I Went to The Wing's Camp No Man's Land - This is What it Was Like -

Is this post 6 months late? You bet. But you know what? It’s here, and I feel like I’ve fully reflected on this experience to give ya’ll a 100% honest review. So let’s get into it!

If you’re not much into reading, you can always check out the my Camp NML vlog:

The Wing

In the Spring of 2019, Facebook Ad after Facebook Ad popped into my newsfeed promoting The Wing. I had no clue what it was and it took some time to fully understand what The Wing actually is. It’s a co-working space, but also a social club? Knowing what I know now, I would rephrase that to say that The Wing is a social club for women first, and a co-working space second. The goal of The Wing is to emplower ambitious entrepreneurial women to achieve their goals.

I wanted to scope out the DC space for myself and I found that The Wing would not only be a great place for me to network for my day job as a CPA tax consultant. It could also to help me further my blogging side hustle.

I joined The Wing in June 2019 anticipating great events and the opportunity to ask my current client base if they’d like to ‘do lunch’ at my social club. Side note: Being in my early 30’s and asking both men and women who are 40+ in leadership positions at big companies this is both empowering and unapologetic-ally bougie.

What I didn’t expect was an email saying to sign up for Camp No Man’s Land. ‘Buy your tickets now, reserve your spot!’ the email pleaded. I was at a client site that day and feeling particularly spontaneous. So I decided to click ‘buy’ on the $425 ticket and set up an ‘Out of Office’ calendar invite for the end of August. It’s official: I’m heading to upstate New York for a weekend of Camp. Camp, that is, not camp-ing.

What is Camp No Man’s Land?

According to The Wing, Camp No Man’s Land is: “a retreat experience for 500 of The Wing’s members, influencers, and partners”. Which is true, but that only scratches the surface. Part glamping, part sleep-away summer camp, and a bit of everything in between. Camp No Man’s Land has programming: from build-your-own flower crown to the art of the cheeseboard, charcoal grilling 101, etc. There are also crafts, activities (archery, high-ropes courses, kayaking, water toys, swimming, etc.), Spa experiences, and the chance to meet 499 other amazing women. You can also choose to do absolutely nothing the entire weekend. However you decide to spend your time at camp is the right way.

Before Camp

A few weeks before we headed off to Camp NML, staff at The Wing’s DC location set up a Happy Hour so we could meet other DC members going to camp. We were also all put into a group chat on The Wing for any questions, logistics, etc. We used our chat primarily to find each other at Union Station when taking the train up to NYC and also for post-camp questions. I was really impressed with this level of planning.

The happy hour was great and I now had a few friendly faces to see in New York. The staff also helped answer any questions prior to camp and gave us a sweet SWAG bag. Side note: I don’t think I have been to an event at The Wing where I haven’t received a SWAG bag. Not complaining, just an observation.

The pre-Camp NML SWAG bag contained everything we’d need on our travels from DC to NYC:

A lavender coffee pour-over kit sachet and creamer from Copper Cow
The Wing DC branded wireless iPhone charger (It says ‘Casual Business Woman of DC’, I’m kind of obsessed with it)
A zip lock of trail mix from The Perch
A Sleeping Mask from Amore Pacific to keep our skin looking good while traveling
A The Wing DC tote bag (it has a photo of the Capitol with The Wing ‘W’ instead of the American Flag – also 100% obsessed with this)

Camp Day 1

My camp ticket included transit from The Wing’s DUMBO location to Camp. They day before we left for camp I headed up to Brooklyn and stayed at a nearby hotel. I had never been to DUMBO before, and was totally obsessed. The Wing is located right around the corner from the iconic Brooklyn Bridge photo location on the edge of the water.

Departure was at 8AM the next day. I woke up around 6AM to gather my things and head over to The Wing. The place was buzzing inside and out with other campers on the otherwise still sleepy streets of DUMBO. I checked in, was handed a welcome packet and placed my bags in a pile in the back. Bringing my new Lo & Sons weekender (which is amazing in general), I just hated the idea of pulling a roller bag through the mud. Looking back, I strained about 5 back muscles carrying it all weekend. My advice: bring a roller bag or a large backpack and do not over-pack.

