45 Adults, One Secret Wedding, and Zero Small Talk: Camp Lola Whiskey 2026 Recap
Guest blog by Mel Ripp, CLW 2026 Camper (Tang Gang represent!)
The whole gang preparing for the CLW World Games
“You know what’s so cool about this moment?”
Brian and I were standing next to each other on the last night of Camp Lola Whiskey 2026, looking out on the dance floor—a patch of grass covered by a rain-soaked tent—where 45+ grown adults in neon tracksuits and Rainbow Brite t-shirts were singing at the top of their lungs.
There were a lot of cool things about that moment, but I played dumb. “Nope. What?”
“That I don’t know what most of these people do for a living. I have no idea what political party they belong to. All I know is that everyone knows and loves the same Backstreet Boys songs, and that’s pretty great.”
No lie detected there. It WAS pretty great.
As a first time attendee of Camp Lola Whiskey and a known introvert—I identify with being one so much I introduce myself that way—I had no idea this would be my reality on the Saturday night of camp. That I’d be having so much fun. That I’d made 45-ish new friends. And most surprising of all: that I’d want to come back.
Camp Lola Whiskey is a four-day adult summer camp on the Chippewa Flowage in Hayward, Wisconsin, created by Laura Ericson of Type 2 Travel. Forty-five of us showed up in August 2026 for tie-dye, a Brandy Old Fashioned fountain, a pontoon bar crawl, an all-out World Games competition, and — surprise — a wedding. This is my full recap of all three days, as a first-timer who came alone.
So let’s rewind to the beginning, shall we?
Thursday: Old Fashioned Fountains & Ice Breaker Bingo
Day one is arrival at Timber Kove, getting a canned cocktail on the spot, a Wisconsin-themed cocktail hour with a Brandy Old Fashioned fountain, icebreaker bingo, hot ham sandwiches from Ray's, and the first campfire.
You know your Camp Lola Whiskey adventure is off to a good start when you see a road sign you’ve never seen before: “Elk Crossing Area.”
Only in Northern Wisconsin
Was this going to be the Wisco version of a Kenyan safari? Was I going to get to see the Wisconsin Big 5—elk, bears, otters, wolves, and…loons? (This bird nerd had never seen a loon up close.)
I pulled into Timber Kove, our digs for the weekend in Hayward, Wisconsin, and was instantly greeted by Camp Counselors Jenna and Dalia, who handed me a Tattersall canned cocktail and my camp lanyard. My fun fact is…not so fun, but it’s true:
What more can I say?
After unloading all of the stuff I thought I’d need for three days—an entire trunk full of pool floaties, 20 t-shirts, bug spray, and three large containers of Tang (the reason for which will become clear on later), and freaking out over how much awesomeness I found in the camp goody bag on my bed, I met my fellow campers for a Wisconsin-themed cocktail hour and to get a lay of the land.
The epic bar setup at CLW
This was my first time seeing a Brandy Old Fashioned fountain up close, and it didn’t disappoint. Let’s just say those Tattersall Brandy Old Fashioneds were…flowing.
Icebreaker bingo followed, where we quickly bonded with each other over our collective weirdness, and I learned that a person who unpacks immediately after a trip (me) is considered a sociopath. Oops.
There were many fellow Wisconsinites, Minnesotans, a few folks from Illinois, but what impressed me the most were all the folks who hopped a flight to get here, including Jessica from Denver, Krystina from Seattle, Wendy from Pasadena, and Alec from NYC. They weren’t even the people who had traveled the farthest, though—that distinction goes to Daniel and Ronald from Argentina.
What can I say? Camp Lola Whiskey attracts the international crowd!
A dinner of hot ham and hot beef sandwiches direct from Ray’s in Eau Claire followed—and of course, more Old Fashioneds. I got an entire box of StillBranch Old Fashioned syrup mix in my camper bag so I can keep making my own camp cocktails at home—the camp sponsors were insanely generous this year!
