Choosing a Program for your Group

Choosing the Appropriate Programs for Your Group

Christikon offers programs for senior high and junior high youth, both on-site-based and out on the trails. You an help your youth have the best possible experience by having them participate in the program for which they're best suited, and by helping to prepare them so they know what to expect. We hope the following descriptive information is helpful as you make your plans for the summer ahead.

On-Site-Based Residential Programs. While each session is based at our main camp site, hiking and overnighting away from the camp provide significant mountain experience for campers. When campers arrive, the are assigned to a cabin and a family group. As much as possible, assignments are made so that a camper is grouped with his/her specified cabin mate, but also with people from other congregations and areas. Cabins house from five to ten campers; each has at least one counselor. Family groups are formed by matching a boys' cabin and a girls' cabin to produce two family groups. Ideally, each family group is comprised of four boys, four girls, one counselor, and one adult advisor.

Consider on-site for senior high youth. For many senior high people, the on-site sessions are more appropriate to their interests and expectations than backpacking, and participants discover themselves both challenged and enriched. While activities in senior high sessions are structurally similar to those for other age groups, increased depth and breadth of experience is possible with the more mature group of youth.

Backpacking, CreationCare, Junior High Trails Camping. Trails groups are led by two Christikon staff people (one female, one male). Generally, there are ten (sometimes eleven) others in the group, including both youth campers and adult advisors.

Schedule. Trails campers stay at the main camp site (usually in their tents) on the first night after they arrive. That evening and the next morning are used mostly for packing-out and orientations. Groups leave prior to lunch and are out on the trails the next four (or five) nights. (Junior High trails groups set up a base site and hike out from it during the entire session.) Campers return to the main camp site on the last afternoon for clean-up, packing-away, etc.; they stay at camp that night, and are ready to depart early the next morning.

More than in the on-site-based program, trails campers find that the basic details of the trails life―setting up and taking down camp, cooking and cleaning up after meals, etc.― take up a significant amount of time each day. Actual hiking time may vary from two to six hours each day, depending on route, weather, and group abilities. We usually try to have at least one lay-over day, when we camp two nights in the same location. The lay-over may be used for a day hike, going up a peak, or just rest and relaxation.

Care for the creation is an important part of the Christikon life, and campers can expect both to learn low-impact camping skills and to be involved in rehabilitation of areas where poor practices have been harmful. We also work with the Forest Service in doing some trail maintenance. (Our CreationCare campers work at this up to eight hours a day.) As in the on-site-based program, the flow of life on the trails is punctuated and shaped by the faith. Regular parts of every day are morning and evening worship, Bible study, and Quiet Time. And we hope that mutual sharing of and growth in the faith go on throughout everything we do.

Ability levels. As much as we are able, we seek to tailor the trails experience to the hiking abilities of the campers. The Forest Service asks us to select and file our routes by May 1st. So it's helpful when a group can let us know in advance of special ability level(s) among its members, so we can match groups to routes as best as is possible. Even when we don't know group abilities in advance, we still try to adapt the experience to them as much as we can, so no one feels tyrannized by the exertion of the trip. At the same time, backpackers need to be prepared for what is unavoidably a more vigorous experience than on-site-based camping.

In the Christikon life, we seek to shape a special experience immersed in the splendors of our mountain terrain. The wonders of our wilderness offer a magnificent setting for us to be the church together.

Should your group be based in a residential On-Site Program or camp out in the Wilderness in a Trails Program?

When you choose the camping program(s) appropriate for your group, there are a number of dimensions you should consider:

The size of your group. Ideal numbers in our on-site programs are 65-75 campers. If you have more that 10 or 11 for backpacking, you will need to go in more than one group.

Common experience. Backpackers in a single group more nearly share the same events. On-site-based campers have a wider variety of program options; and because they are in differing "family groups," not everyone will have precisely the same experiences.

Diversity of participants. Campers in a backpack group are usually all from the same congregation, and find an intensification of those specific relationships. On-site-based campers have more contact with the "larger church," and share the time with people from a variety of congregations and places. Both experiences can have great value for congregational life back home.

Wilderness experience. Trails capers clearly have the more prolonged encounter with the Wilderness, including the more primitive lifestyle that goes with it. While on-site-based campers have significant contact with the wilderness on hikes and overnights, they also have access to more of "civilization's amenities" (like indoor plumbing).

Physical abilities. Generally, trails camping calls for people are not displeased by the higher level of physical activity.

Consider Offering your Youth both On-Site and Trails Camping

During several of the summer's sessions, it is possible for some of your youth to participate in the trails program, while others are in the on-site-based program at the same time.

Senior High: The Trailblazers session (on-site) runs simultaneously with Mountaineers II (backpacking) and CreationCare II (trails service project). Senior High on-site and backpack programs are integrated with each other the first and last nights, when everyone is in camp at the same time.

Junior High/Middle School: Two of the Prospectors sessions (on-site) run parallel to the two Wayfarers Junior High trails programs, enabling youth from your congregation to register for the session most appropriate to their interests and abilities.

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