GROWN-UP FUN
Indulge your nostalgia and check out a summer camp for adults,
If you are overcome with nostalgia for summers past and dream of sitting around the campfire singing songs from your faraway youth, consider checking out an adult summer camp. Many are a few hours’ drive from the GTA and are held on weekends. Alcohol is often permitted. Digital detox For those who feel burdened by their gadgets and 24-7 connection to the matrix, Camp Reset at the Ecology Retreat Centre in Mono, Ont., was created to help you recharge. The rules: no work talk, no smartphones, no photos. Activities include journaling workshops, circus arts, archery, “recess,” group activities and sleepovers. The camp is BYOB, and costumes are encouraged. Nicknames are mandatory. You can pay a little extra and take a yellow school bus to camp, just like the good old days.
July 14-17 and 21-24; $539 for three nights. Roller derby Camp Roller Derby offers the traditional slate of activities: arts and crafts, water skiing and campfires at Camp Eden Woods in Haliburton. But members of the roller derby community are also invited to attend sessions on injury prevention and nutrition geared toward their favourite sport. Many campers are actively enrolled in a roller derby league and the weekend is organized by Elissa Hermolin, also known as Mazel Tough of Toronto Roller Derby. The camp is not for skaters alone, but participants should be involved in roller derby in some way.
Aug. 19-21; $255 for three days. LGBTQ Jamboree Summer Camp, located near Haliburton, is a members-only camp offering activities including “everything from the karmic to the kinky.” That includes hiking, volleyball, canoeing and croquet, but also foot massages, a queer film festival, “jock and jill strap tennis” and drag shows. Nude sunbathing and skinny dipping are encouraged, and there’s even a designated cabin stocked with free condoms for intimate activities.
Aug. 21-28; $621 for eight days, plus $35 annual membership to Out & Out Toronto Outdoorsy Kids have been canoeing, kayaking and water skiing at Canadian Adventure Camp on a private island near Temagami, Ont., for over four decades. The adult camp has been around for almost as long and is similar, but with considerably less supervision. On Labour Day weekend, it’s the grown-ups’ turn to sleep in the rustic cabins and take part in camp programming complete with starlight lake cruises. There’s also a gymnastics and trampoline centre.
Sept. 2-5 or 2-8; $450 for 4 days, $799 for the full week And . . . Zombies? Paranoiacs who would rather indulge their sense of doom than enjoy the sunshine can learn to “shoot, slay, evade and outlive the undead.” At Zombie Survival Camp, participants learn hand-to-hand combat, military field tactics and outdoor survival skills. Camps are held over various weekends through the spring, summer and fall in Cardiff, Ont. The late summer zombie camp is a mothers/daughters event.
Sept. 9-11, Oct. 14-16, $250 for three days.