf Camp will run the program at the safest available time in the future. Finally, no refund, nor credit, is given if a participant is a no-show without prior notice, or asked to leave a program for inappropriateness as determined by our kids, youth and adult agreements for participation.
Camp Preparation: Agreements, Packing List, Health Protocols and FAQ’s
Recommended Packing List for Overnight Camps at Lake Sammamish (or click on your camp week for specialized packing lists when taking place at or traveling to other locations)
Agreements for Participation in Overnight Camps
Homesickness Protocol & Prevention
Other FAQ’s – Frequently Asked Questions (Most Asked Question: What are bathroom and sleeping arrangements like? Bathrooms are primitive, and we train campers in wilderness hygiene and private outdoor bathing methods as part of their learning experience. We provide camping tents, and campers may have (or bring) their own, or share one with others, depending on pandemic protocols. We recommend you bring your own pillow, sleeping bag and foam pad, although we have extras if needed. Click on packing list above for more details.)
Hygiene protocols will remain the same as last year as long as there’s still little evidence of Covid/Cold/Flu transmission in the outdoors with room to spread out. To start each day, campers must pass our health screening. If there are reports of group participants who came in contact with an infection, we may provide n95 masks to wear when less than 3-6 feet from others. As before the pandemic, we require hand sanitizing when sharing tools and materials, before entering toilets, and we train campers with proper hand washing after campers exit toilet facilities with doors left open between uses to ensure ventilation.
Full vaccinations are strongly encouraged – we follow the scientific consensus – with tetanus shot (usually given as part of the normal Tdap vaccine series) considered the most important in the field of outdoor education. Otherwise, we know that due to our 100% outdoor setting, combined with health screenings, contact tracing, supervised hand washing, bathroom ventilation, mask use when exposure has been reported in a group, and individual/family style tenting at overnight camps, the risk of disease transmission has been negligible at Wolf Camp, so other vaccination records are not required.
Read our FAQ’s for more details and register asap to give yourself or a loved one the gift of camp! Or email us to be put on our our list for this program in the future. We always keep your information absolutely private, and will never share it.