Many Degrees of Family Fun

Darkness and a chill are falling over the High Sierra, exhorting visitors from the lowlands that it is time to eat.

In one of the nearby campgrounds, it would be time to huddle around a tiny butane stove, to minister to a freeze-dried, bubbling something. Down the road at a lodge, there would be a waiter to face down, one with a too-expensive bottle of wine who would sneak critical sidelong glances at my two rambunctious toddlers.

Instead, on this night I am scrunched into a table in an expansive, roughhewn mess hall with my wife and two children, preparing to dig into a hearty meal of roasted chicken, rice, salad and sheet cake, when suddenly . . .

A line of exuberant, rosy-cheeked 20-year-olds is dashing, helter-skelter around the long picnic tables. They’re assembling into a mob behind me. They’re clapping and singing. Loudly: “On our rugged Eastern foothills, stands our symbol clear and bold! Big ‘C’ means to fight and strive and win for blue and gold!” Etc., etc.

This ain’t no resort. This ain’t no lodge. And (with apologies to the Talking Heads), this ain’t no campin’ around. This, instead, is one of vacationland’s curious Middle Earths--a place of intensive recreation, of youthful quests and of communion with man and nature. It is college alumni camp.

Specifically, my family has arrived at the “Lair of the Golden Bear,” northwest of Yosemite National Park, where graduates of UC Berkeley and others have come for nearly half a century to hike, swim, fish, sing and renew old friendships.

Across the mountains, down in the Central Valley and even at the beach, several of the state’s largest universities are in the midst of a similar ritual--including UCLA, USC, UCSB and Stanford University. While the facilities are designed principally for the alumni and staff of each school, most offer lodging to nongraduates for little or no extra charge.

Many of the weeklong camps are booked solid through the height of the summer season. Some have waiting lists and lotteries to allot spaces in the most-desired weeks. But once you are in, you are essentially guaranteed a spot for the next summer and the summer after that and . . .

Tradition and camaraderie, after all, are hallmarks of alumni camps. Many families come back year after year as much to be reunited with friends as to enjoy the facilities, the scenery and the (relatively) reasonable rates.

Since I was a student in Berkeley (Class of ‘81), one of my pals had been telling me about the wonders of the Lair. She had stayed there at least 10 summers running as a child and formed her fondest memories there. She returned as a counselor when she was a Cal student and had a blast! She even had her first romance there! It was great!

With those hosannas ringing in our ears--and with the promise of at least four hours of child care daily for our 2-year-old daughter and 3 1/2-year-old son--my wife, Alison, and I decided we were prepared for this new sort of vacation. We chose the introductory three-night mini-week--at a cost of $490 for our family--to make sure we liked the program before embarking on one of the camp’s standard seven-night engagements. The only extra expenses during our stay would be a few candy bars and sodas.

The most daunting challenge of the vacation had to be the nine-hour drive (with liberal stops for the kids) from Los Angeles to Pinecrest in the Stanislaus National Forest, home of the Cal camp since 1949. When we finally arrived at our destination Wednesday afternoon, we had a reception that would prove to be quintessential Lair of the Bear. The offering from a camp counselor was austere, a Dixie cup filled with Kool-Aid, but completed with so much exuberance and goodwill you hardly noticed.

Next, we were introduced to our new home, a one-room tent cabin--a wooden frame on a cement slab with siding and door flaps made of canvas. Inside were two metal-frame twin beds and a set of bunk beds. Furniture consisted of three rudimentary box shelves and an old dormitory chest of drawers. A single bulb lighted the room and provided an electrical outlet. For a veteran backpacker this would feel like the Ritz. For a veteran of the Ritz, it would feel like a cell block. We quickly adapted to our new space, brightening it by hanging hats and jackets on pegs all around.

Being gathered in a week with mostly new campers, we had to rely on the staff to learn about the lore and tradition attached to the weekly summer sessions, which are numbered Week 1 through Week 12. Week 6 has become known for its high caliber of tennis, for example, and Week 3 for its margarita party, sponsored by a generous camper who gives away the frothy mixtures outside his tent along with 300 souvenir drinking glasses.

