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Overnight Camp Choices
Summer Day Camps
Custom Designed Programs

See Schedule & Tuitions
for summer coop intensives
which are rerequises for fall.

Intensive Training Camps
Summer Weekend Stayovers
Cooperative Class Series

Staff, Mission-News, Cool
Apply • Scholarships-Giving
Book Series • Resources

Send in your Summer Camp Registration Forms
and Work-A-Thon Pledge Forms
plus Merit Scholarship
and Financial Aid applications this week!

Check out our Advanced Residential Intensivs for Adults:
• The Wolf Journey Naturalist Survey
• Wild Healers Herbal Program
• Future Scout Tracker Training
• Seasonal Primitive Skills Program and Stone Age Living Experience
• Permaculture Pioneer Case Study
with prerequisite completion of a Summer Residential Intensive:
• Earth Skills Teaching Apprenticeship
• Permaculture Pioneer Facilitators Program
• Recreational Administrative Internship

Directions to Wolf Camp on Woods Lake are available for pre-registered campers only.

Please consider a WOLF Foundation Booster membership.

We were chosen one of the "best camps ever" by YM Magazine in its March 2003 issue, and given the most single votes for "best camp" in the Northwest Family Magazine readers poll of 2001, the only year they did a poll. Ask us anytime for references from our alumni spanning 20 U.S. States & Canadian Provinces, plus 4 other countries.

Sat-Sun, September 29-30, 2007 Brain Tanning

Saturday 9:00 a.m. - Sunday 6:00 p.m. $150 plus $25 if registered after September 1st, no prerequisite for adults, and open to ages 13-17 with parent attending or by special acceptance with prerequisites. This workshop will be run by Andrew Twele, who is an experienced tanner using the dry scrape method. Each student will have the opportunity to tan a deer skin from start to finish and keep the resulting product. Class size is limited to insure each individual receives quality instruction. All tools and materials are provided during the workshop, and you can also purchase fleshing and scraping tools afterwards so you can tan hides at home. In addition to your completed hide to bring home, you will also receive a tanning guide booklet authored by Andrew and designed to provide the knowledge needed to successfully continue brain tanning on your own. Tanning is good fun but also physical work, but never fear, our resident apprentices Dena, Greg and Laird will be helping you over the weekend. Scroll down or click on workshop logistics for directions, packing list, camping options the night prior, and other information.

Sat-Sun, October 6-7, 2007 Basketry Skills

Saturday 9:00 a.m. - Sunday 6:00 p.m. $150 plus $25 if registered after September 1st, no prerequisite for adults, and open to ages 13-17 with parent attending or by special acceptance with prerequisites. This workshop will be run by Andrew Twele, who will help you complete a simple basket on Saturday, and a more advanced basket on Sunday. The exact style will be determined by group interest, skill level, and available materials such as cedar and cottonwood barks, evergreen roots, willow, cattail and tule. Basketry styles you learn may include plaiting, twining, coiling, ribbed basketry, and more. Andrew will be assisted by our resident herbal apprentice Dena Baldauf. Scroll down or click on workshop logistics for directions, packing list, camping options the night prior, and other information.

Sat-Sun, October 13-14, 2007 Primitive Cooking with Mushrooms & Seaweeds

Saturday 9:00 a.m. - Sunday 6:00 p.m. $150 plus $25 if registered after September 1st, no prerequisite for adults, and open to ages 13-17 with parent attending or by special acceptance with prerequisites. We will spend Saturday collecting wild mushrooms, seaweeds, and other wild edibles (such as clams and roots) then learn to properly store them for winter. Our own Laird Norgeot will facilitate the foray, and transportation is complimentary but you may also drive your own vehicle. Sunday will be a primitive cooking extravaganza lead by Andrew Twele who will be launching into a year-long primitive living experience at Wolf Camp, and he'll show us how to cook by means of rock boiling, on spits over open fires, in a clay oven, and more. Andrew will also guide the group to construct a steam pit oven and also a primitive stone oven in which the group will cook tasty delectibles. Saturday's wild edibles foray, and Sunday's culinary extravaganza are experiences you just can't miss! Cost includes store-bought foods which will be added to our wild forays to create wonderful feasts. Scroll down or click on workshop logistics for directions, packing list, camping options the night prior, and other information.

