OFF-THE-GRID SUMMER CAMP

FLYING CLOUD

BOYS AND GENDER NON-BINARY
AGES 11-14

November 2023

An Important Update About
Flying Cloud Camp

After extremely careful consideration, the Farm & Wilderness Leadership Team and the Board of Trustees came to unity with the difficult decision to pause operations of Flying Cloud (FC) for Summer 2024. Over the next 9-12 months, a dedicated group, including staff, Trustees and FC and RSG alums, will assess a variety of factors and craft recommendations to the Leadership Team and the Board of Trustees on what’s required to operate distinctive and more financially sustainable off-the-grid camps.

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Flying Cloud Camp celebrates everyone, as they are, exploring the wonder of living in nature together.

The Vermont wilderness is the perfect backdrop for this inclusive, off-the-grid experience for boys and gender non-binary youth. Surrounded by hundreds of acres of wilderness, campers tap into their curiosity and imagination with unscripted days spent coaxing an ember into fire, carving their own eating utensils and witnessing the beauty of the Vermont sky at night.

Camp life unfolds simply with games and adventures from sunrise to starlight, in a gentle, unrushed community.

Request More Info

LEARN MORE ABOUT F&W FROM

Team Admissions

admissions@farmandwilderness.org

Hello! Allow us to introduce ourselves: We are Sam Green (they/she) and Jenny (she/her), aka Team Admissions!

While Flying Cloud is paused for Summer 2024, we will be your primary contacts for all things F&W Registration related! We look forward to introducing you to the dazzling and profound summer experience that awaits your child at Farm & Wilderness.

FLYING CLOUD CAMP

Dates

EXPLORE A TIME FOR ADVENTURE

Session 1	July 3 - July 25
Session 2	July 28 - August 18

Rates & Financial Aid

HOME AWAY FROM HOME

Camp Life

Flying Cloud camp is grounded in an immersive, living-off-the-grid experience in the Vermont wilderness.

Campers enjoy learning how to build debris shelters, carve spoons, identify small animal tracks, make music and cook meals.

Shelter: Flying Cloud campers are assigned to a canvas, with one staff member per four kids, based on age, interests, and prior experience. The campers make their own beds – literally! With the help of their lodge counselor, they make a frame and fill it with soft sawdust and leaves, along with a rollup mat. In this wilderness space, our youth learn from their surroundings and each other.

Facilities: Shared facilities are nearby for all their hygiene needs, including fresh water and hot showers.

WHAT OUR CAMPERS SAY

"Our son has not stopped telling us how great camp was. I’m so pleased. Thank you for all your hard work to make it a safe and fun place for him."

Explore Life at Flying Cloud

Every day there are new activities to challenge our campers as they explore the excitement and wonder living in the natural world without cell phones, social media and other modern day distractions.

Mornings begin with the sun shining through the trees, lighting up the clearing. Campers join in a circle, where a senior camper leads the community of voices in appreciation for the natural world around them. Before breakfast, campers collect firewood, bake bread, work in the garden and hand pump water from the well. Once breakfast is made, the cook crew summons everyone together with the treble of a conch shell. Warm oatmeal, fresh bread and other goodies are served in the sunshine or under the canopy of our open air roundhouse. After breakfast and Silent Meeting where they spend time in reflection, meditation and relaxation, campers enjoy morning activities in the beauty of nature.

Afternoons are filled with projects and learning special skills. After lunch and rest hour, which carry us through the hottest part of the day, campers dive into afternoon activities. From practicing a musical instrument, to improving tracking skills or starting a fire using friction, the wilderness provides the perfect setting for experiential learning. Campers and staff might venture further afield to pick blueberries on a nearby mountain top or go for a swim in Lake Ninevah. Other times, our youth work around camp building a shelter or clearing a trail. Whether diving into a new project or continuing to work on one, the days are filled with opportunities.

Evening is a time for gathering in community. Our campers enjoy a filling meal, such as stew and fresh bread made in our fire-stoked oven. After dinner, everyone enjoys an all-camp activity. This is a chance to burn off some energy with a Flying Cloud game of Sticks (our version of Capture the Flag) or Battle Ball (dodgeball) or inventing a new one! As the evening winds down, the group shares appreciation for each other to pull it all together before drifting off to blissful sleep.

Learning Outcomes

Read the full fc program guide

EXPERIENCE LIFE IN THE OUTDOORS

Activities

Starting a fire with a bow drill, games of frisbee golf, playing drums – simple living rocks!

Simple Living

Flying Cloud campers learn to work together as they gather and cut firewood for cooking and light and hand pump water to drink. Everyone takes turns cooking delicious food over an open fire.

Earth Skills

Campers learn how to start fires with a bow drill. They may observe animal tracks in the woods and build a shelter with natural materials. Stalking without making a sound and gathering wild edibles are just a few of the ways our youth learn earth skills.

Crafts and Music

Campers collect materials from nature to create handmade crafts to take home. Most of our campers come away from camp having whittled some flatware! Music frequently enlivens camp with spontaneous jam sessions with drums, fiddles, guitars and more!

Games

Frisbee golf, Sticks, Kingdoms and Battle Blanket may seem unfathomable at first, but soon campers quickly learn these high-energy, non-competitive games. Fun and games are always a part of camp life!

Trips and Adventures

Flying Cloud campers swim in nearby Lake Ninevah, hike on the Catamount, Appalachian and Long Trail systems as well as other adventures! All campers participate in day and extended, overnight trips, enjoying simple living in the great outdoors.

HAVE QUESTIONS?