Our bellies full, we retired to the first campfire of the weekend, while others went to the boat dock to take in the lunar eclipse (on display just for us, of course).
Day #1 in the books, and I already knew: this wasn’t the typical summer camp.
Watching the lunar eclipse on the lake
Friday: Friendship Bracelets & Fish Fry
Friday runs from a self-care "Detox Before You Retox" morning through a mimosa bar, a food truck lunch and pool party, the craft tent, and a themed pontoon bar crawl that ends at a Wisconsin fish fry.
I emerged from my cabin in my pajamas, feeling completely normal until I ran into Adam, decked out in a full robe and velvet slippers. After a much-needed coffee and many, many donut holes, I kicked off my morning with Detox Before You Retox, Camp Lola Whiskey’s version of self-care, while others were much more ambitious with a morning yoga session.
After layering my tired face with undereye patches and a green tea face mask and giving myself a nice row of cat-themed temporary tattoos, it was time for a DIY barista and mimosa bar, sponsored by camper Mea and her company Sexlectics, followed by an early afternoon pontoon cruise on the Chippewa Flowage.
Y’all. I’m from a pretty part of Wisconsin (shout out Door County!)—but these views were BEAUTIFUL.
Our morning pontoon ride on the Chippewa Flowage
After the pontoon boat ride, it was back to camp for a food truck lunch of corn dogs, smash burgers and cheese curds from Fat Kid Foods and swimming/floating in the pool for the afternoon (with no parents telling you that you needed to wait 20 minutes after eating to get into the pool, I might add).
Later in the afternoon, I walked up to the epic Camp Lola Whiskey craft tent, where I spent the rest of the afternoon coloring, making beaded friendship bracelets, and of course clay camp-inspired magnets, led by Camp Counselor Rachel, our resident art teacher.
My clay magnet art
As evening approached, it was time for the Wisconsin Pride Pontoon Ride—a lakeside bar crawl with a stop at a few bars on the flowage before getting to dig into an authentic Wisconsin Fish Fry for dinner. It was a full-on “Wisconsin Pride” dress code, and everyone understood the assignment. Badger gear, Packers gear, a “We Interrupt This Marriage to Bring You Fishing Season” hat, and plenty of dairy cow print—the creativity was STRONG with this group.
(Not shown: the karaoke part of the pontoon ride where Jason and Erik expertly duet-ed on George Michael, Betsy did Ludacris BETTER than Ludacris, and Laura G. and I might have performed a rendition of the theme from RENT so good it belonged on Broadway. Or, maybe Off Off Broadway?)
The crew at our first Wisconsin dive bar
We got back to camp around sunset, where a full-on gourmet sweet and savory s’mores bar awaited us—complete with homemade marshmallows and graham crackers from North Mallow. A perfect ending to the second day of camp.
Saturday: Ragrettable Choices & an ACTUAL Wedding
Saturday is the big one — tie-dye, a Bloody Mary bar with a pickle fountain, the Camp Lola Whiskey World Games, cocktail hour, a surprise wedding, a Hall of Fame awards ceremony, supper club dinner, and an 80s/90s dance party.
Saturday started with a bagel and yogurt bar breakfast (I also ate my delicious Olympia Granola bar, because I’m a carb monster) and another first for yours truly: t-shirt tie dying.
(I know, I know…where have I been?)
Tie dying our camp t-shirts
Then, shit got real. I fueled up at the 45th Parallel Distillery Bloody Mary bar, complete with a pickle fountain. I went a little wild and tried the Ginny Mary with their Barrel-Aged Gin, and honestly, I was pleasantly surprised how much I loved it.
If you’re a bloody lover like me, check out the CLW secret recipe.
Then it was time for the main event: the Camp Lola Whiskey World Games. The trash talking and strategy for the World Games had started weeks before in our camp WhatsApp chat, with all six teams—the Purple Nurples, Golden Showers, Blue Balls, Red Flags, Regrettable Choices, and my team, The Tang Gang—getting ready to unleash our inner competitive demons.
