Farm Trip

by Gregory Locker, Counselor & Director of Backcountry Leadership Program

This past Saturday a group of ten campers went to Kingsbury Market Garden (KBMG), my family’s farm in Waitsfield, VT. KBMG is your archetypal diversified vegetable farm growing over 40 kinds of produce on seven tillable acres. KBMG employs innovative methods, such as movable greenhouses and natural weed control, for efficient and sustainable production. To visit KBMG one is struck by the utter flourishing of life and astounded that so much can be grown by the farms limited staff of three (my two brothers and one intern).

Our trip began with an extended tour by the head farmer, my brother Aaron. Systematically we moved through the farm and the campers had a chance to see -and taste- the different crops, while gleaning a sense of the complexities of planning and engineering that lay behind such an operation.

Climbing at Camp Moosilauke

by Gregory Locker, Counselor & Director of the Backcountry Leadership Program

Twenty minutes down the road from Camp Moosilauke is a climbing area called Rumney. Rumney is one of the premier climbing areas in the United States, offering climbs ranging in difficulty from that fitting any beginner to some of the hardest climbs in the world. Campers of all ages have the opportunity to sample rock climbing at this remarkable climbing area.

Our climbing trips involve two distinct genres of rock climbing (bouldering and top rope climbing) each offering its own value and capturing its own kind of child. We begin our trips with a bouldering session, a form of climbing that seeks out challenging rock faces approximately ten feet high and uses specially designed “crash pads” (essentially portable gymnastic mats) and spotters to protect the fall.

The SA2s Canoe Lake Umbagog and the Androscoggin River

By Griffin, Senior A2 camper, age 14

On Thursday the 30th of June, a group of Senior A2s departed to Lake Umbagog and the Androscoggin River. We left at around 8:00am and got back at about 4:30pm the next day. After about a two hour drive, we finally reached the lake and ate a small lunch, then we were off. It was about a three hour paddle across a very windy lake, which only made the long trek even more challenging.

Finally after a long day of paddling, we reached the campsite where we settled down for a short night. In the morning, what felt like the crack of dawn, we woke up and had a fairly large breakfast filled with bacon, eggs, and hot chocolate. Soon after, we packed up and were on the road once again – this time for a much shorter journey.

Cabin Life at Moosilauke

By David, Zach, Michael, and Josh, Senior B campers, age 13

Cabin life at Moosilauke is unique. By the end of camp, you will learn to share, help, and above all live with others. First, you will learn to share. In cabins you have to share space, time, and work. There are only a certain amount of shelves for your clothes.

You learn to consolidate and compromise. Also after breakfast, you have cabin clean-up where everyone shares the responsibilities. Lastly, you have to share time, basically who gets to use what.

Moosilauke Weekly Letter Home 7-10-11

Dear Moosilauke Parent:

It is our pleasure to forward this third letter chronicling summer 2011. Before we recap the week, a brief Camp history lesson has been provided. Veteran parents, skip to paragraph four!

Moosilauke first opened its doors in 1904 making it one of the oldest private camps in the U.S. The dining hall and senior cabins S1 through S4 are all original structures. Moosilauke was founded by Virgil Prettyman, the first headmaster of the Horace Mann School, and advisor to President Eisenhower. Camper and staff alumni have included such luminaries as Benton MacKaye, the visionary behind the Appalachian Trail, Vince Lombardi, the Super Bowl winning NFL coach, Francois Gigure, former N.H.L. general manager, and Dave Trembly, the Major League baseball coach. Moosilauke was purchased by Gordon “Moose” Miller, the Athletic Director at the Horace Mann School (and a founder of the Ivy prep football league), in 1938. During the late 1960s, Gordon Porter Miller, Moose’s oldest son took over the running of the Camp. Port attended Colgate University, and received his doctorate from Columbia. He has written a number of books in the field of decision-making, including Teaching Your Child to Make Decisions and The Little Book for Big Decisions. Bill and Sabina took over the day-to-day running of the camp over twenty years ago. They also attended Colgate and received graduate degrees from Columbia (Bill, an M.B.A., and Sabina, a Masters in Education.) When they are not at Moosilauke, they live and work at The Thacher School in Ojai, CA. Bill is the Director of Admissions, and Sabina is the Dean of Students.