We have had such an amazing weekend and start to our second week of this session! Our Abbey and Dillard campers were treated to absolutely spectacular weather, perfect for hiking Monadnock. Thankfully they returned with a few photos from the hike to share with us. On camp, our younger and middle-aged camper units enjoyed one day each on overnights at First and Second Points, and a “Day In” with fun and unique activities planned by their unit staff.

Once everyone returned to camp on Sunday, we had a full afternoon of OATs free time to rest and recharge after a busy weekend before returning to regularly scheduled camp programming on Monday. Some of our favorite programs on Monday were “Glacial Quest” which involved campers at the low-ropes challenge course tackling a series of themed challenges, and “Feed Your Face” which involved learning about edible wild plants found at camp.

All of that is just the tip of this week’s iceberg of fun. We look forward to a whole lot more excitement in the week ahead as we savor the final week of this session. Check back later this week for another peek into camp, and we hope wherever you are you are enjoying some quality time outside!

We have a special bonus update today featuring the Sessions 2 – 3 Intersession group! For those who don’t know, Intersession is a program for campers who are staying over between two consecutive sessions. The group featured in this update are campers who participated in the one-week Session 2 and are staying on for the two-week Session 3, making for at least 3 weeks at camp! During intersession, the group can do a lot of different things, including going off camp for some very non-typical camp activities!

This group began their afternoon at the ropes course zipping down the Zip Line, and looked very in tune with themselves and nature while they were doing it. Their evening then featured a trip to Keene, NH for bowling and pizza. After returning to camp, everyone gathered for a campfire in one of the units, before settling in to a good night’s rest before helping welcome new campers to Wildwood on Sunday.

I hope you enjoyed this look into the intersession program. Maybe we’ll see your camper for one of these evenings next year!

Happy Friday! Today marks the end of the first week of regular programming for Session 3 and this afternoon we head into our overnight weekend. Some of our highlights this week included the always popular Heffalump Hunt evening program which much to everyone’s delight featured a particularly interesting cast of Heffalump creatures. We also took advantage of the great weather on Thursday by jumping in the pond, and exploring the forest which was very active thanks to the rain which was a big benefit to the forest and creates who live there.

Starting tomorrow, Abbey and Dillard campers will load up on a bus and head off for two nights at Monadnock, leaving everyone else to make camp their own for a couple of days. The ladies of Fossey and Carson will also head out on their one-night overnights to First and Second Point, respectively. The boys of Thoreau and Leopold will then have camp to themselves for “Boys Day In” planned by their staff. The girls will do the same on Saturday once the boys leave for their overnight.

The LITs are wrapping up their two weeks at camp this weekend and we are sad to see them go! They had an exciting week working on service projects including a significant cleanup of Route 119 in Rindge. They are setting a great example to all who saw us taking care of our surrounding!. They will have a closing along with the other teen programs, Junior Counselors and Hiking The Long Trail (who returned back to camp on Thursday and headed straight for the showers), tonight before departure at 10:00am on Saturday.

We’ll have some more photos and an update after the overnight. Have a great weekend everyone!

We so happy to be back into the swing of camp after saying good-bye to Session 2 and welcoming Session 3 to a fun-filled two weeks at Wildwood!

We got off to a great start with opening campfire on Sunday evening, before orientation day on Monday with swim checks, health checks, and some free time at OATs in the afternoon. Tuesday marked the first full day of activities with programs like Life of a Dragonfly, a new game called Noodle Hockey, and Archery. You can also catch a glimpse of some of our campers attempting to reach the top of the Dangle Duo high-ropes element.

The LIT group made it back from an awesome weekend at Mt. Greylock in Massachusetts on Sunday and have been telling us all of the stories about their adventures.

The Wildwood Trek Coordinator met up with the two-week Long Trail hiking trek at Woodford campground in Vermont for a mid-trip break and resupply. They are in the home stretch now and will be reaching the Massachusetts border after an amazing trip later this week.

Stay tuned here for another update later this week just before this weekend’s overnights. Take care!

It’s hard to believe that Session 2 is just about over, we’re just getting started! This has been a very exciting week for us at Wildwood as we have enjoyed great weather each day which has provided ample opportunity for activities in and around the pond and water games at the field. One of our new favorite games is called “Water Boxes” where campers compete to cover their counselors with boxes all while avoiding the water from some sneaky staff members.

In news from the Long Trail backpacking trek, our trek coordinator met up with the group on Thursday to deliver a mid-week food resupply. She reports that they are all doing very well (and eating a lot, thankfully she brought extra snacks) and returned with some great pictures. They are still on schedule and we look forward to more updates from them next week at their mid-trip break.

For those picking up campers on Saturday, we will look forward to seeing you between 9:15am – 10:00am for the Session 2 closing ceremony which will start as close to 10:00am as possible. Happy Friday!

One-week sessions at Wildwood are for many, a great way to experience overnight camp for the first time. The only trouble is, they go by too quickly! It’s hard to believe that we are already just about halfway through the session and it feels like the campers just arrived. We have to remember to slow down and enjoy each moment at camp before they are all gone for the week.

