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Still, advocates of youth wilderness camps caution that not all programs are created equal. At their best, the camps combine the physical challenges of an Outward Bound-style experience with counseling to help troubled teens who have not benefited by more traditional intervention. At Camp E-Hun-Tee in Exeter, Rhode Island, which is run by Eckerd Family Youth Alternatives, Inc.-whose 14 camps nationwide are a model for other wilderness programs-at-risk youths spend as long as a year in the woods. "I'd rather be at home," says a 14-year-old E-Hun-Tee camper, whose mother asked that his name not be used.
He sometimes complains about staying out in the woods, but this boy, who had been taking drugs and getting into serious fights, admits the program seems to be helping. "They pay more attention to you than you would get at home," he says. His mother points out that he no longer becomes violent when he gets angry. "I knew a day program wasn't going to work because he was doing drugs at night. Being here 24 hours a day, he can't hide," she said during a recent visit to the camp. "When he was home, I could not keep him safe." The Bacons, of course, made a similar calculation-and turned out to be tragically wrong.
--Reported by Anne Palmer Donohoe/ Salt Lake City and Sharon E. Epperson/Exeter