Miniwanca Our Camp

Camp Miniwanca is located near Muskegon, MI on Lake Michigan. It was founded in the early 1900s and is based on a philosophy of personal best through balanced living. Each day is divided into P-physical, M-mental, S-social, R-religious/reflective activities. Campers are encouraged to live the camp's motto: "my own self, at my very best, all the time". Although a big group of campers reside on the Miniwanca site for their entire time at camp, we were involved in the camp's Four-Trails pathway which takes older campers on the road/lake for large periods of time.

Staff training was crazy fun and endless... We arrived late May and our campers didn't arrive until late June so we pretty much had a month to learn all about safety protocols and "risk management" (Scott demonstrates in some pics below). Staff training is really more like big kid camp as we went on bike trips, kayak trips, played Ultimate frisbee, shared goals, and pretty much experienced camp life as an adult.

Scott's Trip: 24 days of kayaking in the Georgian Bay (Ontario, CA)Risk Management in Progress:

My trip included another instructor, Wade, and six 16-year-olds. We prepared for the trip at camp for one week which included learning kayak safety and touring skills as well as packing up our food and gear. Next, we drove to Killarney, Ontario and set out on the turbulent waters of the Georgian Bays. We took out in Snug Harbor, Ontario (a bit southeast of Killarney) 3 weeks later. Highlights of the trip include: a rattlesnake nest in the middle of our campsite, a hail storm in the middle of the campers 2-day solo, tons of naked tanning time, lots of fishing but no fish, campers week-long "Final" where they travel independently from the instructors the last week.

Rachel's Trip:s 28 days of bicycle touring the eastern of WI and western MI
Me and my co-leader, Christine (seen below), had two adventures back to back... The first 3 week session of camp included a 500-mile bike trip around Wisconsin with 12 energetic 15-year old girls. The theme here - bike breakdown after breakdown. Ultimately, this led to an amazing adventure of altering routes and camping in the yards of helpful strangers. During the second session, we cycled with a smaller group of 3 (unruly) boys and 3 girls around Michigan. Although the roads up here are crappy and many on the map do not exist, the lakes are astounding and mimic the waters of the clear, blue Caribbean. Our two and a half month experience at Miniwanca was a truly life-altering experience. This place attracts incredible people and has an amazing setting on Lake Michigan to boot. The friendships/bonds created here and the space to work on balance in life for an entire summer definitely shifted us into a mode for crazy wedding planning... more to come on that!