Justin Trudeau wasn't the only one enjoying outdoor adventures this summer. Stephen Harper hit the woods as well.

But instead of appearing shirtless in Canadian vacation hotspots, the former prime minister was attending a men's only retreat that's as famous for its secrecy as it is for its clothing-optional hijinx.

The news comes courtesy of a trove of leaked e-mails from former U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell, made public by DCLeaks.com this week.

In one e-mail, Mr. Powell writes to former Canadian Justice Minister Peter MacKay. It reads:

Only the rich and the powerful get invites to the Bohemian Grove retreat, deep in the California redwoods. They gather at the campground each July for, according to a 2011 Washington Post report, "two weeks of heavy drinking, super-secret talks, druid worship ... and other rituals."

Few outsiders have had access to the exclusive retreat. But author and journalist Jon Ronson was able to sneak in as part of a documentary by Alex Jones back in 1999.

He spoke to As It Happens co-host Carol Off from Los Angeles.

JON RONSON: There's a couple things that are notable about Bohemian Grove. One is that it's the fanciest campsite you can imagine. The camps have all got grand pianos and bars. There's rock and roll bands playing, and there's open-air Jacuzzis. And it's full of men of wealth and power. Only men. The second weird thing, there's a great deal of public urination. It's like a Bohemian Grove tradition. Even though there's lots of public toilets, all these old men who all look like Mr. Burns from The Simpsons whip it out and urinate in public.

CAROL OFF: Is that a tradition? Or just nature calls more often when they're out in the redwoods, or what?

JR: I think it's just a tradition. The whole milieu of the place is, we are powerful, important people, but for two weeks we can just let loose and be ourselves, be with nature and do what we want to do … They have a ceremony on the first Saturday night of the summer each year. The ceremony is this kind of weird pageant, where they take a papier mâché effigy that's supposed to represent all their cares in the world, and they throw it into a bonfire in front of a giant stone owl.

CO: That sounds like some kind of a Druid ceremony.

JR: Alex Jones, for instance, a conspiracy theorist who I snuck into the camp with … thought that the owl represented Moloch, the owl god. And it was basically a human sacrifice to satiate the globalists' owl god. I think it wasn't quite as sinister as that.

CO: Bill Clinton, I guess who's never been invited, he described Bohemian Grove. He said, "That's where all those rich Republicans go up and stand naked against redwood trees." Is clothing optional at this event?

JR: Well I didn't see anyone naked. But what I did see was a notice board with photographs from a party they had clearly had the night before. All these rich, old Republicans were all dressed in drag. It was like misogynistic drag. You can imagine, makeup smeared on. And these kinds of ridiculous oversized fake breasts and nylon stockings. So I think there's a kind of misogyny that hovers over the place.

CO: Can you picture this conversation going on between Colin Powell and Stephen Harper?

JR: Yeah, that doesn't surprise me. I think the purpose of a lot of these kinds of secretive societies, like Bohemian Grove and Bilderberg and so on, are to kind of maintain a status quo.

CO: You mentioned that pianos are around in various rooms. We know that our former prime minister can play piano and he likes to do old songs. He loves Beatles songs. Is it possible that people who attend, like Stephen Harper, might have sat down at the piano and entertained people with a few numbers?

JR: Oh, no question.