2026 Newsletter #3

Greetings from the shores of Lower Baker Pond!

As noted in the opening newsletter, occasionally the rhythm of a Pemi week will necessitate the weekly newsletter coming out on Wednesday rather than Tuesday, and this is one of those weeks. We’ve continued barreling along here with non-stop activities, games, trips, and fun. As Kenny shared in the Mess Hall this morning, we currently have Pemi campers spread out from Schoharie, NY (just west of Albany) to the Allagash waterways in northern Maine! It’s our farthest distance between campers for the whole summer (discounting Pemi West) and provides a physical manifestation of the breadth of the Pemi trip and nature programs. You’ll hear more about these incredible trips below, with more detailed final reports coming in next week’s newsletter after the boys have returned. Also not on site are our two-week campers, whom we said goodbye to on Saturday. When we handed out patches to these guys on Friday night, it was remarkable to see just how much they’d accomplished in their first two-weeks at Pemi. With a strong foundation now laid, we can’t wait to see what these boys do throughout their Pemi careers. Between these departures and all the trips out of camp, we’ve had a smaller number of boys in camp during Week 3 than we’ll have at any other point in the summer. If you’re thinking that’s meant that less has happened here at Pemi, read on to see just how mistaken you are!

As you may have gathered by now, Pemi’s trip, athletics, nature, music, and drama programs engage in dozens of distinct events throughout the summer, sending boys off on specific adventures, to compete in individual contests, or to perform in front of an audience. These make for easy newsletter fodder, as they naturally lend themselves to recaps that highlight all the boys who participated. While all that’s happening, Pemi’s visual arts programs engage many of our boys in fun, creative, instructive, and occasionally whimsical or absurdist pursuits that are harder to capture in writing but are no less deserving of celebration. Pemi’s head of art Mike Herrod has rolled out a fantastic series of activities for the boys to choose from. In Week 2 these included “Drawing Comic Characters,” “Pemi-Opoly (boys created their own Pemi Monopoly games),” “Carnival Week,” and “Portraits Party,” while in Week 3 the offerings are “Fantasy Trading Cards (making their own Magic, Pokémon, or sports-style cards on giant paper), “Wearables Week” (think tie-dye, paracord bracelets, etc.), “Rise of the Robots,” and “Calligraphitti.” In addition to these structured activities, there’s open art offered daily for boys to go in and continue projects or create something of their own invention. Pop in there any afternoon and you’ll find boys hard at work on a wide range of fun pieces, sometimes in serious concentration mode, other times laughing and joking with friends as they work. We highlight many of these amazing works at our end-of-summer art show, but they’re worthy of mention and celebration all throughout the summer too!

In the same vein, the boys have been churning out a stunning array of projects in the wood shop this summer. Head of wood shop Jon Taylor has brought a great new set of project ideas to one of Pemi’s oldest programs, inspiring the boys to create incredible pieces. The most popular new projects this summer have been river tables and Lower Baker Pond cutting/decorative boards. The boys, with Jon’s help on some of the cuts, carve out impressions from thick slabs of pine to create a layered depression in the wood. In the case of the river tables, they run through the length of the wood, and the boys fill in the bottom with pebbles, sticks, and leaves from our streams. They’re then filled with epoxy to create the visual of a river running through the wood. Similarly, with the Lower Baker Pond boards, the boys trace the outline of our lake on their slab, carve it out to various depths with Jon’s assistance, and then fill it in with different shades of blue to create the effect of shallow and deep water. Boys have loved working on these, and the finished products have been jaw dropping. In addition boys, as always, have the freedom to create other projects as well, and we continue to see an impressive series of tables, chess boards, boxes, and more. Pemi’s visual arts programs are having a fantastic summer here in 2026!