Sat-Sun, October 20-21, 2007 Gifts from the Animals

Saturday 9:00 a.m. - Sunday 6:00 p.m. $150 plus $25 if registered after September 1st, no prerequisite for adults, and open to ages 13-17 with parent attending or by special acceptance with prerequisites. The itinerary for this weekend is going to be kept open and decided upon by the group on Saturday morning because it will all depend on what animals we were successful harvesting earlier in the fall and especially earlier this week during the Honorable Harvesting intensive. If we harvested a deer, then we will continue processing its gifts, and if we didn't, you can help us decide whether we should harvest one of our sheep to learn similar skills. If we harvested hares while hunting, then we will work with those, or the group can decide whether we should harvest one of our domestic rabbits at camp. If we harvested grouse while hunting, then we will honor those by using all its feathers, processing its meat, and putting to use its skeletal structure. If not, the group can decide if we should harvest chickens from our flock at camp. Another choice will be to fish for salmon in local rivers, and for trout in our lake. All harvesting will be done with the utmost reverence and humanitarian methods, so that students can learn where the meats that they often purchase in stores and restaurants actually comes from, to actually feel what it's like to take the life of a member of the animal kingdom. This workshop will be lead by Andrew Twele and Greg Anderson, the latter of whom is preparing for a grand abo-journey around the continent, following the Pacific Crest Trail, the Appalachian Trail, and the northern and southern railroad trails which are now being developed across the country. The former, Andrew, will already have started his year-long primitive living experience here at Wolf Camp, and although you can bring home some of what you process, much of the gifts will be given to Andrew and Greg for their journies. Scroll down or click on workshop logistics for directions, packing list, camping options the night prior, and other information.

Family Camp I: All My Relations

Sun dinner - Saturday lunch for all ages. Learning how to become more connected with nature should be shared together as a family. Parents, children and couples who want activites of art, music, writing, games, skills and reflection in nature are invited. Find a secret place for inspiration in sketching, painting, drumming, singing, and composing through easy methods of creativity which music teacher and lead instructor Chris Chisholm facilitates. Write original songs, poems, and stories for one another. Make a hide drum that you design and paint with natural dyes and glues, and make simple flutes, rock drawings, and special crafts like primitive torches. There are many avenues of creativity in this new family camp design, and the ultimate goal is to build healthy relationships, simply based on creative expressions. Special family rates make this the best value we offer! The camp costs one person $475, two family members: $875, three family members: $1,200, and $250 per additional family member. There is an additional $50 fee per family if you register beyond the June 1 application completion deadline.

Family Camp II: Sea to Sky

Sun dinner - Saturday lunch for all ages. Learn a great selection of earth skills as we travel to hidden seashores for foraging, to stunning mountain meadows for blueberry collection, and to the east slope of the Cascades for the amazing natural history of pine and sage country. Practice “five minute fires,” and the "bow drill" primitive firemaking method. Harvest wild edible foods, and do primitive pit cooking. Make rabbit sticks and “burn bowls,” practice bow and arrow, learn basketry and flintknapping, and try your hand at primitive fishing. We feel that these earth skills are critical to learn together with loved ones, because when you return home, no one but those in your camp will understand what you did, nor be able to give the support you need to continue practicing. Please plan your vacation with us, spending less than you might elsewhere, and giving your family incredible lifetime memories. This camp is in its 4th year. Lead instructor is Bill Baroch. No prerequisite. Special family rates make this the best value we offer! The camp costs one person $475, two family members: $875, three family members: $1,200, and $250 per additional family member. There is an additional $50 fee per family if you register beyond the June 1 application completion deadline.

