Camp Trackers Village: Overnight Summer Camp Portland, Oregon
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A summer overnight camp to create a village. Wilders cook meals over a wood fired kitchen. Rangers train arts of survival and archery. Mariners fish for our dinner or tell a tall tale around the campfire. Artisans blacksmith by anvil, forging the tools and story of the village.
My ten-year-old daughter had her first overnight camp experience at Trackers. She came home with songs about milking goats, hand-forged iron, and memories for a lifetime. She loved the wildness of camp and her own sense of self-sufficiency. -Katy Luers, Parent
The Ultimate Overnight Camp
Students are immersed in an overnight camp of rustic living, ancient skills and adventure. Campers stay in yurts and tipis, help create meals in our wood fired kitchen, tend to the gardens that grow part of our food and each day choose to participate in activities from the four Trackers Guilds...
Rangers Guild Survival, Tracking and The Curriculum of Shadows
Wilders Guild Wild Edible Plants, Homesteading and The
Wilders Garden
Mariners Guild Fishing, Canoeing and Water Ecology
Artisans Guild Theater, Fine Craft Work and Leadership
Every day feels like a page from an ancient storybook. Each night we gather around the campfire to regale our adventures with our fellow campers. At Camp Trackers, your child becomes a legend during a summer of life-changing adventure.
The Camp of the Trackers Guilds
Under the safe guidance of Trackers instructors campers freely choose to learn skills that help create the village. Our curriculum of provide the most well rounded experience of any outdoor program. Below is a list of potential guild activities...
Rangers Guild The Rangers are scouts of the forest. Campers train stealth, tracking and wilderness survival skills. If you ever loved the books My Side of the Mountain or Lord of the Rings the Rangers Guild is where you want to be.
Rangers may build a shelter, learn to carve wood, light the village campfires with no matches, train archery or join in on fun stealth games. The Rangers also track and trail wildlife of the surrounding forest, learning their stories and strategies of survival.
Wilders Guild The Wilders are the caretakers and stewards of gardens and forest. They are masters of wild edible plants and ancient recipes that feed the hearth, heart and soul of the village.
Wilders could make cheese from farm fresh goats milk, fashion wild medicines and tinctures, start seedlings for planting in family gardens, hunt for eggs from our wild chicken flocks or even work on different fiber arts projects. They also help craft our village meals in our unique wood fired camp kitchen.
Mariners Guild The Mariners train skills and arts of sea lore. By trade and salty wisdom they demand respect for our local waters and all the life in their depths.
Mariners can go fishing, canoeing or even learn to tie artistic knots! While they may not guarantee a catch, campers always have a good time sitting by the shore and casting. With the Mariners Guild you can always count on them to come home with a safe adventure on the water, ready to regale you about the "big one that got away."
Artisans Guild The Artisans are master craftsmen and storytellers. They know our adventures are larger than one lifetime, weaving them into the mists of myth and timelessness that keeps the village truly alive.
Artisans could offer incredible craft activities such as metal working and blacksmithing projects, wood crafting and building, role-playing adventures and the opportunity to express their own story through song and performance around the campfire.
Camp Trackers: Overnight Summer Camp
Drop-off/Pick-up Time
Drop-off and pick-up for the camp bus is at 5040 SE Milwaukie Avenue, Portland, Oregon. Drop-off is at 1pm-1:30pm on Sunday and pick-up is at 4pm-4:30pm on Friday.
Overnight Camp Location
Sandy, Oregon Camp Trackers in the Marmot Valley is our beautiful woodland site. Here you find free-range chickens, abundant wildlife and one of the most epic forests in the Pacfic Northwest.
National and International Campers
Airport Shuttle We offer shuttle service from Portland International Airport, to set this up contact us before you book your flight.
Consecutive Weeks For campers staying more than one week our Weekend Camp Adventures are designed just for you. You can canoe, explore local sites and visit the Oregon Coast. Learn more
Register
Ages 10-14 June 16-21, 2013 Tuition $495 |
Ages 10-13 Jr CIT Training June 16-21, 2013 Tuition $495 |
Ages 14-17 CIT Training June 16-21, 2013 Tuition $495 |
Ages 10-14 June 23-28, 2013 Tuition $495 |
Ages 10-14 July 7-12, 2013 Tuition $495 |
Ages 10-14 July 14-19, 2013 Tuition $495 |
Ages 10-14 July 21-26, 2013 Tuition $495 |
Ages 10-14 July 28-August 2, 2013 Tuition $495 |
Ages 10-13 Jr CIT Training July 28-August 2, 2013 Tuition $495 |
Ages 14-17 CIT Training July 28-August 2, 2013 Tuition $495 |
Ages 10-14 August 4-9, 2013 Tuition $495 |
Ages 10-14 August 11-16, 2013 Tuition $495 |
Ages 10-14 August 18-23, 2013 Tuition $495 |
Ages 10-14 August 25-30 , 2013 Tuition $495 |
Payment Plans
For families who need it, we can offer flexible payment plans. Contact Molly to learn more. A non-refundable deposit is always required to reserve your space.