I thought they might have free breakfast during check in, but they did not. (I’m spoiled from going to tax conferences.) They did have lots of breakfast options for sale. I made some new friends in line while waiting to check in. While we waiting for the buses to baord, we got to know each other in a (really cool) sunken sitting area. One girl with purple highlights, an oversized acid washed jean jacket, and round-framed glasses wrote for a cannabis magazine in Boston. Another girl in head-to-toe Lululemon (not unlike myself) was working on starting her own coaching business. We all agreed we were going to go paddle-boarding at some time during camp.

The bus began loading up right at 8AM. During the long ride, (3ish hours), but we watched The Parent Trap (Lindsay Lohan version) and Sister Act, and all mused at the questions we had as adults watching those movies. Like: Why is everyone hating on Meredith? Girl’s just trying to get that bread! The bus was a very pleasurable experience – there were tons of snacks like BoBos and Kind Breakfast Bars. SmartWater was also a huge sponsor, so we all had a liter of SmartWater in our hands at all times.

We got to camp around 1PM. Upon passing the lake that was full of pool toys (including a toy that looked like The Blob from Heavyweights) a girl shouted “OMG it looks like Heavyweights!”. We all oo’d and ahh’d in agreement.

The bus dropped us off and I immediately went to my cabin – Cabin 37. They were lodge-style with a front porch sitting area, 10 twin beds, and a bathroom with two toilets in the back and tons of cubbies for personal items. The beds had nice bedding (I was told last year it was Allswell) and adorable yellow and light blue alternating embroidered quilts. Each bed had a JCrew weekender filled with SWAG – but we’ll get to that later. The bathroom was stocked full of products: literally every single product from Pantene, a large set of Poo-Puri, jug-sized containers of Fresh Cosmetics lotion and hand soap, and Kinfield aloe and deet-free bug spray.

After claiming a bed with my bags, I sprayed myself with some refresher body mist to clear away any lingering bus stink. I grabbed my WellSpring ticket (good for one spa treatment) and my ticket for my free Pumas and headed to the WellSpring to book my spa appointment.

The WellSpring

You could choose one of the following treatments: acupuncture, astrology reading, hair braiding, or portrait drawing. I choose acupuncture provided by WITHN. The woman stuck pins all over me, including the crown of my head and then put some headphones over my ears and told me to listen to the guided mediation for 20 minutes. 15 minutes in, I felt a lot of the tension in my back release. At the end of the treatment, I was completely zen’d out.

Pumas

Next I headed to get my free Pumas. You could choose between the Classics and a running shoe. Once you picked out your shoe and size, the staff directed you to another room to get them personalized. There were a couple artists there hand-drawing doodles on the shoes. I choose the Classic sneakers and The Wing logo on one and my initials in cursive on the other. They are SO cute and look amazing with dresses and skirts. You can catch me wearing them here.

The Art of the Cheeseboard

I ate a late lunch in the dining hall that consisted of chicken-avocado wraps and lot of quinoa. Then I went back to my cabin to meet some of my other cabin mates before deciding to walk around and scope out the entire campgrounds. I also attended the Art of the Cheeseboard class where we learned about cheeseboard essentials and how to easily throw together great looking boards. We assembled cheeseboards to be used for our first happy hour. My favorite was seeing the Mega Cheeseboard made by The Wing staff – it was 4ft across and absolutely delicious!

Happy Hour began at 6PM and was sponsored by Daily Harvest. Basically, they took the smoothie cups and added champagne or rose to them. The spritzers were served from an adorable renovated camper appropriately named the ‘Cocktail Camper’. We also devoured the cheeseboards we had made during the Art of the Cheeseboard program within minutes.

Trivia + Karaoke + Ghost Stories

After dinner, I headed to the Amphitheater for Trivia. I caught the tail end of it, but there were a lot of hilarious questions regarding The Parent Trap (which btw, was a central theme throughout all of camp). One of my cabin-mates won a lavender colored mermaid wig as a trivia prize that she ended up wearing to Prom.

I had low expectations of Karaoke. But I was completely wrong. At this point, there was a large bar next to the pavilion dealing out beer and wine in full swing. When the first singers took to the front of the pavilion there was a central theme of angry-women songs – Carrie’s “Before He Cheats”, “Zombie” by the Cranberries, and a lot of Alanis Moresett. All the singers were talented and had amazing stage-presence. It was like being at an actual concert and audience moved and shook as everyone screamed the chorus. I would have stayed longer, but I also wanted to attend the Ghost Stories event at the fire pit by the lake.