Spring Intensives for Adults

If you would like to begin one of our Cooperative Residential Intensives or Independent Study Programs this spring, including the Permaculture Pioneer Case Study, the Earth Skills Teaching Apprenticeship, the Recreational Administration Internship, the Wolf Journey Naturalist Survey, or the Primitive & Stone Age Living Experiences, register a.s.a.p, and start by March 17th in time for our St. Patrick's Day Spring Equinox Sweat on Friday.

March 18 - April 1, 2006 Permaculture Design Course

Wise Earth Ecological Immersion taught nearby in Matby by Michael "Skeeter" Pilarski, Sam Bullock, Kelda Miller, Heidi Bohan, and others. This is the founding gathering on an ecologically centered land trust on the urban fringe, and it will serve as an adequate intro for our Permaculture Pioneer Case Study program. "There is a need for autonomy, people preparing for a decline economy, decentralization, the breakdown of the totalizing impulse of industrialism, bioregions, an end to authoritarianism, and the development of a society with new kinds of relationships." $450 till March 4. $550 thereafter includes Food, Rugged Lodging and Instruction. No prerequisite. For information and to register, contact kelda@riseup.net, 206-324-3632, http://www.wiseearth.org

After this course, we will start our plants in the greenhouse and direct seeding the cool weather loving plants. We'll finish the barn that will house our chickens, sheep, rabbits and ducks. Other goals include: help harvest trees using principles of sustainable forestry and mill lumber to finish the barn, prepare poles for our longhouse from cedar trees on the property, improve the vegetable and herb gardens. We'll be fixing tools with the forge, building an iron smelter and starting on projects to increase energy efficiency here at camp, such as hooking the water mill up for power, making a bike-powered generator, installing a solar panel, continuing to make biodiesel, and converting an additional vehicle to run off veggie oil.

Spring Intensives for Adults

March 20-24, 2006 Tracking & Birding, A & B

A: Introductory Level – All the Basics
Join lead instructor Chris Chisholm as we study shorebirds, songbirds and raptors, including owls, while diving deep into the arts and science of mammal tracking. Practice the arts of tracking and bird language as defined by Jon Young, and the science of tracking and way of the scout as defined by Tom Brown, to gain incredible skills nearly lost to the past. We’ll follow trails of cougar, coyote, beaver, deer, elk, otter and others, while expanding our awareness through sensory awareness challenges. $500 includes facilities and camping from Monday 9:00 am to Friday 6:00 pm, plus $50 if beyond the March 1 application completion deadline. Overnight camping and center house facilities on Friday, Saturday, or Sunday nights before and after camp cost $25 per night. No prerequisite.

B: Advanced Level – Tracking Expeditions
Join lead instructor Chris Chisholm on some excellent tracking expeditions to your choice of sites, inlcuding the Skykomish River Sand Bars, Puget Sound Seashore Tideflats, Potholes Desert Sand Dunes, Boulder River Wilderness Rainforests, and Stevens Pass Alpine Snowfields. $375 includes facilities and camping from Monday 9:00 am to Friday 6:00 pm, plus $50 if beyond the March 1 application completion deadline. The reduced price includes your travel to our tracking sites, but reflects the fact that you will be receiving instruction from Chris only half the time since he will be focusing on the novices the other half of the time. Overnight camping and center house facilities on Friday, Saturday, or Sunday nights before and after camp cost $25 per night. Prerequisite: week-long Tracking & Bird Language training at Wolf Camp, or high recommendation from instructors at another school in the field of earth skills as to your proficiency in wildlife tracking and bird language.

Click for Day Class Logistics or Overnight Course Logistics or Email Us for information on these courses, or call 360-799-1997 in Snohomish County, 360-319-6892 in Skagit & Whatcom Counties, or 425-248-0253 in King County with questions or to register by phone, or just print out a registration form and send it via the postal service - we need the hard copy with original signature. We'll send you all the program details via email if you like.

