The Big Outdoors Just Got Bigger -- Cyo Camp Thrives After Bumpy Start

-- MONROE

Beverly Neubauer hasn't been too happy about the food, but the part about making kites has been just fine.

And Kevin George says the walks are too long and getting up at 6 a.m. to go fishing is just a little too much sometimes.

Some of it may sound like complaining, but to Vickie Butler the comments of the two 13-year-olds are music to her ears.

They are, after all, getting a real camp experience - something Butler wasn't absolutely sure she could expect when Camp Hamilton opened for the first time just south of Monroe earlier this summer.

The Catholic Youth Organization moved its summer camp to Snohomish County this year after outgrowing its former site, Camp Cabrini, in King County. Construction of the new camp, which sits at the top of a hill at about 1,200 feet, just a stone's throw north of the King County line, began late last year.

This summer's first eight-day session was canceled because the CYO camp wasn't ready to welcome the children. Some buildings were unfinished. So was the electrical wiring. Earlier this week, some of the new canoes were still missing their seats.

``We didn't even have any showers for the first couple of weeks, but the kids didn't mind at all,'' Butler said. ``Our motto has been flexibility all summer long. The staff really persevered a lot.''

Now, as Camp Hamilton winds up its first summer on Saturday, Steve McAuliffe, executive director for Catholic Youth Services of the Seattle Archdiocese, can't help but call the season a success.

``It has been a battle sometimes to get everything to work, but we are moving ahead,'' he said.

The new camp also is providing a much more rural experience than Camp Cabrini, which was rapidly being surrounded by housing and commercial development.

Even some of the children were beginning to feel that going to Camp Cabrini was just an outing to suburbia.

``It felt like we were in the city,'' said Sarah Smith, a 13-year-old Edmonds resident who went to Camp Cabrini last year. ``This is so new - so secluded. There's no one to bother you.''

It was McAuliffe who found the site more than three years ago, and he agrees the new camp has restored a sense of being in the wilderness for the young campers.

The camp, which is named after Gordie Hamilton, a CYO camping pioneer, is surrounded by heavy forest, most of it owned by Weyerhaeuser. The site is far from crowded suburbia.

The children have nearly a square mile of land and an 80-acre lake. The lake itself is bigger than the old property.

``We have to walk everywhere'' said Kevin George, a Lake Stevens resident. ``At Cabrini you barely had to walk anywhere.''

``It has been perfect for the kids,'' Butler said. ``We have tons of deer, and several other animals.''

In one particular scavenger game, deer tracks were on the list.

``They found the whole deer,'' Butler said.

All the work is far from finished, but after a successful shakedown season this year, McAuliffe said Camp Hamilton will be ready and waiting - and a lot more comfortable next summer.