THE CAMP EXPERIENCE

CTO Ultimate Summer Camps are an experience like no other!

    People always ask us what camp is like. There’s so much to tell! If you’ve never been to our camp before, you’ll have to daydream a bit...

     Imagine more than a week of real hunting and fishing, on a spectacular working ranch, shooting guns and bows, learning new outdoors skills, and making new friends!

     We keep our camp sessions very small, typically with fewer than 15 campers, to make sure each young man has a special and meaningful time.

     We don't follow a rigid schedule. This is a hunting camp. That means if the fish are biting, we go fishing; if the animals are moving, we go hunting; or if it's raining we may mud wrestle or watch a John Wayne movie or just relax. Being hunting camp, we give the campers all the freedom they can handle.

     Because it's summertime, and because we're up late most nights, we don't set a morning alarm clock. Get up when your body's ready to the smell of a down-home hunting camp breakfast.

After breakfast, depending on the day, the morning activities may include shooting bows or guns (.22s, deer rifles, muzzleloaders, shotguns), learning a new skill from an expert (everything from ballistics to wildlife photography to survival to taxidermy), processing the game harvested the night before (including making great sausage!), exploring the ranch, working on a ranch project (like building ground blinds or fixing fences), swimming, or just hanging out. Of course, as with every CTO function, safety is a primary focus. Everything we do follows, and teaches, the safest and most responsible behavior.

     After the morning activity, we're back at the lodge for a great lunch and some needed rest and relaxation. Then it's off for the afternoon activity, which will be something different than the morning, but equally cool.

     Dinner is usually something special, most likely wild game harvested and processed by the campers - could be chili, hamburgers, pot roast, sausage, spaghetti. You can cook lots of great food with wild game! We barbeque a lot, and the campers get to help out as much as they want.

     As soon as dinner is over, our hunters head to the field with their guides. Campers go out in pairs with a trained and experienced adult guide, and we'll usually send out about half the campers on any given evening. The ones who don't hunt will usually go fishing or swimming.

     Depending on the session and the quarry, hunters will sit in the blinds built by the campers, drive around and spot-and-stalk safari style, or hunt out of a specialized bow blind, in pursuit of exotic game and wild hogs. Thanks to the abundant game of the ranches we hunt, hunters will usually see plenty of game and have an opportunity to select a great animal to harvest.

     Of course, this being real hunting (not a canned hunt!), some days we'll see nothing. But we do a lot of scouting, pattern the animals, and never put too much hunting pressure on them, so over the course of a camp session, our success is usually near 100%.

     After the evening hunt, we gather around the "gut shack" as the hunters bring in their game. It's great fun listening to the hunters tell their stories as we clean the animals and hang them in the cooler.

     After we wash up, it's off to campfire. This is where we wind down and discuss some meaningful things, like who God is and what it means to be a man. We really bond as a group at campfire, and it becomes a very special place for the campers, staff, and guests.

     Many nights after campfire, we’ll go out spotlighting for varmints. Lots of fun!

     This is not a "church camp" but it is a Christian camp. Throughout each day, we have some Bible readings and meaningful discussions on deeper issues about the Creator and His Creation. We have a cool outdoors chapel service on Sundays, and a powerful closing ceremony on the last evening, where the staff gives each camper a special gift.

     On the last day of camp, the campers prepare a wild game dinner out of the game we harvest and prepare, and serve it to their families. Then it's time to go home. (Warning: Campers never want to leave!)

     On the way home they'll be endless stories about the exciting fun, new friends, and meaningful lessons that are a part of every CTO Ultimate Summer Camp! Way beyond the ride home, there will be permanent changes evident in the campers, as there's something about these camps - despite the fun, adventure and excitement - that has a profound way of helping young men grow more mature, closer to their families and friend, and closer to God.

     After camp, campers are encouraged to stay involved in CTO. We have outings and activities year-round, including all kinds of hunting and fishing trips. Stay connected to your hunting buddies and continue to become a more skilled outdoorsman, a more responsible young man and a better Christian. That's what CTO is all about!

     We hope you'll join us at summer camp!

 

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