We have consistently had a great start to each session this summer and Session 2 has proved to be no different. On our first full day of activities on Tuesday, we enjoyed Wildwood camp classics like the Burma Bridge at the high-ropes challenge course, Life of a Dragonfly, and a hands-on gardening program. We capped off our evening with Unit Night which featured activities planned and facilitated by the unit staff, along with support from our Leaders-In-Training and Junior Counselors.

In trek news, the Long Trail Hiking 2-week trek departed Wildwood on Monday morning and made their way to their drop off point near Bromley Mountain in Vermont. Also included is the trip’s first remote check-in from between Bromley Mountain and Stratton Mountain. Right on schedule!

I hope everyone at home is having a great week also. Stay tuned here for more updates later this week!

It is hard to believe that Session 1 will finish up in just a couple of days. We have had so much fun over the last two weeks that the time has just flown by. It probably has for you at home, too! The latest development here at camp was the appearance of characters from our favorite board games like Candy Land and Clue. The characters led all of us in challenges to determine who the real ruler of Candy Land was. Oddly enough, by Thursday morning they had all vanished!

Thursday was back to the normal schedule of programs for all of us after our special day on Wednesday. We were treated to some rain in the morning to cool everything off, which was a welcome reprieve from the previous day’s humidity. We filled our day with plenty of outdoor activities like archery, paddling, and even fire building in the Outdoor Living Skills IG. In the evening, we premiered the first episode of “This Is Wildwood” featuring some characters made up by our campers and performed by the staff. It was a fun and silly close to an excellent day.

We look forward to another fun-filled day on Friday to close out our two-week session. If you are picking up a camper on Saturday, be sure to arrive between 9:15am and 10:00am to catch the closing ceremony. See you there!

What a great start to the second week of Session 1! Overnights this past weekend went incredibly well and helped bring all of our unit groups even closer together than before. There was one spectacular thunderstorm that arrived on Saturday afternoon and all of the on-camp groups gathered in the Dining Hall to watch it move across the pond. It was truly an awesome sight to behold. The group at Monadnock got an ever closer view, and hunkered down for a few minutes while it passed overhead.

Once everyone was back from overnights, we had a relaxing Sunday afternoon so that everyone could rest up and be prepared for a week full of activities ahead. We capped off Sunday evening with another Wildwood classic evening program – Stock Market. This session’s group of LITs showcased a variety of creative “products” and did a fantastic job of organizing and facilitating the program.

There’s lots more to come later this week! I have heard rumors that on Wednesday we will be hosting visitors from a far off and magical land. Stay tuned here to find out more!

The first week of Session 1 continues and the fun just keeps on happening. Tuesday’s Evening Program was Unit Night, so each unit set off on their own personalized 4th of July adventure. Pies were eaten, dizzy-bats were raced, and a great celebration was had by all at camp.

Since then, we’ve continued to enjoy the amazing weather that each day has brought and filled just about every minute of those days with activities. Today at OATs there was a fun and fierce game of Nuk’Em at the field, which got campers of all ages involved and playing together. The waterfront is always a popular spot during OATs, but due to the cool afternoons, many campers have opted to spend that time at Arts and Crafts and the Activity Field.

Tonight’s Evening Program was a Wildwood classic – Heffalump Hunt. Creatures roamed throughout camp and groups of campers were tasked with capturing them, and studying their unique attributes. It’s strange – many of those Heffalumps closely resembled the current group of Leaders-In-Training at camp this week…

On the Acadia teen adventure trip, the group continues to be given great weather, which has made for lots of opportunities to hike, bike, and kayak around Mt. Desert Island and Acadia National Park. They will arrive back at Wildwood on Friday evening, and be ready for departure on Saturday morning (July 8) at 10:00am in the main parking lot.

There’s lots more on the way over the weekend as overnights depart on Friday afternoon, with the Abbey and Dillard units headed to nearby Mt. Monadnock to hike the mountain and practice their camping skills. We’ll be back at the blog again next week after overnights return for another great week of camp!

Session 1 is here and by all accounts Wildwood summer camp is officially under way! We have had an excellent start to both this session and our summer with an amazing group of campers here for the two-weeks of this first session. Camp orientation took up most of our day on Monday with swim and health checks, an introduction to the nature center, and a camp tour all on the itinerary.

With those necessities behind us, it was time for the exciting Wildwood camp program to begin on our nation’s Independence Day. We have been treated to beautiful weather which has made it easy to enjoy programs like drama and art of nature along with a nice breeze which provides favorable condition for activities like archery and sailing.

Tonight is Unit Night and just about every unit has a 4^th of July themed program happening all across camp. Look out for more pictures from those activities later in the week. We also received word from our Acadia trekkers who arrived safely to their campsites in Acadia National Park on Monday and have a full day of adventure scheduled for Tuesday.

Be sure to subscribe to this blog to be notified as soon as new posts are available. I hope you all are enjoying your holiday week!