Trip Camps

Trip Mission Statement and Goals

Camp Chase Adventure Trips strive to facilitate wilderness experiences that challenge campers personally and interpersonally. Itineraries provide participants the opportunity to intimately interact with their surroundings through a wide variety of activities. Because campers are off-site everyday on a different adventure, outlets for developing outdoor skills, environmental stewardship, and group dynamics are diverse and adaptive. Our Trips are designed to build outdoor knowledge and skills over time, so that campers are continuously introduced to new intricacies of the natural world, and may eventually follow Camp Chase’s Outdoor Leadership Track to become facilitators of exploration for other campers.

Wildlife Explorers

Grades (4-6) Sessions 1-4
Wildlife Explorers - grades 4-6: This is our youngest off-site Trip program. It focuses on telling the story of the place we live in. Sessions are developed thematically so that campers can delve into a different element of the outdoors in each session. Possible themes are: Winged Creatures; Rocks, Fossils & Glaciers; and Aquatic Habitats. Campers are introduced to outdoor skills such as tracking, fire building and shelter construction. Many programs are run by staff at other environmental education facilities, while some are led directly by trained and certified Camp Chase Adventure Trips staff. Wildlife Explorers embark on a one-night campout at Camp Jewell YMCA in Colebrook, Connecticut.

Sample Itinerary
Days 1 & 2 – In-camp outdoor exploration, Teambuilding and ropes course initiatives
Day 3 – Marsh and Waterfall exploration at Sessions Woods in Burlington, CT
Day 4 – Pond Play at Wolcott Park in West Hartford, CT
Day 5 – Mystic Aquarium!
Day 6 – Day Hike and Bog exploration at Mohawk State Park in Goshen, CT
Days 7 & 8 – Beaver Fever Program and Overnight at Camp Jewell YMCA in Colebrook, CT
Day 9 – Marine Creatures at Hammonasset Beach State Park
Day 10 – Llama Treks and Closing Ceremony in Lee, MA

Outdoor Adventure

Outdoor Adventure
Grades 6-8, Sessions 1,3,4
This program focuses on developing basic adventure skills. Campers visit state parks and forests all over Connecticut and Massachusetts. They also may find themselves kayaking, canoeing, rock climbing and white water rafting. A one-night/two-day camping trip enables campers to practice skills such as fire building and wilderness orienteering. High Ropes Challenge Courses are always a highlight of an OA session!

Outdoor Adventure
Grades 9-11, Session 2
Trips for older campers are more intermediate in skill, though they still provide a range of challenges to fit different experience and comfort levels. Campers may encounter more intricate rock climbing faces, Class I-II white water kayaking, and a two-night/three-day camping trip at a State campground in Connecticut or Massachusetts.

Sample Itinerary (activities vary by year and session)
Days 1 & 2 – In-camp outdoor exploration, Teambuilding and ropes course initiatives
Day 3 – Rock Climbing at Porcupine Hole in Farmington, CT
Day 4 – Day Hike at Bash Bish Falls State Park in MA
Day 5 – Canoeing on the Farmington River
Day 6 – Llama Treks in Lee, MA
Days 7 & 8 – High Ropes and Camping Trip at Alander Mountain in Washington State Forest in MA
Day 9 – Day Hike at Sleeping Giant State Park in Hamden, CT
Day 10 – Tubing on the Farmington River and Closing Ceremony

Life sure is easy on a raft, ain’t it Huck?
- Mark Twain

Click Here to Meet our Outdoor Director

“Now I see the secret of the making of the best persons, It is to grow in the open air and to eat and sleep with the earth. "
- Walt Whitman