Back-to-nature trips

I saw this article a few weeks ago, and it led me to Orenda. Camp Orenda is my new obsession. My 5 friends and I just returned from one of my favorite weekends of 2012. Here’s why… (where do I begin?) Camping for Manhattanites sounds exciting in theory, and then a worst nightmare when you start to think about the logistics – you’d need a tent, sleeping bag, hiking gear, stuff to eat, alcohol, then a place to store all of these investments in your 200 square foot apartment once you get back… by the time you add it all up, you quickly realize that you could go to Fiji for the same price as what seemed to be a simple camping trip for you and your friends. Camp Orenda solves every one of these snags and makes camping accessible, affordable, and one of the best vacation spots I’ve visited in a long time. Fiji Smiji, give me more Orenda. The campsite is a wonderland, but the experience would not have been the same without the people of Orenda. David (the owner and architect and head chef and designer and mastermind behind Orenda and terrifying campfire ghost story-teller) has hired a dream team. Everyone on staff is like Davy Crockett meets Mowgli meets a 5-Star Concierge. They recommend the best hikes, cook every meal, give directions, teach classes, hang with you at the campfire, all of it. All the food, and even soap in the rustic outdoor shower, is local. I love locally grown s’mores. Also, even though you’re in the woods, I noticed the whole time that all the food is prepared with sanitary gloves. Basically, they operate the kitchen as if it were located on Madison Avenue. It’s wild. My suggestions: 1) Go to Camp Orenda and stop even thinking about going anywhere that isn’t Camp Orenda. 2) Utilize the high-end refrigerator specifically designed for your beer (i.e. the Camp Orenda Creek). 3) Do all the freakin hikes that David tells you to do, and make sure that if you go up one side of the mountain, you go down the same side. 4) Go with your favorite people like I did because you can’t experience all the amazing times that Camp Orenda offers with duds. 5) Go swimming at Crane Mountain Pond even if you think it’s a little too cold because how often will you have the chance to go swimming on top of a mountain. 6) Outdoor Rustic Shower. 7) Kayak at Garnet Lake. 8) Bring bug spray – some of them are vicious. 9) Rustic Shower. 10) Tell David I sent you. 11) Unless you are using your phone as your camera, just plan to not check it and be a part of where you are and who you are with. 12) Rustic Shower, and repeat. 13) Drink a beer in the hammock. 14) Go to Camp Orenda. My favorite expression I have inherited from my family is “we’ve fallen into greatness.” We say it when life couldn’t get better. When my friends and I booked this vacation, we knew that it was going to be cool, but did not expect it to surpass our expectations in every way possible. We fell into greatness, and I can’t wait to do it again. - Tyler