March 27-31, 2006 Permaculture & Pioneering, A & B

A: Pioneer Medicine, Wild Foods, Fire & Shelter
Work with the abundant wild edible and medicinal plants located right here around Wolf Camp, from the lawn, to the deciduous and coniferous forests, to the bog surrounding the lake. And part of every good herbalists skills is the ability to make fire in order to boil water for teas and other healing applications, so you will practice fool-proof means of starting and maintaining fire in the wet forest with the least amount of effort, and choose one of several ways of starting fire in a primitive fashion. Athough we cover all the basics, this course moves at a fast pace, and you may find that you would like to embark on a survival challenge in the last half of the week. $500 includes facilities and camping from Monday 9:00 am to Friday 6:00 pm, plus $50 if beyond the March 1 application completion deadline. Overnight camping and center house facilities on Friday, Saturday, or Sunday nights before and after camp cost $25 per night. No prerequisite.

B: Permaculture Tools, Forestry, Farming and Future Energy
This week we'll be starting our plants in the greenhouse and direct seeding the cool weather loving plants. We'll finish the barn that will house our chickens, sheep, rabbits and ducks. Other goals for the week include: help harvest trees using principles of sustainable forestry and mill lumber to finish the barn, prepare poles for our longhouse from cedar trees on the property, improve the vegetable and herb gardens. We'll be fixing tools with the forge, building an iron smelter and starting on projects to increase energy efficiency here at camp, such as hooking the water mill up for power, making a bike-powered generator, installing a solar panel, continuing to make biodiesel, and converting an additional vehicle to run off veggie oil. $375 includes facilities and camping from Monday 9:00 am to Friday 6:00 pm, plus $50 if beyond the March 1 application completion deadline. The reduced price reflects a significant amount of work trade that is part of the course. Overnight camping and center house facilities on Friday, Saturday, or Sunday nights before and after camp cost $25 per night. No prerequisite.

Click for Day Class Logistics or Overnight Course Logistics or Email Us for information on these courses, or call 360-799-1997 in Snohomish County, 360-319-6892 in Skagit & Whatcom Counties, or 425-248-0253 in King County with questions or to register by phone, or just print out a registration form and send it via the postal service - we need the hard copy with original signature. We'll send you all the program details via email if you like.

Summer Intensives for Adults

If you would like to begin one of our Cooperative Residential Intensives or Independent Study Programs this summer, including the Permaculture Pioneer Case Study, the Earth Skills Teaching Apprenticeship, the Recreational Administration Internship, the Wolf Journey Naturalist Survey, or the Primitive & Stone Age Living Experiences, register a.s.a.p, and try to start by June 2nd in time for our Cooperative Open House & BBQ on Saturday, and then our orientation on Sunday.

June 5-9, 2006 Tracking & Birding, A & B

B: Advanced Level – Search, Rescue, and Wilderness Medicine
Join lead instructor Chris Chisholm along with representatives from local search and rescue teams as we learn the basics of SAR and practice scenarios, while also incorporating techniques of wilderness medicine. $375 includes facilities and camping from Monday 9:00 am to Friday 6:00 pm, plus $50 if beyond the May 1 application completion deadline. The reduced price includes your travel to our tracking sites, but reflects the fact that you will be receiving instruction from Chris only half the time since he will be focusing on the novices the other half of the time. Overnight camping and center house facilities on Friday, Saturday, or Sunday nights before and after camp cost $25 per night. Prerequisite: week-long Tracking & Bird Language training, plus Wilderness First Aid certification.

Click for Day Class Logistics or Overnight Course Logistics or Email Us for information on these courses, or call 360-799-1997 in Snohomish County, 360-319-6892 in Skagit & Whatcom Counties, or 425-248-0253 in King County with questions or to register by phone, or just print out a registration form and send it via the postal service - we need the hard copy with original signature. We'll send you all the program details via email if you like.