This last week has seen a number of Pemi’s marquee overnight and day trips head out, with boys going overnight to Madison Spring and Lakes of the Clouds Huts, Allagash, and Caving, and a group ascending nearby Mt. Moosilauke on Monday. The Madison Spring group – Joe Riemer, Ollie Dudra, Ben Miller, Charlie Milgrim, Danny Follansbee, Will Dennis, Micah Tolbert, and Charlie Knapp – left camp on Wednesday, hiked up to the hut which sits in a col between Mts. Madison and Adams, and stayed the night at 4,600 feet. Their ascent is known to be a challenging one, with a steep trail that causes even the hardiest Pemi camper to break a good sweat. It also takes the boys past a sign that reads, “the area ahead has the worst weather in America…even in the summer.” It’s always a conversation starter and a good reminder for the boys that they’re embarking on a special trip into true mountain conditions. Once at the hut, they enjoyed a hot-cooked meal for supper, with the AMC high huts being renowned for putting out gourmet meals from small alpine kitchens. They slept in bunk rooms on real beds with pillow and blankets provided by the hut and then awoke to music from the hut “Croo” announcing breakfast. They had another freshly made hot meal, like dinner complete with more hot cocoa than their counselors might consider advisable, before setting out for an amazing day of ridge hiking. Following the Gulfside Trail, the group navigated not by traditional trail blazes, but instead almost exclusively by rock cairns. These distinctive rock piles mark the way due to the entire trail being above tree line and the fact that when fog and clouds roll in, they’re large enough to spot in low visibility. Luckily for this group, the weather remained clear all day and they were treated to fantastic views as they approached Mt. Washington, which they summited in the afternoon before making their way down to be picked up.

The Lakes of the Clouds group left camp on Thursday, right as the Madison group was trekking along the Presidential Ridge. The boys – Ben Comey, Wills Waitzkin, Brian Lorig, Charles Grundy, Isaac Flecker, Dennis Taft, Finn Stephan, and Evan Robicheau – ascended to the hut nestled by a lake right below Mt. Monroe and only a 1.3 mile hike from the summit of Mt. Washington. The hut sits at over 5,000 feet, meaning it stays nice and cool up there year-round, but that didn’t stop the boys from engaging in a Pemi rite of passage: Polar Bear at 5,000 feet in a frigid alpine lake. It’s the most iconic Polar Bear dip that a Pemi camper can take. Like the Madison group, the boys were treated to delicious meals, comfortable beds, warm cocoa, and the chance to look back at the hut’s visitor logs and find entries from Pemi groups dating back decades. As they awoke Friday morning, however, that sign about the worst weather in America proved prescient, and the hut master advised them that the ridge forecast for that afternoon would not lend itself to safe hiking. The boys still set out early and were able to summit Mt. Washington before heading down the Lion Head trail to the Pinkham Notch visitor center for their pickup.

This week we’ve had two more legendary Pemi trips depart: caving and Allagash. The caving group of Ronny Guerrero, Charlie Milgrim, Oscar Quinn, Will Dennis, Danny Follansbee, Emmet Greene, Finn Stephan, Micah Tolbert, and Baz White will explore three different caves on their trip, immersing themselves in a totally new environment, including turning off their headlines to experience true darkness. The Allagash crew of Emmitt Baggish, Kai Karsan, Ezra Otubsin-Reese, Zach Pierson, Charlie Toomey, Nick McCay, Thomas McNelly, and Graeme Newman will spend five days on the waterways of northern Maine, traversing the most remote stretches of New England wilderness. Each of these trips could fill an entire newsletter, so we’ll await the reports from the groups and share more details next week and in Bean Soup.

While the aforementioned outings represent the pinnacle of the Pemi trip experiences, boys lay the groundwork and gain the skills to thrive on these trips from their excursions out of camp in their preceding summers. Getting started on that camping foundation, a group of Juniors headed up Pemi Hill last Thursday for their introduction to Pemi overnights. Simon Elalouf, Parker Higgins, Lysle Polsinelli, Alex Small, Julain Archambeault, Christopher DeGregorio, Campbell Hill, and Felix Malone made the hike up and enjoyed their stay before an early return the next morning for a full Friday of activities. We also had a group of nine- and ten-year-olds – Dan Koffler, Santi Losada, Henry Matlack, Oscar Mulholland, Elliott Tisdale, Ben Dietz, Theo Barker, and Oliver Wilson – head to nearby Mt. Cardigan, where they camped out on Wednesday night before climbing Cardigan the next day.