After 15 straight years visiting the camp with his kids, Jan Swanson (“A Week 5 guy, all the way”) didn’t know how he would adjust to summers away from the Lair. He didn’t have to. He became the camp manager and now works three months of the year in the mountains and nine months in his Stockton periodontal practice.

“I know it sounds corny,” says Swanson, 54, “but this is really a magical place.”

A little of that magic rubbed off on our family, particularly when my son, Cole, and I made a sunset foray to Pinecrest Lake, about one mile from the Lair. We arrived in time to catch the radiant golden light shining off the alpine lake and the far, granite shore. A few minutes later we were reeling in a pan-size rainbow trout, my boy’s first. He will forever be beaming with excitement in the snapshot that captured the moment.

Cole and Libby took immediately to the Kub Korral, the playground and crafts hut where children 4 and under assembled for two hours each morning and two hours each afternoon. And what self-respecting toddler would not enjoy a chance to have her face painted, to make a clay bird’s nest . . . to bounce a plastic dinosaur repeatedly off the head of an overindulgent counselor?

The good humor and charm of the 40 counselors, mostly current Cal students, smoothed over what could have been many rough spots for a young family camping together for the first time. Looking at the student counselors singing robustly, if unartistically, around the campfire each night, I couldn’t help but feel that we will be lucky if our kids turn out so well.

During the days, there was plenty of time for my swimming laps, for tennis with Alison and walks to the lake. Romping in the pool with the kids was a twice-daily ritual. Softball, basketball, volleyball, guided hikes and myriad other activities were also available, if we’d had the time.

With extra-clean toilet and shower facilities (as well as washers and dryers) only 30 yards from our tent, it never seemed like we were roughing it too badly. But the brisk night air in our cabin and occasional visits from creepy-crawlies reminded us that we were not quite home.

The food was mostly simple but hearty--chicken, pasta and flank steak for dinner with plenty of vegetables and rice or potatoes; fresh trout if you caught it. Massive sheet cakes or pies for dessert. Breakfasts were basic (bacon, eggs, pancake and cereal), with lunches ranging from grilled cheese to tuna.

I found the school boosterism palatable and mostly fun, although I could have done without a few of the over-amplified dining hall announcements. I’m told that many campers have no direct ties to Berkeley or the university.

If we didn’t already know the trip had been a success, that became clear Saturday morning. When I told the kids it was time to pack the car for home, they insisted: “But we want to go to the Kub Korral!”

Spaces at the Lair of the Bear can be reserved through its offices in Berkeley, (510) 642-0221. Applications, with $350 deposits, must be made by March 1 for the summer. A $40 fee for annual Alumni Assn. dues is required, with honorary memberships for nongraduates, providing full access to the Lair. A seven-night stay for a family of four (with two children under 12) costs from $1,020 to $1,200, depending on the ages of the children. Early- and late-summer spaces are easier to obtain.)

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The Lair of the Bear is the oldest of the alumni association summer camps. It is also the cheapest and most spartan in terms of accommodations. The other camps offer similar bonds of tradition, but with decidedly plusher trimmings.

Of the group, only UCLA’s “Bruin Woods” is open exclusively to UCLA alumni and staff. The other camps, with those easiest for non-alums to attend listed first:

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UCSB’s Family Vacation Center: For two months each summer, the San Rafael Hall dormitories on the UCSB campus north of Santa Barbara are converted to a family camp that is open to all, with slightly higher charges for those who did not attend the University of California.

The Family Vacation Center, in its 28th year, is within a few hundred yards of the ocean and prides itself on its intensive programs for children. Most of the college camps don’t provide care for children in diapers, but the center takes them from the age of 1 month. Counselors are responsible for a maximum of four children each.

Intensive programs in tennis and golf are available some weeks, as is an ocean kayak program. Those sessions tend to be the most popular. Only a golf tournament (greens fees, $30) and a horseback riding tour ($29) come with extra charges.

Because it is visited by alums from so many UC campuses and others, the Family Vacation Center has a less partisan “rah-rah” feel than some other camps. It also has more space available.

The UCSB Family Vacation Center, (805) 893-3123, takes reservations year-round, with returning guests getting priority, although spaces are typically available any week from the end of June until late August for those who book early enough. Members of any University of California alumni association pay $30 less a week, per adult, to stay at the camp. For a family of four with children ages 6 to 11, a week stay runs $2,070.

