Advertiser Profile by Bruce Moreton
Founded in 2000, Night Eagle Wilderness Adventures is a small primitive boys’ camp in Vermont that deliberately sets out to create a world that’s significantly different from the one we normally live in. We invite boys to simplify their lives, to explore and be daring, to examine themselves and their values, and then to look beyond themselves and toward their relationship with the earth and others.
Our program is designed to build a boy’s self-confidence as he learns to simplify his life, to teach him to live competently in the woods, and to foster a better understanding of native peoples, their culture, and their relationship with the earth.
From the time a boy arrives at Night Eagle, he knows he’s not in a typical sleep-away camp. He shoulders his backpack and, accompanied by others, he walks along a trail that weaves through the forest. When he reaches camp and the tipis come into view, the magic truly begins.
Night Eagle is about simple pleasures: enjoying the haunting call of a loon, trudging through a wetland and watching a moose as it feeds, creeping up on a group of otters as they frolic in the lake, going barefoot whenever you want without being told to put your shoes on, and baking homemade bread in a clay oven and then slathering butter on it while it’s still warm.
Activities tend to spring from the environment and teach boys to rely on their ingenuity. Soon after their arrival, campers are carving bows and arrows, paddling canoes, throwing darts with atlatls, learning the art of camouflage, identifying wild edibles, and building fires with flint and steel. Through these activities and the slower pace of life in camp, boys naturally develop a deeper respect for the land and an authentic sense of personal accomplishment that will last a lifetime.