The Tang Gang, ready to win it all
The rain didn’t deter us from enthusiastically doing all of the ridiculous challenges—competitive bags (or cornhole if you’re…from elsewhere); building a tower out of cheese, marshmallows, and spaghetti (where my team quickly learned we had probably drank too many Bloody Marys to be good at this one); trivia, and, trying to get the most water into a bucket that was constantly leaking with tools that were ALSO constantly leaking.
The CLW World Games were evil, but also the best
Don’t ask. Just know it was an epic battle between the teams, with Blue Balls and Regrettable Choices moving into the final round, which included a spelling bee and a blind taste test finale. The green team—Regrettable Choices—emerged victorious!
(Also, ironic that the Blue Balls team lost the spelling bee to a guy who had a “No Ragrets” tattoo across his chest.)
The CLW 2026 spelling bee champ, Chris
After all the shenanigans, it was…honestly, time for a nap. And good thing, too—because we had NO idea what was coming for us in a few hours’ time.
A few hours later, we gathered for The Satiated Hour, an amazing grazing table and cocktail happy hour sponsored by camper Laura Gouin and her company, Satiated Artists. (I’m still dreaming about that blueberry cocktail.) We came more dressed up than the previous dinner, having been told that we were having a supper club-style meal under the camp tents.
That was true, dear reader, but first…a wedding. Yes, A WEDDING.
At the happy hour, we were handed these cards. On them was a photo of Laura, Camp Lola Whiskey creator and Type 2 Travel founder, and her camp counselor fiancé, Erik, with the words “We’re getting married.”
Cool. They just got engaged about a month earlier, so that made sense.
Then, we all took a closer look. Actually READ the damn thing.
They were getting married. At camp. Like, RIGHT NOW.
The bride and groom getting hitched by the lake
Collectively, we all realized what the hell was happening and sprinted to a clearing near the pontoon boat launch, where we saw Laura in a white dress, Erik next to her, and camper Alec in a tuxedo t-shirt, getting ready to have a ceremony.
There were a lot of tears and laughs. It was the best 15 minutes of camp.
How does one top a surprise wedding? They don’t.
Not sure how anything could have topped that, but somehow, the evening got better—live music by The Nunnery, a Camp Hall of Fame ceremony to hand out awards and prizes to commemorate the weekend’s best moments and worst decisions, and a true supper club dinner with homemade mac & cheese and meatballs. The perfect base layer for the epic 80s/90s dance party that was to follow.
I can’t even put into words the joy of this dance party, by the way. I got to show off my karaoke skills to Young MC’s “Bust a Move,” I got to see dozens of grown people scream-singing to “I Want It That Way,” and there were also…glow necklaces.
I was a (wait for it)…happy camper.
Still went to bed by midnight, tho. An introvert’s gonna introvert!
The Georgia 2025 crew nailed these outfits
Another cool part of the evening: many of the campers had been on Type 2 Travel trips before—including myself. So camp also functioned as a mini reunion for people who had already traveled together. Almost all of the group that went to Georgia last fall was at camp, as well as part of both Kenya groups last spring, multiple Cuba groups, CDMX, India, and more.
Christine and me, representing Cuba 2025
Sunday: Goodbyes & Already Missing Camp
Sunday morning looked like every last-day-of-camp you've ever had: coffee, breakfast, a lot of hugging in a parking lot, and everybody promising to stay in touch.
Except this time we actually have. Our camp WhatsApp chat was busy before camp—and somehow it's busier now. Half of it is inside jokes that would take twenty minutes and three photos to explain to an outsider. The other half is people genuinely showing up for each other: when a handful of people in our group had delayed flights, another handful was right there, offering a place to stay for the evening.
Which brings me back to the beginning of this…novel.