This week we’ve sent out an 11/12-year-old canoe trip – George Kingdon, James Herrman, Timmy Lorig, Josiah Soriano, Kingston Bowen, Hyland Butler-Scott, Ben Desiato, Francisco Lindeck-Pozza, Nate Levy, and Juan Cediel – to nearby Newfound Lake to explore a new (to us) campsite on Belle Island; had a group (Jake Black, Parker Brown, James Brennan, Chris Castellano, and Ben Comey) depart for the Ethan Pond campsite to hike Mts. Willey and Tom; and sent the crew of Mitchell Plante, Lucca Silvestri, Jam Torres, Nicholas Brown, Jasper Gandhi, Jaeden Lopes, Carlos Martinez, and Dylan Thibault up to Greenleaf Hut. Originally planned as an overnight, Sam Schwartz, Alex Small, Yaseen Usman, Alex Harcourt, Max Duque-Pacheco, Parker Higgins, and Riley Stroud pivoted due to forecasted bad overnight weather and set out today on a day hike up Mt. Cardigan. Trip counselor Jovanny Mora Bautista and I were also fortunate enough to lead Lucca Silvestri, Julian DeLisle, Sebby Liebel, Ollie Dudra, Joe Riemer, Dylan Thibault, Colin Mclean, Isaac Flecker, and Dennis Taft up Mt. Moosilauke on Monday. It’s one of Pemi’s premier day hikes and offers stunning 360º views, highlighted by looking northeast onto the Franconia and Presidential Ranges.

It’s been an equally busy week on the athletics front, with contests against other camps in basketball, soccer, floor hockey, swimming, baseball, tennis, pickle ball, ultimate frisbee, archery, and chess all taking place since the last newsletter (plus a track meet that was postponed due to weather). We had strong performances across the board, including during Saturday’s BVT Day where we had a series of round-robin tournaments with the other Baker Valley camps throughout the morning and afternoon. It was an especially strong day for our youngest competitors. In the morning 10s tennis went 3-0 with great play from Grant Hannon, Anson Norman, Theo Barker, and Ben Dietz. In the afternoon the 10s travelled to Walt Whitman for floor hockey with the squad of Henry Matlack, Theo Barker, Elliott Tisdale, Max Duque-Pacheco, Ben Dietz, Jaxon Wildgen, Armaan Kapur, Sam Schwartz, Ollie Turnbull, and Graham Smigler. Goals and great play came from Henry, Max, and Theo, while Graham was a rock in goal and the team went 3-0 on the day!

Earlier last week we had another good floor hockey afternoon, this time from the 11s, who went 1-1 and saw strong play from Morgan Greene, Russell Howland, Charlie Lombard, Hagen Baugher, and Remy Archambault amongst others. Russell and Charlie contributed goals, Hagen was a force on defense, and Remy was a brick wall in net, posting a shutout in our victory. In 12s tennis earlier this week, we had impressive play from a number of guys including 10-year-olds William Tice playing #1 singles and Ben Dietz going undefeated, Niam Santiago also going undefeated, and Hyland Butler-Scott playing in and winning his first ever singles match! Not to be outshined by all these younger guys, our 15s hoops team had a solid recent performance, going 2-1 on the day with leadership from Ezra Otubusin-Reese, Emmet Greene, Kai Karsan, and Jam Torres, a 13-year-old playing up with the 15s. Pemi also turned in a dominant swim meet performance, cruising to victory and getting over 30 boys across all age groups into the pool at Walt Whitman.

On top of these more typical Pemi sporting events, yesterday we sent a team over to Camp Kingswood for our second annual chess BVT. The Pemi team came to play, as Jacob Modzelewski, Albert Wolkowitz, Bennett Smigler, and Aahren Bhandari all went undefeated in the main draw and Alex Harcourt played and won a number of additional matches in the side round-robin. Chess tournaments are officially here to stay in the Baker Valley, and the Pemi team is ready!

