05/06/2025
Carolyn here. If you are looking for a last minute summer experience for your young son or grandson (age 8-11), our Young Boys Camp is coming up soon...June 15-21, and we still have some availability. It's a wonderful, life changing experience for our campers who attend. At Turtle Island, we strive to inspire connection to the natural world, to develop creativity and independence in each camper, which ultimately leads to self-esteem and confidence...and we have lots of fun too!
I wanted to share a story written by our founder, Eustace, about a camper who literally "grew up" in our camp, as he attended many sessions beginning at a young age. Please take a moment to read his story and ENJOY. Here is the link for more info on our upcoming camp: https://www.turtleislandpreserve.org/camps-boys
Young Hebert from Louisiana, a return camper, who had absorbed our teachings on primitive skills and wilderness living for several years, asked our staff if he could go on a “walk about” surrounding our base camp. His parents agreed, and we sent him out for two days of solo trekking without food. He took a blanket but no shelter. He took his knife that he had made himself in our blacksmith shop class. He took a throwing stick that he had made and practiced with often, with the other campers. Most importantly in his mind and muscle memory, he took a bountiful amount of knowledge and confidence that we had nurtured with our programming. We told him to be back before nightfall on the second night and said goodbye; sending him into the wilderness solo at 14 years old. Within hours of walking through the wilderness, beauty and trail of freedom, he made his first kill. A meaty rabbit, taken with his trusted counter weighted throwing stick. A few hours later he made camp along a tiny pure mountain stream. He made his shelter completely from fallen limbs and leaves, solid and warm and dry. He rubbed two sticks together to make his fire to cook his meal of rabbit and nettle; the raspberries he ate fresh as an appetizer. The crawfish he caught on the rabbit intestines used for bait dangling in the stream at his camp. They made a nice finish, bright red boiled in the shallow cup of an indented carefully chosen rock on the edge of the fire, the same basin he had boiled his greens in. He slept well in his soft bed of leaves wrapped in his blanket at our high elevation.
He restarted his fire the next morning from the smoldering coals as he had experimented with many times at our camp. He wanted to cover many miles on this new day. He was traveling light, just carrying his blanket tied over his shoulder (with a rope he had made by firelight, twisting tree bark fibers together) and his stick tucked in his belt.
Eating a variety of raw greens during his walk he then stumbled on several laden cherry trees, fat with fruit. After eating his fill he thought of the other campers back at base camp and decided to bring them some cherries. He used his skill at peeling bark with his knife to make two large baskets and proceeded to fill them both with cherries. He came back to our team that evening heavily laden with his bounty. When he came into our circle all he said about his journey at first was “I thought you guys might be hungry so I brought you some cherries”.
His hard determination was covered by his soft ego. We had to pry the stories out of him starting with: Where did you get that rabbit skin?
Hebert took what we provided at Turtle Island Preserve and “ran with it”, or should I correct myself and state more articulately: walked calmly and peacefully with keen awareness.
