July 26-30, 2021: Advanced Wilderness Survival Day Camp in Puyallup/Tacoma

This week, participants will embark on wilderness challenges at a survival encampment. Shed the modern luxuries that you learned to value during introductory camps and put your skills to the test by trailing animals, foraging for food, purifying water, making fire and herbal medicines, crafting stone tools, and more while keeping your community’s camp safe. Transform your struggling colony into a thriving wilderness village!

Camp this year runs from 9:00-3:00 with drop off between 8:30-9:00, and pick-up between 3:00-3:30. Campers are grouped with others closest to their age within our hallmark 6-1 average student-teacher ratio that’s so critical for safe and profound outdoor experiences. You can also check out other day camps in Puyallup & Lake Sammamish.

Camp Goals & Skills

Traditional Survival Shelters, such as the Wickiup and Thatch Hut;
Practice Bow Drill method of fire-by-friction;
Natural Water Purification [seeps, filters, rock boiling, and locating natural springs];
Honorable Harvesting Methods, cooking, and eating the Top 10 Most Important Survival Plants;
Medicinal herbs of the northwest;
Cooking over an open fire and practice Wild Edible Foraging & Preparation (Herbs, Nuts, Roots, Flowers, Fruits, Insects);
Spinning natural rope for your shelter, bow-drill kit, shoelaces, and fishing line;
Breaking rocks for stone tools;
Stealthy movement in emergency situations;
Community planning and population dynamics;

Prerequisites & Itinerary

Available for Ages 8-14 with prerequisite any prior camp with us. Itinerary is uniquely designed by lead instructors based on advanced requests from campers and on the first day of camp.

Camp Leaders

Kim & Chris Chisholm guide professionally-trained staff instructors at our hallmark 6-1 average student-teacher ratio that’s critical for safe, profound and fun outdoor experiences. Read our FAQ’s for more details and check out camp testimonials dating all the way back to 1997!

Pickup/Drop-off Times & Location

Instruction runs 9:00-3:00, with drop-off as early as 8:30 AM, and pick-up as late as 3:30 PM, at Camp Curren, 13220 50th Ave E 98446 south of Hwy 512 off Canyon Road between Puyallup & Tacoma.

Pandemic Era Health Protocols

This year, in exceeding the state’s current pandemic era guidelines for day camps (pdf) and child care facilities, each camper must pass our health screening (and fitted-mask approval) every morning before being allowed to exit vehicles. We will have 4 independent camp groups operating on site at Camp Curran each week. Each group will share a toilet facility with one other group. Each group will consist of 9 campers with 1 lead instructor and 1 teenage assistant.

Hygiene protocols will remain as strict as last year: proper hand sanitizing whenever sharing tools and materials, before entering toilet, and supervised hand washing afterwards. Toilet facilities will be fully aired out (door open for at least a minute) between uses. Please click link above for our staff-related facility hygiene policies.

Outdoor distancing will not be as strict between campers this year if approved masks are worn correctly when moving, and when seated less than 6 feet apart. In other words, we will only monitor 6′ distances when campers are not wearing masks (whereas last year, we arranged campers into 12′ formations, even outdoors with masks, and vigilantly monitored so they never wandered past the invisible 6′ barrier). Staff will still maintain greater than 6 foot distancing from campers at all times, except when all parties are stationary and wearing masks to take temperatures, or to help with hands-on projects like archery training, etc. Distancing and mask protocols will only be relaxed further if every group participant is vaccinated, or the pandemic has abated.

Tuition

Please choose your contribution level for Puyallup Summer Day Camp weeks. It’s fine to mix and match prices if registering multiple children/weeks.

$485 to attend and sponsor a camper receiving financial aid.
$425 to attend and sponsor a camper applying for a merit scholarship.
$365 for 2021 rate which is set to cover our tighter 4-1 student-staff ratio during the pandemic era, and to recover expenses from last year’s pandemic-related cancelations.
$285 for 2020 rate is fine if you were not able to attend last year due to the pandemic, or are experiencing financial issues this year.
$225 if your camper completes a merit scholarship.
$165 if you successfully apply for financial aid to attend camp.

The only additional expenses you may incur for camp are that you will need to pack a lunch and snacks every day, and of course all campers need health insurance. Tuition includes organic t-shirt at your first camp with us, then either an orienteering compass, recommended field guide, firesteel or other essential depending on number of camps attended, age and availability.

Registration

Registrations for Summer 2021 will be taken in the following order.

First Priority: At this time we are accepting reservations from alumni (children who have been to camp in past years) as well as anyone who still has a deposit on file with us from 2020 pandemic cancelations. Simply send us an email with the dates you wish to reserve, and that’s it for now. We will send invoices starting March 14th, with deposit to confirm spots due March 26th. We will not accept payments before March 14th, and are not requiring balance payments until the end of camp (in an effort to reduce administrative time/refunds for missed camp days due to health screenings, unexpected travel, etc; we will not offer any refunds this year except in case of financial hardship, but we will continue to offer full credit to the following year for any/all missed camp days)
Second Priority: Starting on March 28th, we will accept registrations for campers ages 8-12 who can follow our health protocols, and either A) register for both camp weeks July 19-23 and July 26-30, or B) were on the waiting list or registered last year but not able to attend due to pandemic concerns. In the meantime, to be put on a priority list for these available spots, please send us an email with your name, preferred camp theme and dates, child’s name, birthdate, and assessment of ability to follow the pandemic health protocols written above. We will respond in 48 business hours with your place on the waitlist, and then on April 1st if we have space, we will email you an invoice and registration form which will need to be completed within a week for final confirmation. At that time, you can choose any deposit amount (non-refundable except in case of financial hardship) over $95/week that you’re comfortable with, and your balance (see tuition options above) will not be due until the end of the summer camp season. Deposits we have on file that are not used this year will be kept as credits for next year, no matter the reason for missed camp days.

Non-Pandemic Year Registration Process: Use the PayPal system normally below, or sign into paypal.com and “send money” to our email address, or call us at 425-248-0253 with a credit card, or open our Registration Form (Word or PDF or Google Doc) on your computer, fill out one per new participant (not needed for returning campers) and send or email it back to us. We also have a Bilingual Chinese-English Registration Form PDF or Word Doc. You can also send a check deposit payable to Wolf Camp, 1026 14th St. SW, Puyallup WA 98371 or fill out the registration form and pay deposits by calling with a credit card, or using paypal as described below.

Email us to be put on our our list for this program in the future. We always keep your information absolutely private, and will never share it.

Refund Policy: Deposits ($100 for day programs, $200 for overnight programs) are not refundable unless we don’t accept your application. If you cancel for any reason, you may receive a full credit good through the following calendar year on appropriate and available programs listed on our schedule, although an additional deposit is needed to secure your spot in the future program. If a program you sign up for is canceled and not rescheduled at a time you can attend, you may receive a full refund except in cases of natural (weather, geologic, wildfire, etc) disasters, epidemics, grid failures, government shutdowns, conflicts or curfews, or other unforeseen emergencies making it unsafe for staff and/or attendees to reach or use program locations, in which case all payments made will be held by us without expiration date for your future use in appropriate/available programs of your choice. Reasons include the expenditure of funds (property rentals, advertising, materials, admin staff time, etc.) long before programs take place, i.e. deposits make it feasible for Wolf Camp to schedule programs in the first place, but our mutually understood agreement is that Wolf Camp will run the program at the safest available time in the future. Finally, no refund, nor credit, is given if a participant is asked to leave a program for inappropriateness as determined by our kids, youth and adult agreements for participation.