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YMCA Camp MacLean
Oct. 4, 2013
Burlington, WI
http://www.ymcachicago.org/maclean/
While driving through Wisconsin we were lucky enough to be contacted by Andrew from Camp MacLean. Andrew is a year round program director who helps with the fall, winter, spring groups that come through camp. Camp is beautiful and it is clear as soon as you walk onsite that they have a lot of pride for the place. One of the main attractions is the Mount MacLean Skyway, a huge ropes course that has some very unique elements to it. The Skyway was built by some car manufacturers and resembles the way that a car would glide along a factory line. The efficiency along with all of the cool elements is what makes it unique. There is no wait time because once you are up in the skyway you are free to move around and no one on the ground is responsible for your belay line. This frees up counselors to actually go climbing and playing with their campers, forming those personal bonds and connections that camp is all about. MacLean also has a great looking waterfront. Their lake is small enough so that it is not trafficked by big boats and big enough that they can host lots of water sports and an iconic blue jump tower. Andrew told us an interesting piece of history. Camp used to be a place where they harvested ice from the lake and transported it in box cars to the city of Chicago. One of these box cars has sunken to the bottom of the lake and they have a camp where kids can put some gear on and go diving down to see it!! In the winter months they use the pond to skate on but the also have the largest wooden toboggan run in the state of Wisconsin. The slide itself is incredible but so is the massive field that you land in. Check out the pictures!
- Laura