Keewaydin Club – Adult Trips
Camping, canoeing, and fishing in the Canadian Woods.
Open to Keewaydin alumni, parents, Ojibway guests, and anyone who is ready to experience a Keewaydin canoe trip.
2023 offerings will be listed down below. Please be sure to read our participation expectations before registering.
For men and women, offerings may include local destinations, seeking out prime fishing spots, secret lakes, and cooling waterfalls. We also plan to navigate some kilometers of historic and beautiful rivers Keewaydin has traveled over the last 128 years.
Most trippers begin their adventure by arriving in the early evening, with 2 nights at Devil’s Island, providing time to acclimate, and jump into learning or remembering tripping skills, paddling, and portaging gear. On the second morning, trip staff will ready the crew for their canoe trip, paddling away from the main dock after a belly-filling Keewaydin breakfast. Following your trip, upon your return, and a hearty Keewaydin cheer, trippers can take a hot shower, and enjoy cocktails and dinner.
As the sun dips on the western horizon, Keewaydin’s tradition of trippers sharing stories around a fire is an essential and wonderful finale for a life-changing event. We are confident you will have some wonderful and likely comical stories to share! The next morning, after one last perfect sleep under the Canadian sky, trippers will head home after breakfast.
Why join us? Because…
Keewaydin Club adult trips provide the opportunity to hit the reset button by immersing oneself in the beautiful paddling of the Temagami region, cooking over an open fire, taking in the beauty of the tall pines and clean water, and SLOWING down. Trippers embrace the Keewaydin Way and feel the support and guidance of our veteran Keewaydin staff as you learn new or regain old skills, form connections, unplug, grow stronger, face challenges, build resilience and adapt and learn. Most trips are open to all abilities and will be strenuous at times. Note: This program is different from our “Ojibway Club Trip” program which is more self-designed and independent in nature.
Expectations for trippers include:
Being in good health, being physically able to be a contributing member of the section, and providing us with your up-to-date medical history. The Director of Keewaydin may, if necessary, decline a tripper’s participation if there is a concern for their health and physical ability to participate fully. Once registered for a trip, you will be sent a tripping and health questionnaire.
These trips are open to all abilities but will be strenuous at times. Participants should be able to lift 30-50 pounds, be prepared for physical work, carry things over uneven ground and challenging terrain and be comfortable spending long periods of time on the water. The group will paddle and portage according to the section’s abilities.
2023 Adult Trip Offerings
A $500 non-refundable deposit is due upon registration. If the Director cannot accept your registration or has concerns for your physical ability to participate in the trip, then the deposit will be returned. Reach out to the camp director to learn more about the experience. Click on the links below to register.
Women’s Trip:
July 30-August 7, Temagami region– Three nights in camp and five days exploring the beauty of Lake Temagami and surrounding waterways. For experienced or new to canoe trippers. Eight spots are available. Cost: USD $1350
Men’s Trips:
July 30-August 7, Temagami region– Three nights in camp and five nights exploring the beauty of Lake Temagami and surrounding waterways. For experienced or new to canoe trippers. Eight spots are available. Cost: USD $1350
We provide 3 meals a day, snacks, pots, pans, tents, canoes, paddles, life jackets (PFD’s), tripping and camping instruction, plus our awesome experienced trip leaders.
You bring your personal gear: clothes, sleeping bag, sleeping pad, plastic ground tarp, sun hat, toiletries, etc. Check out this Suggested Gear List!
We are excited to provide this opportunity and welcome you to a great adventure!
Contact Director Emily Schoelzel with your interest and questions. 802-352-4709 or [email protected]
Or
“The women’s trip was a great way to feel connected with nature, with the amazing women I met, and also with myself. It came at a perfect time in my life where I needed to refocus and balance myself. It did just that.”
Philosophy and Goals
Our philosophy is to offer trips for men and trips for women in the Keewaydin Way while acknowledging that adults travel differently than teenagers within the “way.” The trips are one to two weeks in length, often beginning and ending on Devil’s Island in Lake Temagami for orientation and organization. The shorter trips are for the less experienced canoe tripper who wants to see the Temagami area and experience a canoe trip the way their family and friends have. The longer trips are for experienced canoe trippers and can include river travel; these trips will be more physically challenging. Women are led by women and men are led by men.
The goal of any Adult Trip is for participants to connect with a Keewaydin they do not know personally or reconnect with the camp they attended. The group will become a team, where each member is essential to the group’s success. Through teamwork, a section grows into a cohesive unit, setting and achieving goals together, rather than surviving solely on the strengths of individuals. We hope the trips will foster further growth in self-confidence, strength, leadership, and self-reliance.
In order to achieve the goals mentioned above, the staff strives to help each participant learn:
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- Respect of oneself, others, and the environment
- To improve and master canoeing skills
- To camp for extended periods of time in a wilderness environment
- Decision-making for and with the group (vital to the success of the section)
- Cooking and food preparation skills
- Navigation skills
- To care for and respect Keewaydin equipment
- To recognize the accomplishments that occur over the course of the summer camp season
I am writing to thank Emily and their great staff for the fantastic adult women’s trip I experienced at Temagami. Our Wabimaqua section was fantastic and the staff was so excellent that I wanted to let you know in writing. Sarah Robbins, Lizzie Bourdelais, Maddie McClure, and Sarah Ingersoll were just stellar. These are very strong, impressive, cheerful, knowledgeable leaders. Their teaching, guidance, judgment, and attitudes were exceptional. They were able to judge our skills and our levels of abilities and adapt the trip to us perfectly. It was the right blend of challenge and enjoyment, and we had enough downtime to truly enjoy the wonderful campsites, swimming, sunshine, and delicious food they cooked for us. They taught us a lot, all the while taking on most of the most difficult duties and making them look easy.
We all had a fantastic time, and I know I speak for my fellow trippers in saying that we were both grateful and impressed with the staff’s level of expertise and ability to ‘read’ the group.”