June 12-16, 2006 Wild Plants & Survival, A & B

A: Herbalist Level - Summer Foods, Medicine, Fire & Shelter
Work with the abundant wild edible and medicinal plants located right here around Wolf Camp, from the lawn, to the deciduous and coniferous forests, to the bog surrounding the lake. And part of every good herbalists skills is the ability to make fire in order to boil water for teas and other healing applications, so you will practice fool-proof means of starting and maintaining fire in the wet forest with the least amount of effort, and choose one of several ways of starting fire in a primitive fashion. Athough we cover all the basics, this course moves at a fast pace, and you may find that you would like to embark on a survival challenge in the last half of the week. $500 includes facilities and camping from Monday 9:00 am to Friday 6:00 pm, plus $50 if beyond the May 1 application completion deadline. Overnight camping and center house facilities on Friday, Saturday, or Sunday nights before and after camp cost $25 per night. No prerequisite.

B: Challenge Level - Survival Expeditions
This is your chance to test yourself on whichever survival skills you wish to improve. You can go out with nothing to experience an emergency survival situation, or stay in an earth lodge with just the things you have made from scratch to experience a stone age living situation, or bring a selection of critical tools in order to practice a certain set of skills: For example: Leave the Sleeping Bag & Tent Behind - bring all the gear you want, as long as you are without shelter or any form of insulation. Novices should start early on a summer morning, bring a fire kit which includes tinder and kindling, as well as the garbage bags with string as a back-up shelter. Experts should go during the winter or begin just an hour or two before nightfall, and bring only food, water, bowl, knife, two normal layers of clothing, and fire starter. Variety B: Leave the Water & Fire Starter to work on primitive firemaking. Bring all the gear you want, as long as you are without any fire starter. Novices should start early in the morning, and have a back-up fire kit made in case the one you gather and make today doesn't work out so well. Experts should go when it is rainy, extremely cold, or just after dusk. Variety C: Leave the Water & Bowl to work on purifying water. Bring all the gear you want, as long as you are without any means of carrying water. Novices should start early in the morning, and be near a safe drinking water source in case the bowl you make today doesn't work out so well. Experts should start after dusk with only a primitive fire kit that is pre-made, or maybe be nowhere near clear water, so that you need to make a seep or sop-up dew. Variety D: Leave the Blade to figure out how to do everything without a knife, hatchet or any modern blade. Bring all the gear you want otherwise. Novices should start early in the morning, and bring their pre-made primitive fire kit, but without tinder or firewood. Experts should bring no fire kit or fire starter or rope of any kind (don't use your shoe laces, either). Variety E: Bring only the Basics, including the four most important tools for survival: just a blade, fire starter, metal bowl, and a garbage bag with string. Novices should start the trek in the morning and bring along food (no water), while experts should start at dusk and leave the food behind. $375 includes facilities and camping from Monday 9:00 am to Friday 6:00 pm, plus $50 if beyond the May 1 application completion deadline. The reduced price reflects the expectation that you will be working on your own half of the time to build. Overnight camping and center house facilities on Friday, Saturday, or Sunday nights before and after camp cost $25 per night. Prerequisite: Previous week-long wild foods-medicine-fire-shelter course, or enrollment in the permaculture pioneer practicum with permaculture certification course completion here in the spring.