The path to the fire-pit was illuminated by LED spikes in the ground. By the time I reached the area and found a spot, the fire was raging and warm. A woman told us a ghost story with strong feminism undertones that I really enjoyed, and afterwards we made S’mores by the fire. Trying to stick to my diet, I intended to have just one toasted marshmallow, but it wasn’t the same. I had to make myself an actual S’More before feeling truly satisfied. There were rumors that there were CBD marshmallows, but I didn’t have any. A woman roasting a marshmallow next to me remarked that she wanted to get closer to the fire didn’t want her Boy Brow encrusted eyebrows to catch fire.

As I got ready to leave the fire-pit, a rumor circulated to find the red lights that led to a secret dive bar on the walk back to the cabins. I left with a small group determined to find said bar. It was the Deep Dive Dive Bar! Christmas lights illuminated a small shack complete with beverages, pool, and Foosball tables. I had some canned prosecco, but I left shortly after. Day 1 was exhausting and I was ready to go to bed.

Not the best photo, but the bunting and lighting at night on my walk back to my cabin was legit magical.

Camp Day 2

I woke up early (7:45AM) and freezing. We (stupidly) left all the windows in our cabin open the whole night. Throughout the night I had used the towel set from our SAWG bag as blankets. But I was super envious of my bunkmate who brought her VS Pink comforter. #noted.

I needed something warm to drink badly and headed off to the Land Rover sponsored Early Riser’s Coffee Bar. The Coffee Bar was beyond adorable. It was a little cart with balinese umbrellas, branded coffee cups and sleeves, and some sweets from The Good Batch. I grabbed a cup of hot coffee and a tahini chocolate chip cookie.

The Early Birds coffee cart aka my fave way to start the day at Camp No Man’s Land

I headed to the lake which was getting the most sun to warm up and drank my coffee on one of the docks. It was quiet and peaceful but I was not alone. I was surrounded by a handful of other women sitting on the docks journaling and drinking coffee.

The Ropes Course

My cabinmate and fellow DC-er stopping to take some photos with me.

I had a full breakfast in the dining hall where I met an editor and 2 times Pulitzer prize winner who works at the New York Times (girl crush anyone?!). Changing into some workout clothes, I headed to the ropes course near the lake. I also picked up a pair of Camp NML sweatpants at the Merch Store so I didn’t freeze again at night.

The ropes course was totally legit. I belted up, wore a helmet, and completed a training course. There were two other girls who I did my intro with and they picked the hard course. Not wanting to be lame, I decided to do the hard course as well. We were at a kid’s camp, so how hard could it be? Well folks, the hard course is hard! But it was also liberating and I felt that I used a part of my brain that I hadn’t used in a really long time and it felt so refreshing. I zip-lined from about 80 feet in the air to the ground and headed to lunch.

The Lake

After lunch, I shot a few arrows at the Archery course and realized that I am not Katniss. I then decided to hit up the JCrew Tie-Dye station for my first-ever tie-dying experience! It was such a relaxing process once I realized that there is no wrong way to tie-dye a t-shirt! And now that I’ve fully set my shirt post-camp, I love how it turned out and it has become my go-to errand-running top. 👍

Since we were so far north (about 1 hour south of Montreal), it didn’t warm up until the mid-afternoon. So I suited up to go paddle boarding! Paddle boarding is one of my absolute favorite activities and being able to just throw on a life vest and hop on one was so great! I paddled my way all around the lake and high-fived some conoe-ers along the way. At one point I laid on the board and watched the clouds float by above.

I had been eyeing the water toys since I arrived at Camp No Man’s Land. So when I dropped my paddle board off at shore, I went bananas. I jumped in (the water was warm! ) and immediately went on the trampoline with a few others. We went through periods of jumping, and then resting and telling stories (because we’re not children with boundless energy anymore 😂), to jumping again.

I made my way to the large blow up slide. But again, because I’m a grown-ass woman, it was not easy to pull my entire body weight onto platform and then up each step. I had to take a rest after each level. But I was 100% here for the total body workout I was getting.

At one point, while on top of the slide, I had a view of 30 or so other women relaxing, jumping, splashing, and generally living their best lives. I shouted (b/c I was phoneless) “How much longer until happy hour?”

“You’ve got 30 minutes!” Came the reply.

“Ok. How many calories do you think I’ve burned in the form of drinks?”

“Definitely at least 12”

I love camp.