On Saturday, the same day as our BVT Day competitions, we also had a group of boys participate in the Baker Ponds Butterfly Count, an annual butterfly survey that allows Pemi campers to engage as citizen-scientists. In the morning the crew consisted of Benjamin Desiato, Hugh Peterson, Saleem Usman, Max Herrod, and Ollie Dudra, joined by Deb Kure, Sandra Anzures, and Nick Gordon, who came up for the weekend to help lead the count. In the afternoon, Benjamin, Max, and Ollie were joined by Julain DeLisle, Charlie Lombard, and Ethan Woolford and staff member Andrew Kanovsky. Taking advantage of Nick’s presence at Pemi for the weekend, we also had a group go out for Birding Before Breakfast on Sunday morning: Pierce Golay, Santi Losada, Charlie Milgrim, William Moore, Timmy Lorig, Julian DeLisle, and Wills Waitzkin.

In the midst of all this action, we’ve had a number of opportunities for boys to engage in community service both on- and off-site in the last week or so. Pemi’s most visible community service project is our Cans From Campers initiative, founded and spearheaded by Dottie Reed. During our opening day food drive, Pemi families and staff donated over 520 pounds of food, or 17 full milk crates! Before bringing the donations over to our local food pantry, we sort them by type in order to streamline our delivery process. Our sorting team this year consisted of Henry Danzig, Dennis Taft, Emmet Greene, Will Dennis, Zach Pierson, Isaac Flecker, and Parker Brown.

A few days later we brought the food over to the Wentworth/Warren Food Pantry’s new location and helped stock the shelves. Our delivery team was Isaac Flecker, Parker Brown, Kai Karsan, Colin McLean, Finn Stephan, Nick McCay, Charlie Toomey, Baz White, Graeme Newman, and Dylan Thibault. In recapping this drop-off trip, Dottie wrote the following:

We learned that the food pantry serves 35 families every week in Wentworth and surrounding neighborhoods and need is only increasing. The boys asked great questions and, when it was time to go, Charlie Toomey led the way by shaking hands with Don Bagley, head of the pantry, and thanking him. Others followed suit. After the boys loaded into the van, Don told me that year-after year-we have the most polite and caring boys – that our Pemi community makes a significant difference in supporting those in need in our local communities and they are so very appreciative. 

Well done and thanks to all! If you’re a second-session family reading this ahead of Sunday’s arrival date, or a full-session parent coming for visiting day who forgot a donation in the rush to get to camp in June (or who simply wants to give again), please consider bringing your own donation of shelf-stable canned goods with you this weekend. We’ll repeat the process of sorting and delivering in the second session. We, and most importantly the Wentworth/Warren Food Pantry and their families, deeply appreciate the support in this vital endeavor.

Our other major community service project of the past few days was our volunteer work with the Prouty. Initiated in 1982 by four nurses from Dartmouth Cancer Center, The Prouty raises money for cancer research and patient services. It has become northern New England’s largest family-friendly fundraising event, raising millions of dollars annually. The 77-mile and 100-mile bike routes that form a core part of the fundraising traverse Route 25A, the road Pemi is located on. The hardest stretch of the whole ride is a 3-mile climb up and over Mt. Cube, right down the road from us. In order to assist riders as they crest this hill, Pemi campers operate a SAG (stop-and-go) Station, providing hydration, snacks, and vocal encouragement!

This year’s Prouty crew consisted of Parker Brown, Henry Danzig, Julian DeLisle, George Kingdon, James Brennan, Myles Woolley, Graeme Newman, Logan Ramsey, Micah Tolbert, PK Korb, Kai Karsan, Zach Pierson, Ezra Otubusin-Reese, Thomas McNelly, Emmitt Baggish, Nick McCay, Sebby Liebel, Dennis Taft, and Emmet Greene. The boys woke up around 5am, volunteered throughout the morning, and then many of them went straight to BVTs from there. They worked hard, brought tremendous energy and encouragement, and made Pemi proud!

With all this going on, it’s easy to lose sight of the fact that we’ll be saying goodbye to another group of campers in just a few days as our first session wraps up. It’s a sprint to the end at Pemi, regardless of which session you’re here for. This weekend is busy even by our usual Pemi standards, as we have the Birthday Banquet Friday night, first session departure Saturday morning, the full session boys off to the waterpark on Saturday, full session visiting weekend, and the opening day of second session on Sunday. Stay tuned for an appropriately jampacked newsletter next week!

– Pat Clare