Summer Camps (4-17)

Home / Summer Camps (4-17)

Get ready for adventure!

Registration Now Open!!

Enroll your kid into one (or more!) of our summer camps for an epic week in the wild, fueled by nature connection and survival skills! All campers will get to experience fire-making, wood splitting, plant ID, foraging, crafting, scouting, tracking, and storytelling, as well as the joys of being a kid in the summertime: sunshine, fresh air, climbing, splashing, running, and games.

We have 5 age groups of campers: ages 4-6, 7-9, 10-12, 13-17 (Teens) and 13-17 (Fire Keepers in Training)

Please review our Summer Family Guidebook before you register, for our complete set of policies and procedures.

Need a visual of all the camps offered this summer? Check out our Calendar page.

Tree Frogs: Ages 4-6

About this camp

Our littlest explorers spend their week wandering the trails, forest and shoreline, while exercising key components of our year-round curriculum: nature connection, free play, social and emotional learning, resilience, self-empowerment and more. Practiced core routines are crafting, sit spot, scouting, free play, tracking, foraging, plant identification, storytelling, fire-starting and more.

Location:
Rocky Ripple, 841 W. 53rd Street, Indianapolis, IN.

Dates:

May 26-29

June 22-26

Times:
9am - 3pm

Cost:
$360/week for May 26-29 (only 4 days). $440/week for June 22-26.

Please review our Summer Family Guidebook before you register, for our complete set of policies and procedures.

Flying Squirrels: Ages 7-9

About this camp

With an extra focus on summer survival strategies specific to Indiana, we immerse ourselves in the arts of tracking, camouflage, navigation, wild edible plants, water purification, primitive hunting, and fire. Our days are filled with ancient stories, wandering, deep nature connection, comprehensive instruction, games, and fun.

Flying Squirrels campers will choose a Pathway from our popular Shikari Wilderness System to focus on during their week. Read more about it and choose your Pathway when you register.

Location:
Rocky Ripple, 841 W. 53rd Street, Indianapolis, IN.

Dates:

June 1-5

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July 6-10

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July 20-24

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Times:
9am - 4pm

Cost:
$490/week

Please review our Summer Family Guidebook before you register, for our complete set of policies and procedures.

Scouts: Ages 10-12

About this camp

Rooted in our Shikari Wilderness System, Scouts’ days are filled with ancient stories, wandering, deep nature connection, comprehensive instruction, games, and fun. Scouts are introduced to their chosen Pathway, then spend time deepening their knowledge and skillset among highly-trained instructors, while making new friends and having a blast in the sunshine and fresh air.

Scouts campers will choose a Pathway from our popular Shikari Wilderness System to focus on during their week. Read more about it and choose your Pathway when you register.

Location:
Rocky Ripple, 841 W. 53rd Street, Indianapolis, IN.

Dates:

June 8-12

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July 13-17

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July 20-24

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Times:
9am - 4pm

Cost:
$490/week

Please review our Summer Family Guidebook before you register, for our complete set of policies and procedures.

Teens: Ages 13-17

About this camp

Teens get unplugged and enjoy a wild week of the outdoors, nurturing individual growth, learning real-life skills, and making like-minded friends. Each day is full of comprehensive mentoring in primitive technology, wilderness survival and leadership development. Teens are ready to learn skills that will take them towards transformational rites-of-passage, and become part of our White Pine community.

Teens will choose a Pathway from our popular Shikari Wilderness System to focus on during their week. Read more about it and choose your Pathway when you register.

Location:
Rocky Ripple, 841 W. 53rd Street, Indianapolis, IN.

Dates:

June 15-19

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Times:
9am - 4pm

Cost:
$490/week

Please review our Summer Family Guidebook before you register, for our complete set of policies and procedures.

Fire Keepers in Training: Ages 13-17

About this camp

The term Fire Keeper is used to describe those that tend to the central fires that stay burning for days at ceremonies around the world. Here at White Pine, Fire Keepers apprentice in the Guides Pathway, focusing on the guilds of Mentoring, Safety, Solo, and Shikari. Participants receive focused mentoring in all of the traditional skills we train in, guidance in the art of mentoring youth and real dirt time facilitating games, stories and skills. Fire Keepers in training get to grow in connection with a community of nature-connected teens (ages 13-17) who share a calling to teach others and develop leadership skills. Fire Keeper Training camps are led by our Community Coordinator, Dustin McCreery.

