Summer is for freedom.
Back to the Earth summer camps are a perfect way for kids to try something new, refine existing wilderness skills, and have tons of fun! Each week of wilderness camp is designed for 8-14 year olds and offers a unique theme. Our days are full of crafts, games, exploring, and skillbuilding.
Summer Camp Basics
2025 Registration is Open!
Each week of summer camp goes from Monday through Thursday, from 8:30 am to 3:30 pm, and take place at our property in Elmore. Cost is $300 unless otherwise noted. There are a few Specialty camps with high material costs and lower student numbers that cost $350. Camp descriptions are below.
$100 deposit per camp you are signing up for is due at the time of registration hold a spot, and remainder of balance is due by the first day of camp.
Once your registration and deposit are received I will send you a confirmation email. Please note that simply filling out the registration form does not guarantee a spot. Slots are filled on a first come first serve basis, and there are times when the form shows slots when in fact the camp is full.
Available Camps for the Summer are listed on the google form for registration, accessed through the Summer Camp Registration Button below.
More detailed descriptions of Camps are available down this page, check the dates to make sure Camp is being offered in 2025.
Water Wanderer Camp
Join us for an epic week of exploring water! We will meet in different locations to experience creeks, rivers, ponds, and swamps. We will fish, both with primitive gear and modern tackle, catch crayfish, dig for clay, and just explore and enjoy different water landscapes in our area. This week will be full of the usual games, skills, and crafts, and the focus will be on exploring water of all kinds!
Dates: Will be offered in 2026
Enrollment: max 12 students, ages 7-12
Location: Different drop off locations near Elmore and Wolcott, TBD
Cost: $300
Wilderness Adventure Camp
Get a little taste of a wide variety of wilderness skills. Campers will explore the woods, build shelter, light fires by friction, cook wild food, play games, carve and craft with wild materials, and have tons of fun!
Dates: June 23-26 2025, August 4-7 2025
Enrollment: Ages 7-12
Location: Elmore, VT
Cost: $300
Archer’s Apprentice Camp
Want to get a taste for Archery but aren’t old enough or ready to commit to the intense Forest Archer Camp? Archer’s Apprentice is an amazing week of wilderness skills, games, and crafts with a focus on archery. Students will learn about bowmaking by crafting their own “quickie bows”. We will shoot bows many times throughout the week, and make some arrows as well.
Dates: Check back for 2026
Enrollment: max 12 students, ages 7-12
Location: Eagle Ledge Rd, Elmore
Cost: $300
Way of the Weaver Camp
Join us for an amazing week exploring all things Weaving! We will explore our wilderness landscape to gather fiber, bark, and other weaving materials to create containers of all sorts. We will work with a black ash log to create strong basket splints, birch bark to create supple and beautiful splints, and many other wild materials. This camp will be quite focused on crafting, requiring focus and persistence. We will still play games, explore the woods, build fires, and cook wild food, however our focus will be learning about weaving and creating containers with our own hands from wild materials.
Dates: Check back for 2026
Enrollment: max 12 students, ages 9-14
Location: Eagle Ledge Rd, Elmore
Cost: $350
Gifts of the Moose Camp
This brand new camp utilizes commonly discarded moose lower legs sourced from Northern VT butchers. Each student will start with their own (Frozen) moose leg. We will learn to skin, and use that piece of skin (the hock) to tan into buckskin or rawhide and craft a sheath or something similar with it. We will remove the tendon and process them into sinew, amazingly strong fiber that we can sew with. We will remove the hooves, craft with the bone to make a spear or knife blade. We will also have a moose hide or two in their full form for students to learn how to scrape and soften (our favorite way is by bouncing people in the air on the softening hide!).
This week of camp will be a little more craft focused than other weeks such as Wilderness Adventure camp. However, we will have lots of time to track, explore, play games, cook food, etc… that everyone enjoys during our summer camps. If you are interested in learning about animal processing and crafting with the gifts of our wild neighbors, this camp is for you!
Dates: July 21-24 2025
Enrollment: max 10 students, ages 8-14
Location: Eagle Ledge Rd, Elmore
Cost: $350
Forest Archer Camp
Bring the bow you made during bow camp, or use one of our camp bows and spend the week learning how to shoot instinctively, and deadly accurate. We will cover basic archery form, and spend lots of time practicing with our bows. We will craft arrows, working with pitch glue, sinew, and stone tools. We will have competitions, games, and lots of fun working with archery and other wilderness skills.
Dates: Aug 18-21 2025
Enrollment: max 12 students, ages 9-14
Location: Elmore, VT
Cost: $300
Survival Quest!
Join us for an epic adventure, where we put our survival skills to the test by heading into the wilderness for 2 nights with minimal gear! This camp will run Monday through Thursday, with overnights Tuesday and Wednesday night. Monday we will spend the day honing our survival skills, learning the rule of 3’s, crafting fire starting kits, learning primitive traps, and shelter techniques. Tuesday we will head off into the woods and start the hard work of creating a survival camp. We will forage for our food, sleep in our primitive shelters, and tackle whatever challenges we face as a team. Thursday we will come back to civilization, capture the lessons and stories of our time out, and refuel with a feast and some relaxation.
This camp is for students with prior experience in my programs or other camping and wilderness experience. Survival camping is not easy. We will likely get bug bitten and hungry, however we will experience the pure and simple beauty of the natural world by being in true relationship with the earth as we depend on her for our basic needs.
Dates: Will be offered in 2026
Enrollment: max 8 students, ages 12+
Location: TBD
Cost: $350
Gifts of the Deer Camp
Spend the week working with the gifts of the white-tailed deer. We will work in small groups to transform raw deer skin into beautiful finished buckskin. This process is magical, sometimes stinky, and hard work, but is incredibly rewarding. We will also work with bone tools, sinew string, rawhide, and other tools and crafts that the Deer gift us.
Dates: Check back in 2026
Bow Making Camp
Spend the week crafting your very own bow and arrow. Starting with harvesting a tree, and shaping the wood into a beautiful and precise bow that you take home with you. This camp is more advanced and requires 10 year age minimum. It is best if the students have prior carving and tool use experience.
Dates: Aug 11-14. 2025
Enrollment: max 10 students, ages 9-14
Location: Elmore, VT
Cost: $350