John Stahmer

Review of Camp Manito-wish YMCA

I don't want to ruin the perfect five rating the c...

I don't want to ruin the perfect five rating the camp has going but it is missing some pretty key components of what I would consider a five star camp. Tops I would give Manitowish is a 3.5 - first not the camps fault but the lake water is not very clear maybe four foot visability. I know they will tell you it it has great water quality ext, ext but when I look at lake water I want it to pass the eye ball test either it looks clean or it doesn't and this lake doesn't. Second, I hope they got rid of this dumb rule but when I used to go the entire time you were on the canoe trip you had to have wet feet. Manitowish used to only really have two bouys 3 week options and one girls 3 week option which included a 5-7 day canoe trip with wet feet the entire time. I see now they have backed it off to two weeks which seems bettter in my opinion. Finally, the camp lacked anything really exciting - no sling shot that could launch you twenty feet in the air - no water skiing in other words they tried to mitigate liability. Ok fine I get it but it still costs you in my scoring system. With this being said it's the imperfections that would have me send my kids there it does help build character. Eat what they serve you, swim in a dirty lake and play with toys that don't have motors. The one thing I would want to know is if you still have to have wet feet the entire time? That's just stupid and not something I think needs to be part of a growing experience.