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Latest Posts from Flying Cloud Camp

Trips, Banquets, Honoring and FC Words

It’s a beautiful time in the session.

Campers have settled in and know each other’s names, everyone is getting excited as we bring in new games, new activities, new songs. We just held our second Honoring, so now every one of us has a Flying Cloud blanket. And right around now, in the third week of camp, our little group starts to really feel like a community.

And there’s just enough time left in the session to savor that feeling. Looking ahead, we have a few more days of activities, followed up by our senior camper capstone overnight (a night awareness / scouting experience), and then our second session will be a wrap. We like our last evening at camp to pack a punch, too: Banquet (We’re reprising our menu from our first session: Birria de Res – a stew made with goat meat from our farm), a variety show, and then Closing Friendship Fire, where our community members speak to their Flying Cloud experience as it comes to a close.

Some highlights from last week:

Our trips went out and came back, each a two-night experience of exploring our varied and interesting local areas of Mount Holly and Lake Ninevah. Our campers set eyes on an old mill site, the Tyson waterfalls, the secluded Spruce Point near SAM camp, and one group hiked almost 10 miles to Calvin Coolidge State Park.

Friction fire is back at Flying Cloud! A number of our campers, both new and senior, have been practicing bow-drill in camp, showing spirit and growth in the face of the challenge of creating fire from scratch.

At our Honoring last evening, the final contingent of our group was honored and received their FC Words:

Max T.

Through winter’s birchen glade

of glittering trunks in golden sun

The Lynx weaves silent tracks

Duncan S.

Silhouetted by the sun’s last rays

the Osprey dances on evening’s breeze

Flying towards distant, nested kin

Alex R.

Sitting amidst the chorus

the Coyote watches the dawn.

Melodies weaving together

lift the sun through the sky

Simon K.

Guided by the rising moon

the Bear leads forest life

On twilit paths now set aglow

to still pond’s clear reflection

Sebi F.

From cairn to cairn the Jay calls

venturing forth

through summer meadow’s chorus

Gus M.

Cradled by roots of Maple and Cedar

The Elk again greets the day

Edgar S.

Owl eyes in the embrace of Oak

Sharing grace with the growing dusk

Wesley S.

Born of Robin’s song and golden leaves

A kindled flame in Beech tree’s glade

That’s all for now. See you Saturday!

Take care,

Elliott

What Does It Mean To Be Honored At Flying Cloud?

Honoring is our way of bringing a rite of passage experience into the lives of our campers. Each new Flying Clouder, staff and camper alike, spends a whole day in silent reflection, sitting up on the mountain above Flying Cloud. During this day pondering who they are, who they have been, and who they want to become. After this day of reflection each person is “spoken for,” or publicly affirmed the next day in a celebratory evening of gravity and merriment.

Finally, each newly honored Flying Clouder is given an FC blanket and Flying Cloud words, which speak to some of the best and most prominent qualities we see in them in camp. The Words are touchstones for growth and personal anchors to the natural world, encouraging each of us to live up to the “best selves” that the community sees in us. Yesterday, 9 of our group were honored after a day of reflection on the mountain, and here are their Flying Cloud words:

Jack T.

Kingfisher and Lark

Meeting at dawn

The glittering spring

Cradles their dance

John W.

Clouds part before constellations

as foxes bow their heads to the stars

Wesley K.

Bounding hares shake the ground

To praise the fruits of autumn

Eren K.

Among the striped maple’s roots

The mink speaks the spring to life

Wyatt R.

As the rain softens

The sun’s rays fill with golden drops

Illuminating the forest floor

Ethan O.

Each footfall with care

The moose lifts its gaze

Towards the mountain

Lorenzo P.

Weaving with grace as his pack runs

The wolf’s heart lights aflame;

A song of the hearth

Arlo K.

In the hearth of the moonlit eyrie

The eagle welcomes thunder home

embracing an old friend

Pluto E.

From noble heights of white pine’s nest

The osprey knows a turning world

A moonlit hour deepens to rest

That’s all for now. Our group is leaving on trips soon – stay tuned for more!

Take care,

Elliott

What Three Questions to Guide Our Beginning at FC?

What would you like to bring to Flying Cloud this summer?

What would you like to take home from Flying Cloud when you leave?

What would you like to “leave at the door,” and let go of as you join our community?

These three questions guide Flying Cloud Friendship fire. It is one of the first events of the session – an early landmark in the orientation days of camp, and long before everyone has learned everyone’s names. At Friendship fire, each Flying Clouder forms an intention for the session and has a chance to share it with the whole community.

Having been through a number of Friendship fires, I am always impressed by the clarity with which our campers speak to the meaningful things they want, and what they know that they have to offer. As campers (and staff!) speak their intentions, they each place a stick into the fire – a symbolic act of unity. Our community is all in, together!

Here are a few snippets from this session’s Friendship fire:

“I’d like to bring an open mindset”

“I want to to take home new stories and new adventures”

“I want to leave behind stress, and stressful expectations of myself”

“I want to take away a better understanding of myself”

“I want to leave behind anxiety around social media”

“I want to bring unconditional love and support”

“I want to leave behind anger”

“I want to bring a personality that lifts people up”

After a few days of settling in, today is our first day of activities; the meat and bones of our Flying Cloud programming. Today we packed ice into the ice house (the old fashioned way!) to use to keep our refrigerated food cold this summer. Some other activities on offer? Deer hide tanning, knife sharpening, and natural woods camouflage from mud and charcoal.

There’s plenty more to come, and we’ve got an exciting session ahead of us. Stay tuned for more updates!

Elliott (he, him)

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