The Wet Gala

The DJ spinning beats from her clam-shell DJ booth at The Wet Gala

I met my cabin mates for both happy hour and dinner. When we returned to the cabin, we went into full college-esque getting ready mode. Music played, make-up palettes came out, glitter flew through the air. I had no access to a hair dryer and my hair was still wet from the shower and flat. But this was Camp No Man’s Land! I crowned myself with a starfish tiara from H&M and rocked my maxi mermaid dress with a Lululemon fannypack. I was ready to live my best life!

On our short pilgrimage to The Wet Gala, one of my cabin-mates began talking about being announced. Like how we were going to be announced, what we should do, etc. I had no idea what she was talking about as we skipped to the gala, cans of champagne in hand.

In front of the Wet Gala entrance I could see what she was talking about. A large spotlight illuminated the Camp NML’s media host. She held a The Wing emblazoned microphone as she stood in front of a large camera, and a boom mic. The only thing missing was the literal red carpet – but this was The Wet Gala, so I let it pass.

The host announced us as the ‘Royal Court of Cabin 37’ . The host asked us about our ‘outfit inspiration’ in a short interview as we giggled in front of the camera.

Our group then sauntered into The Wet Gala where where let out a scream of delight. It felt like being in a movie. Lights rotated and flickered above next to balloon jellyfish sculptures that hung from the ceiling. A DJ dressed in a silver sequin jumpsuit bopped along to the melody from her clam-shell DJ booth. There was even an area for face painting and prom-styled pictures.

The best part? Absolutely zero cares were given and everyone was dancing and laughing on the dance floor. It was one of the best dances I have ever been to. The best sights included:

A girl dressed as a jellyfish. Complete with umbrella with ‘legs’ taped to it – fist pumping with her jellyfish umbrella.
A person dressed as Left Shark who bopped around the dance floor with a beer in their hand.
Everyone freaking out during every Beyonce or early 2000’s track.

The Wet Gala was an absolute blast. There were also tons of other low-key activities going on if The Wet Gala was not your jam. After The Wet Gala I decided to hit up S’Mores at the Bonfire by lake. It was a (delicious) way to decompress before heading back to the cabin to go to bed. I missed it, but I heard that there was a late-night spread of (“really good”) pizza at the post-gala party.

Last Day of Camp

The last day at Camp No Man’s Land went by like a blurr. I got up around 8AM sore and hungry AF. I hit up the Early Bird Coffee Cart for my warm drink. Then headed back to the cabin to pack all of my items. All packed up, I took one last lap around camp for some last minute content shots. The bunting and string lights were so pretty, I wanted to capture them perfectly.

We took a group photo where we all wore our matching ‘Happy-ish Camper’ shirts before loading up on the buses. We all snagged one last swag bag before boarding and then head back to the city.

One last group selfie of Cabin 37 before we headed back to reality.

At this point I decided that traveling 7+ hours on the road back to DC was not going to happen. I popped open my Marriott app and cashed in some points to stay in NYC for the night. Good decision on my part.

The Swag

I did not take full inventory of the swag bags until I got to the hotel that night. So here is the full list of what we all got!

Big Swag Bag:

JCrew Weekender/Garment Bag
JCrew Socks
Cleverly Laundry Towel Set
JCrew Bandana
JCrew Sunglasses
Face Gym coupon
Pantene Water-less Collection
- Scrunchies
- Dry Shampoo
- Dry Conditioner
- Hairspray
Puma Classic Sneakers
Girl Scout Stickers
Fresh Cosmetics Travel Set
Foria CBD Oil
“Oops I did it again” Hangover Pill from WITN
The Wing branded mini LED flashlight
The Sanctuary Gemstone and Lighter
Buffy lavender Sleeping Mask

Mini Swag Bag

The Wing Camp NML travel pouch
Pantene Hair Mask
Pantene Hair Ampule (legit one of my current fave products)
The Wing Camp NML pins
Fresh Sugar Lip Treatment in Sugar in the City by Ingrid Nilsen (who also was at Camp NML leading a wellness workshop!)

Post Camp Thoughts

Camp was an amazing, refreshing experience and I met so many amazing people. My Cabin 37 group chat is still very active and I feel like I gained 8 close friends scattered across the country. I hope that I’ll have the opportunity to go to Camp No Man’s Land 2020 – mostly because I missed flower crown making and I need to redeem myself!

Have you been to Camp No Man’s Land? What did you think? Any other questions about camp? Let me know in the comments below!

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