Re: Summer adventure experience for 17-year-old boy
My daughter has had wonderful experiences with Camp Chrysalis, an outdoor nature and environmental education camp run by Lee Tempkin, a Berkeley teacher. He runs four camp trips a year, geared to different ages and levels of ability. Supportive yet challenging, we love the program for how it has engaged our daughter. Lee also keeps it very affordable, which is great! http://www.campchrysalis.com/ City mother of outdoorsy girl

Re: Nearby Sleepaway Camp for 9 Year Old Girl
My daughter loves Camp Chrysalis (the 9 year olds go to Big Sur), which is a camping and nature camp run by a Berkeley-based science teacher.

Re: Wilderness program for unmotivated video-gamer son
For the video-gamer son who need a Good Wilderness Program. Have you heard of Camp Chrysalis. This camp is the best. Call Lee Tempkin at 843-6157 or e-mail him at ltempkin[at]earthlink.net. or Michael Rossman at 849-1154 or mrossman[at]sbcglobal.net. They are the directors of this camp. The website is www.campchrysalis.com. They have different sessions and prices. My daughter, 16, has been going for years and would not want to miss it. This is just a wonderful camp. Please inquire. Brigitte

Both of my children (now 16 and 13) have attended both Echo Lake Camp and Camp Chrysalis and have loved their experiences with both. The two are quite different, however.

Chrysalis, is a nurturing, intimate and somewhat more controlled experience, carefully run by Berkeley teachers who've been doing this one camp for years. The kids get more direct contact with adults, more supervised and educationally relevant activities--although it is also quite adventuresome in various ways. The session my kids loved most was the Mendocino camp, which included early morning forays to the beach and an overnight canoe trip to sleep on an island. Chrysalis is also more face-to-face with nature in that kids sleep in tents, help cook their own food, etc. Finally, Chrysalis in my experience attracts a particular kind of family. Many kids are students at Berkwood Hedge or Ecole Bilingue, where the two directros taught for many years and there are more middle-class and private school kids.

Echo Lake, on the other hand, is kind of like a funky resort for city kids. There are many more kids and it's a more diverse and public-school crowd. Most of the supervision comes from teenagers who are former campers--all of whom in my experience have been great. Generally the kids love being with the teens. Activities are a little less seriously educational and there are a lot of hijinks. Also, Echo is more like camp than like camping--kids sleep on cots in tent cabins with wooden floors, eat in a dining hall, and swim in a pool. (Echo Lake, one of the most beautiful alpine lakes you'll ever find, is a half-mile or so away and too cold for lots of kids--a high point of each session is an early morning ''polar bear swim.'') Because Echo Lake Camp has been there since the 20's and because the Echo Lake forest service cabins were settled primarily by Berkeley residents in the 20's and 30's (including many Berkeley faculty and luminaries like the Sproul and Eshelman families), it has a nice community feeling--there are lots of silly songs and traditions that Berkeley kids have been doing for generations.

In short, both camps are great and your child is lucky to be going to both. Especially if he's going to Echo first, you might want to make sure that the Camp Director (who will be there when the buses leave for camp) knows that it's his first time away from home--just because Echo can be a bit chaotic. (You could also send a note to the camp and they'll make sure that his counselors get it.) But I'll bet he has a great time at both. Nina

I cannot recommend highly enough Camp Chrysalis, which my daughter has attended 4 times over the course of 8 years. It's for 8-14 year olds, with one backpacking session for ages 13-17. There are 4 sessions, one in Big Sur, one in Mendocino County on the coast, and two in the Sierras. The shortest session is 5 nights, the longest is 10 nights. It is a naturalist camp with real camping, wonderful camaraderie, lots of exploration and relaxation, fine food, great singing, and lots of playing and learning and being together. It's neither self-conscious nor tight-assed. A great alternative to the usual overly structured and regimented camps. Run by Lee Tempkin, now Director of the Community School of the East Bay, formerly a teacher at Berkwood Hedge for many years, and by Michael Rossman, "an ardent naturalist," who has taught science since 1972 and is at Ecole Bilingue. They commonly have a great team of counselors and CITs. Feel free to check it out: Lee: 843-6157, Michael: 849-1154. Karen (2/01)