Chris Onken is from Berwick, Maine and although he is a first year counselor, he has been hearing about camp for as long as he has known his wife Jen Ryan. She brought him to camp in 1999 on a date just to see the place. Chris tries to get out on the water in a kayak or a canoe whenever he can and has taken many multiple day canoe trips. He has a BA from Dartmouth and a MA from Middlebury College. He is currently a middle school English, Social Studies and Math teacher at Berwick Academy. He is also a soccer, basketball, hockey and baseball coach.

His first canoeing trip was a white water run with his father down the Delaware River at the age of 10. He drank enough of the river for it to permanently be in his DNA and made him always thirsty for more. More weeklong trips to the Adirondacks followed and then the Allegash and even in Lebanon on the Nahr El Assi and on the Zambezi River in Zambia. 

Chris loves hippos and also has been to all 50 states.