Overnight Camp Schedule
On Sunday campers check-in while our staff welcomes the to the village of Camp Trackers. Monday through Thursday we play, learn and work together, doing activities lead by the Trackers's Four Guilds. On Friday, we wrap up the week with our closing ceremony.
Camp Duties
At Trackers, we do not shelter kids from the power of responsibility. Everyone has a role to play in the creation and upkeep of our village and camp. Campers get to help out in our wood fired kitchen, possibily milk goats, find eggs, prepare firewood for cooking dinner and even safely light and tend to our evening campfire.
Our Teachers and Counselors
All Camp Trackers staff are of the most highly trained and experienced educators in the field. These are not your typical camp counselors that simply sing songs and run canned curriculum. While acting goofy is an essential part of camp, we keep it even more real. Our counselors are experts at traditional crafts, cultural skills and posses a deft understanding of true and epic adventure.
Safety
Since 2004 Trackers has lead the way in standards of safety for outdoor camps and programs. All camp staff are CPR/First AID certified and have passed a thorough background check. We are very selective in our hiring process, choosing mature and competent individuals with profound experience in both education and skills instruction. Trackers is at the forefront of blending "old school" outdoor education with new and leading standards of safety, responsibility and personalized learning. We seek to bring environmental education back to true adventure in the out of doors. Learn more about our safety policies and values here.
Homesick Policy
Our camps are purposely more rugged than other programs. In many cases we immediately respect a camper's choice to return home and "try again" another time. We expect the full cooperation of families with this policy because cultivating a student's personal collaboration is vitally important to us as educators. See our refund policies in our BestCamp Guarantee.
About Meals and Diets
Provided meals are all omnivore. They include an array of vegetables, grains, dairy and meat; all often mixed together. As we cook most of our meals over a wood fired kitchen we are unable to make accommodations and distinctions for specialized or specific diets. Also check out Coast, Kayaks, Dunes and Tidepools for a Trackers camp that provides vegetarian options.
Meat Your Cow Much of the meat served at Camp Trackers is from neighboring livestock, specifically one locally and sustainably raised steer ranging immediately adjacent to our site in the Marmot Valley.
Systemic Food Allergies To the best of our ability we work to exclude items that typically result in severe systemic reactions leading to anaphylaxis. Working with your medical doctor, if have a severe food allergy (such as peanut butter) please contact us at registration and we will investigate if it is possible to adjust our meal plans.
Vegetarian Option Week July 28-August 2, 2013 This week alone we will cook both omnivore and vegetarian meals. We do this to provide a Camp Trackers options for those families that are vegetarian. Again, our choice to provide only omnivore meals for the remaining weeks is based on the complexity of a wood fired kitchen.
Skinning & Butchering
Full Disclosure In the spirit of learning about local foods, we may even offer the opportunity for students to learn about and partake in butchering and processing local livestock. This will not necessarily happen every week and it will be done with great tact, council and sensitivity. This is purely a learning experience and is fully optional. It's goal is to foster respect for the origins of our food.
Please read this blog to better understand how this community need helps support our goals of conservation and respect for the natural world.
Sunday
1pm-1:30pm: Parent drop-off for Shuttle Bus* at 5040 SE Milwaukie Ave, Portland OR
3pm: Shuttle Bus arrives
Afternoon Camp orientation, move in, evening dinner, first campfire
Monday-Wednesday
Breakfast and Cabin Duties, Guild Activities, Lunch and Cabin Duties, Guild Activities, Dinner and Campfire
Thursday
Breakfast and Cabin Duties, Guild Activities, Lunch and Cabin Duties, Feast Preparation or Epic Stealth Game, Feast, Final Campfire Ceremony
Friday
Morning camp games, camp clean-up and pack. afternoon lunch, closing ceremony
4pm-4:30pm: Parent pick-up from bus lot on SE 17th, just down the hill from our 5040 SE Milwaukie drop off location.
*If Parent's want to visit our site, we will an overnight camp open house closer to summer.
