Meadowlarks is a unit designed to introduce young campers to backpacking. In the middle of a week full of all the normal camp activities, the unit goes on a day hike outfitted with backpacks, food, and equipment to get a real taste of trail life.

The unit is coached by experienced counselors and often by a buddy unit of older backpackers. There's lots of opportunities to have questions answered and to explore new opportunities. The unit cooks a backpacking dinner for lunch, then after an afternoon of relaxation they head back in to camp, eating the trail lunch for dinner! (This switch gives the unit a more relaxed opportunity to cook with backpacking stoves for the first time.)

Not sure you're really ready to go backpacking? Don't let the day hike intimidate you! It's just a day hike with a cookout lunch - once you're back in camp again, life returns to normal. Normal for camp, that is! Crafts, archery, swimming, funyaking, trips to the Beach and the Cove, singing, and doing kapers!

The Meadowlark unit was formerly the Swamprat unit, and it was renamed in 2002 after our beloved camp director Meadowlark.