SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - The Taiga Adventure Camp is on the move.

Chris Esser, an instructor at last July's Taiga Adventure Camp in Fort Smith, offers kayaking advice to Inuvik's Paisley Day on Pine Lake, about 60 km south of Fort Smith. - NNSL file photo

For its first two summers, the camp for girls from around the NWT was located in Fort Smith.

However, this coming summer, three eight-day sessions of the camp will be held in July at a campsite off the Ingraham Trail, about 45 minutes outside of Yellowknife.

Plus, an eight-day canoe trip will be made along the Mackenzie River, beginning at Fort Simpson. That canoe excursion will be held in conjunction with the NWT Recreation and Parks Association.

Kirsten Carthew, a board member with Taiga Adventure Camp, said the goal has always been to move the camp to various areas of the NWT.

"We had a great time in Fort Smith," she said. "It was a really supportive community."

Taiga Adventure camp's new location on the Ingraham Trail is at a campsite that is also used by Camp Connections, an initiative of the NWT Foster Family Coalition.

"The camps are separate and not running at the same time," Carthew said.

Taiga Adventure Camp is for girls aged 11 to 17.

Between 25 and 30 girls from all over the NWT are expected for each of the three sessions at the Ingraham Trail campsite.

For the Mackenzie River canoe trip, 10 to 12 girls are expected to participate. They will be 14 to 17 years of age.

Carthew said Taiga Adventure Camp will operate two or three years in a location before moving on so the girls can explore and experience a new part of the NWT.

Inuvik is already being scouted as the next stop for the camp, possibly in 2012, she said. "We definitely want to take the camp there."

Taiga Adventure Camp is a not-for-profit organization operating under the umbrella of the Yellowknife YWCA. Among other things, the camp teaches healthy lifestyles, environmental awareness, leadership skills, self-esteem, traditional knowledge and arts and crafts, and offers on-the-land experience.