When Helen Waite started the Hante program in 1972, she was running trips during the summer out of the existing Camp facilities. Sharing food preparation spaces, storage, gear, and lodging, which was impacting both programs. It became necessary to create a space that acted as a base for Hante summer trips, but could also provide the foundation for year-round programming at Eagle’s Nest. Enter the Sun Lodge.
If you’ve been on a Hante Adventure, or know someone who has, you are probably familiar with the various offerings over the years. Hante has been to Mexico, Australia, Spain, Scotland, Belize, British Columbia, France, Ghana, and many other countries. Hante has also journeyed all over the US on various trips like bike treks, paddling adventures, backpacking, climbing, to both the Pacific and Atlantic oceans, and has seen so many young people step out and learn.
How does the Sun Lodge serve Hante? Our Hante trips typically start and end at our campus on 43 Hart Road, and so the Sun Lodge is a gathering place, gear and food pack out, group organization, and the ever important post-trip showers and final meal take place in the Sun Lodge.
“During my years in cabins 7 and 8, the Sun Lodge loomed above us, equal parts alluring and imposing. It was used as a cabin some of those years, so it was the domain of big kids and Hante groups. At that time, the Hantes would parade through the dining hall when they left campus, cheered along by all of camp. I did the Maine AT Trek when I was 13, and I remember the smell of wood and tea as I brought my trunk up the Sun Lodge stairs. The smell itself seemed to imply growth into a different sort of camper. We prepped at a breakneck pace–smearing tomato paste on parchment and dehydrating it in the plywood box with a hair dryer motor attached; slicing a side of beef and laying the strips on chicken wire over a low fire; baking heavy bread that we called pemmican; and claiming big bags of M&Ms. Then we piled into a van and drove, drove, drove to get to the rocky switchbacks, cool ponds, and dripping hemlocks of the last 120 miles of the AT. Getting back to the Sun Lodge felt like coming home, even though we’d spent a scant few nights there.” -Tom Rogers, (camper, Hante participant, Camp Staff, ENF Trustee)
History of Hante: Former Eagle’s Nest Camp Director Helen Waite envisioned an opportunity for teens to undergo a rite of passage that could shape their trajectory in life. From wide-ranging interdisciplinary studies of botany, anthropology, and music, as well as unique personal life experiences, she saw and realized how simple living in the natural world facilitates the process of self-discovery. At Eagle’s Nest, groups of young people interested in learning from each other and the world around them, ventured out from Camp and worked within their intentional community to find meaning in their shared experience. Whether they were as close as the Appalachian Trail or as far as a country overseas, participants were challenged by having to think beyond themselves in the face of uncertainty. Inevitably, every group returned connected – to themselves, to one another, and to a place that they were fortunate to learn from. Over fifty summers later, this practice continues, allowing people in one of the most transformative periods of their life to share an experience with others in a unique setting.
“Hante programs were centered on the self and soul, walkabout programs on the journey into selfhood. The Hante School was modeled on other cultures’ walk-about type programs. Cultural collaboration; we are all here on this earth together.” -Helen Waite
For young people in grades 8-11, join us for a Hante in Spain or North Carolina: Appalachian Exploration next summer! For information on Hante offerings for 2025, visit https://www.enf.org/hante-adventures/hante-adventures-2025/