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USC’s SCAMP: The Trojan faithful take over the year-round Wonder Valley Resort near Sanger in California’s great Central Valley for three weeks every August. But as many as 40% of those who attend the camp, near the Kings River, are not USC graduates.

With wall-to-wall carpeting, private bathrooms and air-conditioning against the blistering heat, SCAMP is “camping Trojan style,” said Carol Troy Thueson, associate director of volunteer programs for the USC General Alumni Assn.

The camp focuses particularly on water sports--everything from water skiing and kayaking to sailing and fishing--at the Kings River and nearby lakes. There is also extensive horseback riding and the “Ropes Course,” a climbing regime that builds teamwork and camaraderie.

A friend who has attended SCAMP says the USC boosterism is fairly thick, with regular singing of the school’s fight song and various Trojan cheers. Families are also assigned a “pepster,” a USC student who is their personal child counselor and surrogate concierge.

SCAMP can be reached through the Wonder Valley Resort at (800) 821-2801. USC graduates and others are on equal footing in obtaining accommodations, which are still available for next month. A weeklong stay (at six nights, one less than the other camps) will run $2,490 for a family of four (with two children ages 7 to 12).

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Stanford Sierra Camp: The university’s alumni association has operated the camp on the shore of Fallen Leaf Lake, a short drive from South Lake Tahoe and bordering the Desolation Wilderness, for more than 30 years.

John Steinbeck came to these same shores in the 1920s to work after dropping out of Stanford, when the area was just an informal retreat for the university’s friends and families. The facility has been modernizing and upgrading ever since and now includes contemporary, condo-style cabins and a lodge that accommodates 270.

The ambience and dining fare are decidedly upscale, including an opening-night standard of filet mignon. The wine list features only wineries owned or operated by Stanford alumni, including the Silverado, Kendall-Jackson and Fetzer labels. (Wine and beer go for an extra charge, as do sweets and gifts at the Fountain.)

Stanford camps managers pride themselves on being less virulently partisan about their university than the other camps. They try to inspire fealty, instead, with faculty speakers, campy entertainments like “disco bingo” (a dancing, jiving version of the game of chance) and a week-ending slide retrospective on camp life.

Stanford Sierra Camp, (916) 541-1244, gives priority for its 12 one-week sessions to returning families. It holds a weighted lottery so that the more than 200 families on a waiting list have the best chance of being admitted. Theoretically, nongraduates can gain admission by paying a $100 fee, but spots for outsiders are few and far between. A family of four pays $2,440 for a two-bedroom cabin. A recommended, but not mandatory, tip of 8% or more goes to student staffers, potentially adding $195to the tab.

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UCLA’s Bruin Woods: UCLA’s Conference Center at Lake Arrowhead has been taken over by the alumni association’s camp every summer for the last 12 years. It’s been filled with UCLA alumni and staff, and their families, almost ever since.

The grounds of Bruin Woods are perhaps the plushest of all the alumni camps, with an expansive lawn in front of the main lodge and two-bedroom “condolets” (combination condominium and chalet) housing most campers. The facilities are particularly private for adults, since the children’s bed and bath are usually on the second floor.

A friend who attended Bruin Woods a couple of summers ago recalls running happily from water-skiing to archery to pottery classes while his children were tended by the UCLA student staff. An “Indian Village” in the camp is used to instruct visitors of all ages in Native American culture. There are also nighttime campfires and sleepovers at the village’s tepees.

Visitors in the middle of August will be treated to a guest lecture by UCLA law professor Peter Arenella, who was a guest at the camp in June. Arenella gained wide attention for his commentaries during the O.J. Simpson murder trial. Many of UCLA’s trademark “eight-clap” cheers, a camp staple, are sure to follow.

Applications to Bruin Woods must be postmarked no later than February to be eligible for a lottery for that summer’s reservations. Return visitors are guaranteed spots. Bruin Woods management said it takes three years, at most, to secure a spot at the facility. A week for a family of four (with children in grades 2 through 5) runs $2,240.

Rainey is a reporter for The Times’ Metro section.