The thing that made camp work wasn't any single activity — it was three days where nobody's job, marital status, or political preferences mattered.
It came up—of course it did. Over morning coffee, on the pontoon, at the craft tent, we learned what people did for a living, who had kids, who had a partner, who was in the middle of something hard. But it never became the point. Nobody was networking or sizing anybody up.
Jobs, kids, mortgages, cars, political affiliations—the whole résumé we hand each other at parties—none of it mattered.
What did matter: having fun. Getting reacquainted with the version of ourselves that existed before a job or responsibilities ever did. Connecting with the person standing next to you who also, coincidentally, was wearing a neon tracksuit.
Turns out you don't need a single one of those other facts to have a genuinely great weekend with forty-five people.
And then there's the part I really didn't expect…
Somewhere between the “Elk Crossing Area" sign and the secret wedding, I realized how long it had been since anything caught me off guard.
Humans aren’t built to love surprises. We want to know what's coming. We read the itinerary twice, check the menu before we go, ask what the dress code is, mentally rehearse the weekend before it starts. Being a competent adult is more or less the practice of arranging your life so that nothing surprises you.
Camp surprised me at every single turn. A brandy old fashioned fountain. Discovering I'm apparently a sociopath for unpacking my suitcase right after a trip. A bucket-filling challenge that made no sense and that I would absolutely do again. My good friend Laura getting married thirty feet from a pontoon launch while I stood there in a dress I'd put on for a supper club.
I forgot how GOOD it felt to be surprised. We let our capacity for being surprised shrink down to almost nothing as we get older. So when it does happen—when you genuinely have no idea what's about to occur and it turns out to be delightful— it lands like a dose of joy you didn't know you were running low on.
That, more than the karaoke or the tie-dye or the trash-talking in the group chat, is the thing I'll be chasing next August.
Camp Lola Whiskey 2027 is August 26–29 at Timber Kove in Hayward, Wisconsin. I'll be there with my pool floaties, my questionable choice in t-shirts, and still not telling anyone what I do for a living. And I’d love to see you, so get on the 2027 waitlist here.
Want to hear what the first camp sounded like? Listen to the Camp Lola Whiskey 2025 Recap on the Type 2 Travel Podcast with Troy, Rachel, and Megan.
Get to know ALL our epic camp sponsors:
These brands sponsored Camp Lola Whiskey 2026 with product, services, or support.
Satiated Artists: A talent matchmaking agency supporting organizations of all sizes with Artful Admins who are trained, hired, and mentored
Sexletics: The sexy workout deck for adventurous couples
45th Parallel Distillery: Excellent spirits from our pals in nearby New Richmond, WI
Bolo's Bees Wax: Deep hydration lotion bars—perfect for our sun-soaked bodies after the pontoon!
Chomps: Because you can never have too much portable protein for a weekend like this one
Daily Crunch: Sprouted almond snacks that kept us nourished for the shenanigans
Delta Beer Lab: Socially-conscious craft brewery in Madison, WI
Driftless Glen Distillery: Local spirits that taste like Wisconsin in a bottle
FreshCap: Mushroom coffee for the mornings when regular coffee isn't going to cut it
Hebert Dental: Comprehensive dental care in Eau Claire, WI—and the workplace of Camp Counselor Kari!
High Camp Flasks: Fortified barware for the outdoors
Key Nutrients: Science-backed hydration powders that made day drinking sustainable
Klarbrunn: Bubbles that kept us hydrated and happy—and honestly, probably the only water some of us got all weekend
Kook: Sunscreen that cares for your body AND the environment
La Crosse Distilling: Farmer-forward spirits from the Driftless Region of WI
Leinenkugel's: The best American beer brand, made in Chippewa Falls (and yes, we're biased)
Mayana Chocolate: Luxury Wisco chocolate brand (Pro Tip: Go find their Mother Fluffer bar and thank us later.)
