SARANAC LAKE – “Best. Week. Ever!” shouted Eric Johnston Jr. with his hands stretched well over his head.

“I’m friends with literally everyone in my cabin,” he added enthusiastically. Johnston, a 12-year-old from Albany, said that hiking Haystack Mountain in Ray Brook and doing an overnight camping trip on the mountain was his favorite part of the week he spent at the state Department of Environmental Conservation’s Camp Colby in Saranac Lake.

Johnston was just one of dozens of boys and girls who spent a week at Camp Colby, which sits on the northern shore of Lake Colby. The camp runs through the summer, with campers coming for six-day stretches.

Camp Colby opened in 1963, after the former Adirondack great camp was purchased by the DEC to replace Camp Ray Brook.

The DEC has been operating a handful of environmental education camps for 11- to 13-year-old boys and girls for decades, while two of the camps offer programs for older teenagers as well.

Colby and Pack Forest are the only two camps that are located in the Adirondacks, while Camp Rushford is in Allegany County in western New York and Camp DeBruce is located in the Catskills.

The DEC’s summer camps put kids right in nature and offer more than enough activities to keep high-energy tweens active and engaged for the week, even without the benefit of cellphones, TVs or other electronics. Campers arrive at the camp on Sunday afternoons and are picked up the following Friday.

During that week of activities and adventure, the camps offer a wide variety of activities. From fishing the shoreline of Lake Colby before breakfast to ecology walks and gun safety classes, kids can choose to participate in classes that teach them about the outdoors by putting them outside.

According to the DEC, “a week at Colby promises fun and adventure. Campers participate in a discovery group while at camp, completing six lessons ranging from group dynamics to field, forest, and pond explorations, to a study of human impact.

“Group members learn science, solve challenges, play games, keep a journal, catch salamanders, net butterflies and discover the interconnectedness of life on earth.”

Camp Colby is hosted at the former estate of William and Emma Morris. William Morris founded the William Morris Agency, which became and remains the largest talent representative in the world.

Morris originally came to the area for treatment for his tuberculosis and fell in love with Saranac Lake. He eventually built Camp Intermission, now Camp Colby, as a respite for both himself and the stars signed to the agency.

William and Emma became pillars of the community, contributing money and talent to raise money for a couple of churches, a Jewish center and other civic projects. He represented stars such as Will Rogers and Charlie Chaplain, and was integral in building the National Vaudeville Artists Lodge, now known as Saranac Village at Will Rogers, on the outskirts of town.

The Adirondack Carousel is located in William Morris Park, which was at one time home to a day care for children that the Morrises started. Their investments in the community continued up to and even after William’s death in 1932.

Camp Colby is overseen by a bevy of counselors who need to have at least two years of college education, undergo a background check and be certified in first-aid and CPR.

The counselors aren’t just there to lead trips and hang out with the kids. They also become advisers, friends and sometimes, a shoulder to cry on. That happened just last week, when a camper was informed of a death in the family when he was picked up, and counselors flocked to his side.

Campers and parents seek out the DEC camps because of their emphasis on living in nature.

“(It’s) a little different than your typical summer camp. It’s the DEC, so it’s a little more environmentally focused.” said Bill Mueller. His son Alex attended Camp Colby last week and won Camper of the Week for the second year in a row.

“I’d heard good things about it from friends that had kids go through it. It’s low pressure, kids can do whatever they want, and it’s at their own pace. But they get to be out in nature, no iPads or anything like that.

“He had a great experience last year, so it wasn’t any question when it came around to signing him up this year.”

Mueller said he is a hunter and was excited that Alex got the opportunity to take his hunter safety course at camp this year, meaning that the two Muellers have another outdoor activity they can enjoy together.

Watching the closing ceremony of the camp, it becomes apparent to all the parents gathered on the lake shore that, for the most part, the kids they dropped off a week earlier are thrilled with the time they spent at camp.

Parents are stopped at a makeshift gate, and campers and counselors make their way down the shore to a big patch of lawn. There, the campers circle up and are given certificates for finishing camp. As each camper is called to the center to get their certificate, the rest of the camp cheers. Campers then run the “Ring of Fire,” high-fiving all of their campmates.

Kids sleep in bunk houses that are tucked away in the woods, with bare-bones bunks stuffed inside. About a dozen kids share a cabin for the week, along with a counselor, and at the end of camp it’s obvious that some serious friendships have been made.

Johnston said that his new best friend was Alex, the camper of the week. Johnston then went on to list about a dozen other kids he was now considering best friends.

Part of the allure for the kids is that while the counselors are young and educated, they are also lots of fun. After meal time, which is held in the cafeteria, counselors and kids put on skits that are often intentionally bad, which of course makes them that much more enjoyable.

“Doing the skits was the best part,” Johnston laughed. “We did a skit about our ride home which was terrible but hilarious at the same time.”

Kids who attend the camp may think that they just had fun and games all week, but the reality is that they learn probably more than they realize.

Aziz Alozie was given the Brother Yusuf Award during the closing ceremony last Friday. Brother Yusuf Abdul-Wasi was an activist who spent much of his adult life advocating for children to spend more time connecting with nature.

Yusuf, who was born and raised in New York City, died in 2014. His introduction to the Adirondacks was as a prisoner at the former Camp Gabriels. Upon his release, he took years to turn his life into something productive and that productiveness was warmly remembered by the North Country community.

Alozie said he liked all aspects of the camp.

“I really liked fishing, meeting new people, and I just liked having fun in general,” the 11-year-old from Clifton Park said. “This was my first overnight camp, and I really enjoyed it.

“We bonded a lot; it was good. I’m definitely going to come back to Camp Colby.”

Two-time Camper of the Week winner Alex Mueller said he was “very, very proud” of himself for winning the award.

“I’m a very happy person. I will never get mad or upset,” he said. “Ninety-eight percent of the time, I’m in a very good mood.”

When asked if he would join his newfound friends at camp again next year, Alex gave a simple answer.

“Absolutely.”

With kids already making plans to attend Camp Colby next year, the counselors give them one final send-off in the form of a famous passage by the acclaimed outdoors writer Edward Abbey, which reminds the kids to take their camp experience home with them:

“One final paragraph of advice: Do not burn yourselves out. Be as I am – a reluctant enthusiast… a part-time crusader, a half-hearted fanatic. Save the other half of yourselves and your lives for pleasure and adventure. It is not enough to fight for the land; it is even more important to enjoy it. While you can. While it’s still here. So get out there and hunt and fish and mess around with your friends, ramble out yonder and explore the forests, climb the mountains, bag the peaks, run the rivers, breathe deep of that yet sweet and lucid air, sit quietly for a while and contemplate the precious stillness, the lovely, mysterious, and awesome space. Enjoy yourselves, keep your brain in your head and your head firmly attached to the body, the body active and alive, and I promise you this much; I promise you this one sweet victory over our enemies, over those desk-bound men and women with their hearts in a safe deposit box, and their eyes hypnotized by desk calculators. I promise you this: You will outlive the bastards.”