June 19-23, 2006 Instructor Trainings, A & B

A: Pedagogical Level - Earth Skills Philosophies & Practicum
Lead instructor Chris Chisholm, author of the Wolf Journey Handbook for Students & Teachers, and our special guest Janet Jewell, veteral teacher of Waldorf Education, will share with us the best approach for teaching earth skills to children of various age groups, and give insights from many years of teaching. Chris will guide you through the fundamental elements of earth skills education, while providing practicum opportunities to give experience teaching these skills. We'll review naturalist studies using "secret spot" field exercises, and look at wildlife tracking and bird language that Jon Young introduced, then investigate herbal medicine that the Wise Woman tradition promotes, then study the evolution of "scouting", compare wilderness survival to primitive living, and discuss the most important topics to cover, including which plants may be most important to learn. Influenced by outdoor adventure and other environmental educational programs, indigenous teachers and anthropologists, as well as those who followed in the footsteps of primitive skills specialists like Larry Dean Olsen and Tom Brown, this course is a great exploration of similar but competing philosophies with the goal to help you learn to give students the nurturing experiences they most need in nature. $375 includes facilities and camping from Monday 9:00 am to Friday 6:00 pm, plus $50 if beyond the May 1 application completion deadline. The reduced price reflects the fact that you will be receiving instruction half the week, and practice teaching the other half of the week. Overnight camping and center house facilities on Friday, Saturday, or Sunday nights before and after camp cost $25 per night. Prerequisite: previous multi-day course with Chris Chisholm, or previous approved week-long course at another school in the field of earth skills.

B: Management Level - Program Risks, Designs & Implementation
Using the Wolf Journey Handbook for Students & Teachers, written by lead instructor Chris Chisholm, you will begin to learn to design programs from as short as one hour, to as long as a whole summer. From managing single sites to leading travel programs, you will learn how to reduce the plethora of risks involved in outdoor education. We will also review wilderness first aid protocol, cpr, and incident management. However, it is the design of programs, the risk management, and the implementation of an excellent organization that will prevent ever having to experience avoidable crises. We cannot emphasize this enough: it is high time that the field of earth skills raises is professional standards to the level which outdoor recreation programs across the country have found necessary due to preventable accidents they experienced in the 1980s. Wilderness First Responder, on-site nurses and well-trained lifeguards, policy manuals such as those recommended by the American Camping Association, and perhaps most important, site management such as defined by Paul Nicolazzo of the Wilderness Medicine Training Center, are some of the standards that must be implemented before preventable incidents occured. You will receive an expanded version of the Wolf Journey Handbood for Students & Teachers, which includes the entire Wolf Camp policy manual, designed to be used as a model for professional standards in the field of earth skills education. $375 includes facilities and camping from Monday 9:00 am to Friday 6:00 pm, plus $50 if beyond the May 1 application completion deadline. The reduced price reflects the fact that you will be receiving instruction half the week, and practice running programs the other half of the week. Overnight camping and center house facilities on Friday, Saturday, or Sunday nights before and after camp cost $25 per night. Prerequisite: previous multi-day course with Chris Chisholm, or previous approved week-long course at another outdoor school.

July 2-7, 2006 Permaculture Pioneer Trade

Pioneer trade is an opportunity to learn about the lives and skills of the North American pioneer both of 200 years ago and today's modern sustainble living pioneers. We'll improve the farm animal facilities to imrove the longevity and productivity of the chickens, rabbits, sheep and ducks. We'll caretake the land to quicken its development to old growth forest with a healthy bog and lake both for humans and animals. You'll learn how to safely trim and cut down trees with pioneer and modern equipment, build a pioneer-style cabin, prepare poles for our longhouse from cedar trees on the property, cultivate vegetable and herb gardens, fix tools with the forge, and make new tools with the smelter. Sustainble energies projects include hooking up a water mill and solar panel for power, making a bicycle powered generator , make biodiesel, and tinker with our veggie-oil powered vehicles. Finally, be sure to bring something along so you can participate in our old-tyme barter session on Independence Day, followed by an old-fashioned hoe-down. This week's cost is strictly by donation going to the preservation of the Wolf Camp's future old-growth forest and undeveloped bogs and lake. The lower cost is also due to the significant amount of service work that participants will be contributing during the week, but pricipally it's a way for middle to upper income families to contribute to the scholarship fund, and for lower income families to send their kids to camp with little cost. Recommended donations are $200 for low income families, $600 to match the cost of other overnight youth camps, or $1200 to match what instructors are forfeiting to teach this week.