North Mallow: The handmade marshmallow and graham brand that fueled our s'mores night
Olympia Granola: Trail-worthy granola now permanently in our adventure packs
Puracy: Natural soaps and stain removers that were…necessary for camp
Ranger Ready: The best mosquito and tick spray, hands-down
Siren Shrub: Organic fresh fruit and vinegar mixers that take a drink from normal to "OMG what is in this!?!"
Still Branch: Single-serve Brandy Old Fashioned pouches so you can recreate your favorite drink anytime, anywhere
Tastefully Simple: Seasonings, dip mixes, and beer bread that make a snack spread look like you tried a lot harder than you did
Tattersall Distilling: Ready-to-drink cocktails (try their Brandy Old Fashioned!), spirits, and THC drinks from River Falls, WI
The Midwest Girl: Apparel and glassware to help you proudly display your Midwest pride
Tidalove: Toothpaste tabs perfect for ditching the tube (so you have room for more bug spray)
Treeland Resorts: The site of our incredible Friday night fish fry (we're still thinking about those garlic baby reds)
Trovea: Handmade goods from vintage textiles
Visit Eau Claire: The official (and awesome) destination marketing organization for the Eau Claire area
Wisco Clothing Co: Locally-owned clothing company that believes Wisconsin isn't just where you live—it's a way of life
What People Ask Me About Camp Lola Whiskey
How much does Camp Lola Whiskey cost, and what's included?
Camp Lola Whiskey 2027 starts at $1,300 per person, with a deposit at booking and the rest split into two additional payments. That covers three nights at Timber Kove, eight meals (three breakfasts, two lunches, three dinners) plus snacks, and drinks — alcoholic and N/A — which includes a Bloody Mary bar, an Old Fashioned fountain, a mimosa bar, cocktail hours, and the s'mores bar. It also covers the pontoon ride, the dance party, the World Games, the craft tent, a welcome gift bag, the official t-shirt, an orientation call beforehand, a camp WhatsApp group, and the shared photo album with camp photo and video coverage.
How do you get to Hayward, Wisconsin?
Most people drive. Camp Lola Whiskey is at Timber Kove in Hayward, about 2.5 hours northeast of the Twin Cities and 3.5 hours northwest of Milwaukee, and the recommendation is to drive if you're within four or five hours. If you're flying, the closest airport is Chippewa Valley Regional (EAU) at a 1.5–2 hour drive, and Minneapolis–St. Paul (MSP) is 2.5–3 hours out. There's a shuttle from MSP, and carpools get coordinated in the group chat as camp gets closer. I drove, which is how I fit an entire trunk of pool floaties.
Can you come to Camp Lola Whiskey alone if you don't know anyone?
Yes, most of our campers come solo. It's a coed group of 45-50, everyone is 21+, and solo campers who want to share a room get paired with same-gender roommates, so you're never sorting out logistics on your own. I came alone as a self-identified introvert and left with 45-ish new friends. Two campers who came solo in 2026 ended up becoming each other's people, and that story is here.
What do you need to pack for adult summer camp?
Less than I brought. The real list is short: clothes you can sweat, hike, and lounge in, comfortable shoes, something for yoga, a towel, sunscreen, bug spray, a water bottle, your toiletries, and any medications. Themed nights are part of the fun — Wisconsin Pride, neon, the whole thing — so a costume-ish outfit or two earns its suitcase space. Everything else is optional. As camp puts it: as long as you're dressed and have your toothbrush, you're already exceeding expectations. I brought twenty t-shirts and three large containers of Tang, and I regret exactly none of it.
Does Camp Lola Whiskey sell out, and what happens if you can't go?
Camp caps around 50 people and rooms are first-come, first-served, so the private room options tend to go first. Everything is non-refundable, which is worth pricing travel insurance against. Camp Lola Whiskey 2027 is August 26–29, 2027, back at Timber Kove in Hayward, and if it fills, there's a waitlist.