Summer camps for grownups

Adult campers at Hog Island Camp in Maine get a peek at puffins during their camp session. Every summer about a million adults go to summer camp to hike, study ecology, write, and sleep in cabins. Photo by Jean Hall

By Glenda C. Booth
Posted on June 03, 2024

Many people recall the ups and downs of summer camp as youngsters: campfire songs, leaky tents, latrines and s’mores.

At today’s “adult camps” — whether at a campground, on a college campus or at a high-end ranch — you can revisit some of those experiences more comfortably. Every summer an estimated one million older campers spend a week or two away to take music lessons, sharpen their writing skills, explore their creative streak, nourish their well-being, unplug and slow down.

Camps exist for music, cooking, quilting, language learning, writing, fishing, kayaking, archery, carpentry, yoga, healthy living, nature study, horseback riding and even pickleball.

At the Wooden Boat School in Maine, for instance, you can build your own boat. At Space Camp in Huntsville, Alabama, you can train on simulators and sleep and eat like an astronaut. Or you can start that novel you’ve always wanted to write at the Putney School in Vermont.

Offline at nature camp

Deborah Hammer, a teacher who lives near Alexandria, Virginia, spent a week at Audubon’s Hog Island Camp on Bremen Island, Maine, two summers ago. With biologists and naturalists as her “counselors,” she studied the flora and fauna of the Maine coast, including puffins, seals, eider ducks and other wildlife. She also hiked, boated and met people from around the country.

“We learned how to create hands-on science lessons and art projects with environmental and geological themes,” Hammer said.

Open for 80 years, Hog Island Audubon Camp is located on a 335-acre island with spruce fir forests and a shoreline of tidal pools. Ornithologists, writers, artists, educators and students teach and learn about nature in sessions about everything from birding to art to photography.

Between activities, campers can hike the island’s wooded trails, search the tidepools for mussels and barnacles, listen to the loons or just contemplate the peace and beauty of it all.

“Being at the Audubon camp was good for my soul,” Hammer said. “It was a nostalgic experience for me, as it really was like my childhood camp days. I felt free to learn, play and explore with like-minded people.”

Hammer especially liked the technology-free time. “Just to have a chance to disconnect from the WiFi for a week and everything that comes with it — emails, breaking news, advertisers’ noise — was such a relief. Being at camp was a liberating experience.”

Some remote camps have unreliable cellphone and internet service, but conveniences and luxuries are usually not the point.

Instead, adult camps are “a retreat from your daily responsibilities, tension relief,” said Paul Bay, who has attended Hog Island Camp several times.

“Try to disconnect. Don’t go and keep texting, emailing and watching the news,” he advised. “Do what camp is all about.”

What to expect if you go

Camp experiences, quality and activities vary, depending on your budget. Some are rustic, while some are upscale, with housekeeping, spas and saunas.

Lodging can be a tent, cabin, lodge, ranch house, dormitory room or boutique hotel. Sleeping quarters range from a king-sized bed to a sleeping bag on the ground. Rooms can be snug, with limited space to unpack. You might have a roommate or share a bathroom.

Usually, your time is not your own, which means following a daily schedule. Camp is typically a group experience, so time alone may be infrequent.

Meals are often communal, buffet-style and held at specific times. You may be expected to help out at meals, but some higher-end camps offer chef-prepared gourmet meals.

Some camps suggest quiet hours. Others have evening concerts and dancing. Some have bar socials, movies and nightcaps by the bonfire, while others are alcohol-free or bring-your-own.

Music camps

All types of sounds are welcome at a music camp in North Carolina, now in its 53^rd year. Since 2014, Fairfax County resident Paul Siegel, a retired statistician, has attended the Mountain Collegium on Western Carolina University’s campus in Cullowhee, North Carolina.

He takes four music classes a day, squeezes practice in between them, and reads music with pickup groups after dinner or after evening concerts.

Campers can take classes in playing recorders, Celtic penny whistles, Scottish pipes, Sephardic flutes, harps, bagpipes as well as what he calls “funny instruments” — cornetti, sackbuts, dulcians, folk harps and shawms.

“I immerse myself in the kind of music I really favor, and play in concert with instruments I can’t usually find,” Siegel said.

He recommends the camp to musicians who favor early or folk music. All levels are welcome.

“One attractive characteristic of the gathering is people’s tolerance of diversity in musical ability,” Siegel said.

Nearby Baltimore is home to the annual Piano at Peabody adult piano camp at Johns Hopkins’ Peabody Institute. Amateur pianists from all over the area come for a week to listen to lectures and performances by resident and guest faculty, as well as attend master classes, classical and jazz workshops, and perform for fellow campers. Day passes are also available for those wanting to give it a try.

Learn to live well

Kathi Edwards of Havre de Grace, Maryland, plans to go this fall to Camp Is in Your Heart in Deckers, Colorado. The camp is an outgrowth of the former Good Life Project camp she enjoyed a few years ago.

The camp’s packing list starts with: “Smiles. Consensual hugs. An adventurous spirit. An open mind. Helping hands. Your talents.”

Open to all ages, the camp offers programs, activities and speakers, but participants are free to do whatever they want, which includes meditating alone under a tree.

“You can be yourself,” Edwards said. “You can be as crazy and as silly as you want to be, as creative as you want to be.” She helped paint a mural and participated in the Saturday night talent show.

“It’s for anyone who is open to new things and being who you are in a group of people who won’t judge you for who you are.”

Torey Ivanic, who runs the camp, said time there gets people “out of their comfort zone” and is “heart-centered.”

Try a short version

To experience a trial run in the Washington region, the Clifton Institute near Warrenton, Virginia, offers a two-day, tent-camping Nature Camp for Grownups from August 31 to September 1. Activities include nature journaling, walks and workshops.

“Many of us have fond memories of summer camps when we had adventures in wild places, pushed ourselves to learn new skills and take on new challenges, forged friendships around early-morning pancakes and late-night campfires, and just spent day after day outside,” said Eleanor Harris, managing director of the camp.

“There’s no reason those powerful experiences should stop once we become adults. At our grownup summer camp, campers get to learn about Virginia’s native biodiversity, do camp-y activities like crafts and roast s’mores, and unplug by spending two days in nature.”

Everyone should go back to camp as an adult, said Kathi Edwards, who is headed to Colorado soon.

“I recommend adult camp if you’re willing to say yes to a new experience, learn more about yourself and be open to something new.”