Tripping

Every camper at Keewaydin gets to take a camping trip each month, either canoeing or hiking, depending on his interest and skills. The youngest boys go on trips that last two to four days, primarily in Vermont state parks and the Green Mountain National Forest. The middle age groups go on trips ranging from three to seven days in the tripping territories of the Adirondacks in New York and the lakes and rivers in New Hampshire and Maine.

Moosalamoo, the wigwam for the oldest boys, is known as the tripping wigwam. "Moos" campers spend three or four weeks each summer on trips that take them to rugged territories of northern New England and remote rivers of Quebec, Canada. The most experienced campers go on a seventeen day canoe trip in the Verendrye Park in Quebec.

To see how important these trips are at Keewaydin, you need only meet a group of trippers returning to camp. Their obvious joy is partly from days of fun and adventure, but also from what has happened inside. They left camp excited by the challenges ahead-canoes to paddle, tents to pitch, fires to build, meals to cook-and despite wind, rain, or whatever else nature offered, they met these challenges with their own hands and minds.

While the entire experience of going away to camp engenders self-confidence, it is on these extended camping trips that boys gain a special sense of strength. They learn a lot about themselves. Above all, they learn to be both more independent and self-reliant, on the one hand, and interdependent or group oriented, on the other.