1 Week Adventure
Ages 11-12 • 13-14 • 15-17
Our Classic Adventures are designed for participants who are just getting into outdoor living and adventure activities. In just one week, participants will work with their group to set up a campsite in a different location each night, prepare meals together, and learn a new adventure skill each day. It’s a jammed-packed week of activity your camper won’t forget!
Though this 1-week adventure is packed with activity, outdoor living and teamwork are the the core pathways to a fun and successful trip: setting up camp, sleeping in tents, cooking your meals over Whisper-lite camp stoves, bathing in creeks, using the "facili-trees" for the bathroom, and traveling from campsite to campsite under your own steam. These skills require initiative, meaningful communication, a great attitude, and respect for one another. These are the WA values that we uphold each and every adventure we take.
Upon arrival, participants will meet their leaders, play a few ice-breaker games, and then spend the rest of the afternoon getting outfitted with backpacking and camping equipment while being introduced to all the skills they’ll need for living in the outdoors for the next week. Skills include cooking in the outdoors, setting up tents, and Leave No Trace principles.
For the first day or two, participants will move from campsite to campsite on our 500acre property as a way to practice proper campsite set-up/take-down while being close to Base Camp should any gear need to be adjusted or replaced. During the day, participants be work through team building initiatives to get to know one another while practicing communication and respect. Participants will then be introduced to knots and climbing skills on our climbing wall, paddle strokes and wet-exits for kayaking on our pond, and challenging their own limitation on our high-ropes elements.
As the week progresses, the group will leave our property by foot or boat (and an occasional van) into the surrounding national forest. They will spend the remainder of the trip moving from campsite to campsite in one of these manners while stopping to experience new adventure activities along the way. The group might rock climb at remote sites, cave in one of our many surrounding cave systems, kayak/canoe nearby creeks and rivers, and maybe experience a natural water slide on a hot summer day.
As the week comes to a close, groups will return to Base Camp where they will join other groups completing their trips to compete in our WA’LYMPICS (WA's version of the Olympics), chow down on some much-deserved spaghetti, and share stories at WA's Closing Campfire.
OUTDOOR LIVING
Each week, participants will work to develop many outdoor living skills such as:
efficient backpacking techniques
daily campsite set-up and breakdown
backcountry meal preparation and stove operation
risk management and backcountry safety procedures
Leave No Trace Principles
ADVENTURE ACTIVITIES
Every single day, participants will experience one of many different outdoor adventure activities such as:
low-rope team building initiatives
high-rope challenge elements
climbing wall and/or rock climbing
caving
canoeing, kayaking, and tubing
day hikes
zip lining
visit to a natural waterslide
LEADERSHIP skills
Throughout the week, participants will rotate through various leadership rolls that will help them grow in our 4 core areas for leadership:
Work ethic
Attitude
Respect
Communication