MIT Outing Club

Camelot Bunkhouse Project 2024

A core part of the MITOC community, and in particular our access to the mountains, continues to be our well-loved “Camelot” cabin, located in central New Hampshire. As you may know, Camelot was built in the 1970s (on a shoestring budget), and it is nearing the end of its useful life. Since 2013, the Outing Club has been working to build new, safe and modern sleeping quarters on the Camelot property, which will ensure that MITOC can fulfill our mission for decades to come.

MITOC partnered with Maclay Architects to design a new bunkhouse for Camelot which will be located approximately 100m from the existing cabin. The new bunkhouse will contain five bedrooms (sleeping ten persons each), a large central hallway, and a covered deck. We anticipate the cost of the new bunkhouse to be approximately $500,000.

With the design now complete, we are actively seeking donations. If you are able, please consider donating to help us hit our fundraising target in 2024. We are breaking ground on site preparation in 2024, and fundraising permitting, we will complete the new bunkhouse in late 2024 or early 2025. This project will ensure we can fulfill our mission for the next generation of MITOCers.

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Canoes are great for exploring the lakes and rivers of New England. You can start by exploring the river right in front of campus–the Charles (the upper section is actually quite pretty!) and work your way up to a multi-day canoe trip in Maine. When canoe camping, you can carry everything you want! Whitewater canoes are also suitable for paddling in rougher rivers with rapids.

MITOC runs a few organized canoe trips every year. They are usually announced along with other boating info on the paddle mailing list. (The hardest part of organizing these trips is transporting the canoes, so we’re always looking for people with cars with roof racks to join trips!)

Canoe Rental

MITOC has 6 flatwater tandem canoes, 1 tandem whitewater canoe, and 3 solo whitewater canoes available for rental. For all rentals, you’ll need to follow the boathouse rental procedure. If you’d like to take the canoes down to the Charles, you can use one of the canoe/kayak carts to roll the canoe down to the river. You can put in across from MacGregor, where the wall stops and you can easily slide in a canoe or at the public dock (also used by Charles River Canoe and Kayak) at 15 Broad Canal Way.

If you’ll be transporting the canoes by car, MITOC has foam canoe carriers you can use if your car doesn’t have a roof rack. We also have the straps you’ll need to tie the canoes down. If you want to take two canoes on one car, you will need extra wide bars, or use 2x4’s to make extra wide bars :) If you want to do a flatwater day trip, all you need to rent canoes is to be a MITOC member and have completed boathouse keyholder training, then check with the canoe chair (boathouse-mgr@mit.edu) to make sure boats are available. If you plan to take a canoe on a multi-day trip or on the ocean, please fill out a float plan form before emailing the boat chairs with your request for the rental reservation.