Base camp sits at 7,000 ft in the bottom of Lake Creek Canyon
Day 1
Acclimation and a tour of the mountain
Day 2
The "Big Day" – 28 miles of dirt, sweat, and tears
Day 3
Rest, recovery, and team building
Day 4
The gnarliest 5k you'll likely ever race
Day 5
Steens Mountain Olympics
Staff
Cooks, medics, bus drivers, camp assistants – a lot goes into making camp run
Camp
Base camp sits at 7,000 ft in the bottom of Lake Creek Canyon
Day 1
Acclimation and a tour of the mountain
Day 2
The "Big Day" – 28 miles of dirt, sweat, and tears
Day 3
Rest, recovery, and team building
Day 4
The gnarliest 5k you'll likely ever race
Day 5
Steens Mountain Olympics
Staff
Cooks, medics, bus drivers, camp assistants – a lot goes into making camp run
❮
2026
Session 1
July 12-18, 2026 full
Session 2
July 19-25, 2026 full
Camp at a Glance
This unique camp is designed to give campers (ages 13-18) a realistic wilderness running and camping experience. To enjoy and respect wilderness beauty through running, hiking and exploring, at high altitudes are the major objectives of this camp. Group and individual instruction will be given in all areas of distance training and racing, with emphasis on performance improvement through self reliance, personal accountability and teamwork strategies. To enhance personal growth, campers must be willing to adapt to lack of urban conveniences not found in the great outdoors. (i.e. cell phones, iPods, tablets, DVD players, and other technos just invented.)
Girls 1st 157pts, more than double 2nd place. Boys Tied for a close 3rd, difference between 1st and fourth was only 52 pts
Homer also broke 6 school records:
Girls 4×800 9:45 9 seconds off the all school state record!! with 3 current and future Steens Campers (Ari Garvey, Etta Bynagle, Morgan Harness, Claira Booz)
Girls LJ 17′ 3″ One of our oldest records from 1978
Girls 4×100 49.84
Boys 4×800 8:18 All current and former Steens Campers (Caleb Bunker, Landon Tinsley, Tait Ostrom, Johannes Bynagle)
Boys 800m 1:58.8 Johannes Bynagle Steens Camper
Johannes also threw shot 40′ 11″, 6th place, and thus earned pts in shot and 3200 (2nd) !!!
“Boys 300H 40.67 Tait Ostrom Steens Camper One of the closest and most exciting (at least for me!!) races of the day! Our state meet is held at one of the worst tracks in the state, holes in the surface, throws almost 1/4 mile away, tiny jump pits,etc… But the worst feature is the lanes are only 36″ wide. The hurdle races are terrifying, hurdles flying off the track and bad crashes. Tait and another boy were fighting it out side-by-side down the stretch to the finish. He just pulled ahead over the last two hurdles!” – Coach Bob Ostrom
The Lord has called Charlie Romans home. His life long goal of being with the Lord has been accomplished!
Charles E. Romans (Charlie)
08/03/1925 — 05/01/2026 100 years old!
Farm Boy, B-25 Pilot, Street Car Driver, Long Haul Truck Driver, School Bus Driver, Photographer, Book Publisher, News Paper Contributor, Writer, Steens Mountain Running Camp Bus Driver.
Lover of People and Lover of God.
Speaking for Steens Mountain Running Camp, Charlie meant so much to so many people. His recipe for life was contagious!
After our first bus driver, Art Crook was killed by lightning, I drove the camp bus for a few years until I hired Charlie. What a hire!! He drove for Steens for over 10 years until his wife’s Libby Jane’s health required him to move back permanently to their home in Morgantown, Kentucky.
In 2019, his love of Steens Mountain Running Camp brought him back for visit. At age 94, Charlie drove solo his newly purchased used older Buick over 2000 miles to Camp. Along the way he slept in his car at Truck Stops he had stopped at years earlier as a long haul driver. He said the Apple Pie was just as good at one truck spot as it was 50 years ago!
He was a hit at camp!
Post camp and 2000 miles back to Morgantown, Charlie by chance, ran into our very own Melody Fairchild and Dakota at an Evanston, Wyoming gas station. Melody called it “Beautiful Steens Synchronicity”.
He also ran into a guardrail while driving at night. He pulled the damaged car off the road and “slept like a baby” until morning and called a tow truck. The small towns repair shop fixed the damaged fender so it wouldn’t rub the tire. Said he met the nicest people at the breakfast place and loved their Ham and Eggs! He made it home without further ado.
For the next 6 years he sent a letter us (Kay and HY) a letter a week. We saved everyone of them! His wish and goal was to come back to camp this summer 2026 at age 100.
His example was inspiring and infectious. Charlie was and will continue to be a Steens Mountain Running Camp Legend.. In terms of driving our camp bus for over a decade. I can testify Charlie smiled through every one of those thousands of safely driven bumpy miles. If he wasn’t smiling, he was entertaining our Coaches and Campers alike telling “Charlie” jokes, stories, singing songs or quoting a Libby Jane poem. He Loved his wife Libby Jane Romans. She preceded him in death in 2018 at the age of 101. No doubt, He has reunited with Libby Jane. One can only imagine what that reunion looked like!! Hallelujah and praise the Lord!
No matter the obstacle, Charlie was Always The Eternal Optimist. “Can’t Do” was never part of his mind set. Rather the circumstance provided the opportunity for a “Can Do” and an enjoyable and therefore a life learning experience. Therefore there was nothing he couldn’t do or at least try to do.
Life experiences to Charlie, were nothing more than opportunities to serve the Lord. How did he do that?
By just being Charlie 24/7
He was lovable, optimistic, forgiving, unselfish, giving, willing to help, kind, never a bad word about even those who may have deserved it. He lived the qualities of the beatitudes..
Thanks Charlie for your example and a recipe for living our lives!
