Camping Retreat Weekend
August 16-18, 2024
Befriend Self, Befriend the World
Please join us for a camping retreat weekend starting on Friday August 16 and ending on Sunday August 18, 2024! We’ll send more details after folks RSVP, but here are some basics that are helpful to know up front, to help you make your decision about whether to attend:
Arrival: 4:00-6:00pm on Friday August 16
Start of the retreat on Friday: 6:30pm
End of the retreat: after lunch on Sunday August 18 (around 1:00-ish)
Location: EM is situated 60-miles west of Missoula & just 4-miles from I-90 (we’ll send detailed directions to those who RSVP)
Food: We will provide breakfast on Sat & Sun mornings and dinner on Sat night; all other meals are bring your own.
Cost: $40 (mostly to help cover the cost of the 3 meals we will provide)
Lodging options: While here at EM, we have plans to build small huts for folks to stay in, we’re not there yet. As this is a camping style retreat, we kindly ask folks to BYO sleeping situation: tent, hammock, or vehicle. We have ample room for parking, so if you have a tow behind camper or RV you want to bring along, we should have no prob finding a place to park it. Need a tent? Please let us know! We have a few on hand folks are welcome to borrow.
Off-grid & without running water: As we want folks to know what they’re signing up for, please know that here at EM we are off-grid and operate without running water. We have solar panels for electricity (translation: you can charge your phone during the retreat if you need to) and we have creative ways to dispense water (translation: we will have plenty of drinking water on hand and also water to wash hands & dishes). We have an outhouse with a composting toilet as well. We have a cell booster on our cabin but it only boosts the Verizon signal, so if your phone uses Verizon, you can fetch signal when at or close around our cabin. If you don’t have Verizon OR you’re not close to our cabin, cell signal is a no-go.
Please scroll down to read our policies in place regarding dogs and drugs & alcohol.
Want to attend only on Sunday? Please let us know. We would be glad to welcome folks to join us simply for the day on Sunday.
RSVP by August 9. As we have a minimum of 5 people that we require in order to host events, please be sure to RSVP by August 9 if you plan to attend, as this helps us greatly in our planning efforts. To RSVP, email us at: emptymountain406@gmail.com
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TENTATIVE SCHEDULE
Friday August 16
Arrival Time, 4-6pm
BYO Dinner
Circle, Share & Sit, 7:00pm
End of Day & start of Noble Silence, 8:30pm
Saturday August 17
Wake Up, 6:30am
(Optional: 6:00-6:30 self-guided movement to music)
Sitting Meditation & Reading, 7:00am
Breakfast (provided), 8:15am
Outdoor Walking Meditation, 9:30am
Quiet Togetherness Time*, 11:00am
BYO Lunch, 12:30pm
Quiet/Rest Time
Qigong Stick Exercises, 2:30pm
Sharing Circle, 3:15pm
Free & Open Social Hang Out Time, starting around 4:30pm
Sunday August 18
Wake Up, 6:30am
(Optional: 6:00-6:30 self-guided movement to music)
Sitting Meditation & Reading, 7:00am
Breakfast (provided), 8:15am
Outdoor Walking Meditation to Keystone Creek, 9:30am
Practice Talk by Nicole, 10:45am
Social Walk Back to EM, 11:30am
BYO Lunch, 12:30pm
End of Retreat
*This will involve gathering together with each of us bringing our own self-guided quiet activity of our own choosing to do. It’s a nourishing & creative way to be together without the component of talking. Examples include: reading a book or magazine; drawing or coloring; drinking tea; doing a crossword puzzle; playing a game on your phone; knitting.
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About Dogs. Please bring a leash if you bring along your dog friend and leash them up as soon as you arrive. For the care of everyone on site, it is important to us that your pup not be allowed to jump up on people. Also, our Guest Master at EM is a handsome cat named Larch, who gets very scared when chased (who wouldn’t!). Allowing dogs at our retreats is an experimental endeavor. We’re still in the trying-it-out phase. While we dearly love dogs, they can also be very challenging to enfold into the practice, the mix of other humans, and all of the enticing smells & critters of the forest. While we are not adverse to dogs being off-leash, it will depend on the nature of your dog. If your dog sticks close to you and won’t run off chasing Larch or the local deer & chipmunks, they are welcome to be off-leash. But if there’s any chance your dog will run off, we kindly and respectfully ask that you keep your dog leashed at all times.
About Alcohol & Drugs. Here at EM, our hearts are invested in being a safe space for folks wanting to live a sober life, which includes ourselves (Mike & Nicole). As such, we respectfully ask that alcohol and drugs not be brought on site. This includes marijuana. However, as some folks use marijuana for medicinal reasons, we would like to try our best to support our friends in this regard. The experiment we are currently running is to allow the use of marijuana for medically related purposes. If this applies to you, we respectfully ask that you not offer it to others; keep & store it out of sight; and utilize it in the privacy of your own tent.