Fire Keeper Training Camp is open to new or returning Fire Keepers. Training graduates can weave into our active Fire Keeper program, where they assist with summer camps, forest school, and/or after-school programs, and possibly work towards eventual employment.

Each week of Fire Keeper Training will work with different age groups, so choose your week based on what age you’re interested in mentoring.

There is an optional Overnight on Thursday of each week at no additional cost. BYO dinner and breakfast, along with whatever gear you’d like. Campers may sleep in our building or yurt, or in your own tent on campus. Kitchen and shower facilities will be available for use.

Location:
Rocky Ripple, 841 W. 53rd Street, Indianapolis, IN.

Dates:

June 1-5

Flying Squirrels (ages 7-9)
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June 22-26

Tree Frogs (ages 4-6)
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July 20-24

Flying Squirrels (ages 7-9)
Scouts (ages 10-12)
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Times:
9am - 4pm

Cost:
$490/week

Please review our Summer Family Guidebook before you register, for our complete set of policies and procedures.

Pathways

Earth Caretakers Pathway

Foraging · Herbalism · Homesteading · Caretaking · Bird Language · Sit Spot · Baskets and Pots · Fiber

Earth Caretakers is a special summer camp offering, combining our Northeast and East Shields to celebrate Ascetics and Healers together. Earth Caretakers will add utilitarian practices to their plant knowledge through the weaving of fibers and baskets, they’ll incorporate deep nature observation through the knowledge of bird language and animal communication, and they’ll work towards restoring holistic health to themselves, the community and the earth through the practices of foraging, medicine making and caretaking.

Protectors Pathway

Strength · Fighting · Movement · Play

Movement, Strength, Fighting and Play define the Protectors Path. Often, those called in this direction have seen the dark side of bullying and aggression. Practitioners are driven by the physical expression of health and vitality. Here they find exuberance, courage, connection and fun. With reflexes like a cat and awareness fixed on the perimeter of camp, Protectors sleep with one eye open.

Survivors Pathway

Wood · Stone · Feather and Bone · Fire

Fire, Wood, Stone, Feather n’ Bone are the Guilds that define the Survivors Pathway. Those with the artistic urge to tinker and experiment have a huge body of ancestral skills to draw upon. Three decades ago, In the deserts of Idaho, a ragtag group of archeologists gathered together to break rock, twirl up hand-drill fires, make bows and haft arrows. Led by, now ancestor, Errett Callahan, they called themselves Primitive Skills Practitioners. They refined a creed, established a journal and committed to annual gatherings. Survivors Practitioners are the heart and soul of the Wilderness Skills Movement.

Shadows Pathway

Scouting · Endurance · Throwsticks · Footwear

Inspired by the Apache Scouts, capable of superhuman feats of endurance and stealth. Shadows train in Endurance, Throwsticks, Scouting, and Footwear. The greatest expression of this Pathway is found in the running of the Shadows Course; a tight network of trails and targets, often accompanied by hidden hunters armed with foam arrows. The course is run with self made small game hunting weapons called rabbitsticks. Years of training yields sinewy ‘masters of terrain’ that float across the landscape like our totem animal, the coyote.

Providers Pathway

Archery · Music Guild (Instrument Crafting) · Wood Splitting · Cooking

Practitioners of the Providers Pathway train in Sustainable Hunting practices through a variety of global Archery Traditions. Students grow in focus and patience through the practice of Traditional Archery. Students are guided to connect with their own ancestry through the crafting of traditional instruments and are celebrated in community through the sharing of music. Providers build strength and responsibility through filling the wood shed with hand split firewood and they experience abundance through preparing and sharing bush cooked cuisine. The scientific grounding of the Providers Pathway is rooted in trees and conservation and our time of year to shine is Autumn.

Trackers Pathway

Track & Sign · Trailing · Nature Museum · Trapping

Our ancestors were capable of picking up an animal trail and following it like a thread for miles until the animal could be found in their bed. Such incredible feets of awareness and skill are still alive today amongst traditional hunter gatherer cultures. Globally, the Tracking and Trailing Guilds are making a huge revival thanks to quality field guides, evaluations and communities like ours. Those with the detective mind and a passion to understand their place within the broader wildlife community, will find a home on the Trackers Pathway.