SALTASH MOUNTAIN

Campers returned from their long trips on Monday night and regaled us with tales of the trail. We heard about trail dinners cooked over an open fire, awesome swimming-hole stops, and some interesting through-hikers eager to share tips and tricks for living on trail. After sleeping in for an extra half-hour the next morning (the trail really tires you out!), campers jumped right into their final-week activities, the most impressive of which is perhaps the handcrafted gaga pit. The gaga pit was made by SAM campers and staff over the past week and was finished just this morning and unveiled in the “Gaga Gala” and ribbon-cutting ceremony.

The hot, sunny weather this week–which has almost made us forget all about the colder beginning of the session–was the inspiration for SAM’s end-of-session skit projects. In a typical summer, SAM camp performs an original skit in front of the rest of the Farm and Wilderness community to kick off our end-of-summer fair. Even though we won’t be able to celebrate the end of this special edition summer with a fair, SAM campers are still writing, directing, and starring in their very own skits. Each of our two pods is writing and preparing a skit to perform for the other pod on the last day of camp, as a way to kick-off our end-of-session banquet. Skit creation is a great opportunity for campers to collaborate on a creative project–whether you’re into writing, directing, singing, crafting set pieces, or designing costumes, everyone has a part in this pod-wide group project. On Tuesday, campers brainstormed the plots points for their skit, using the theme of “light” as a jumping-off point. Over the next few days, campers will work on various aspects of their skit by splitting up into smaller working groups within their pod. Although I can’t wait to see the final products on the last day of camp, the close of the summer is coming a little too soon!

Miles Crabtree

The second week of SAM Camp started with a round of activities, including fairy houses, Wilderness Adventurers (shelter building and wet-weather fire building), woodworking, candle making, gymnastics, Rube Goldberg machines, fashion design, quilt squares, comic writing, and of course games and swimming every day!

This year, we have 4 cabins divided into two pods and each pod gets to choose between 2 activities during each block. We generally get time together as a whole camp in the evenings, when we participate in an event we call Identity Night, or the Variety Show in which campers and staff get to show off their many talents to the group. This year’s Variety Show included a three-headed all-knowing person, many musical acts, jokes, stories, juggling, and a water drinking performance.

We welcomed our second session campers with a round of name games, first-night spaghetti, and a mad lib created by the campers as they arrived:

“Welcome to SAM Camp! We’re so excited, we want to shout “Hot Dog”! We hope you have a sunny time this summer. The staff has been swimming and talking for 421 days to make sure that the camp is gorgeous and soft for you. We even fixed that annoying car by installing new Gucci bags in the trees!   You all came from so many places, from New York to Los Angeles, bringing all sorts of cute alligators and plenty of geese along the way. Because of that, we have to be extra careful about health and safety, especially in quick times like these. We know that the COVID protocols can be a pain in the leg, but they’re here to keep us safe so that we can have fun.   Just like my friend always said, “When times get squishy, you have to plant and fall with your cheekbone held high.” And we can too! Let’s squat sloppily and choke on vestibules to make this the best summer ever!”

The first three days at camp are spent getting acquainted with each other and the space, learning what activities we have to offer, and preparing for the first three-day backpacking trip of the session. Campers jumped right in to a regular day at SAM camp, including Silent Meeting, Singing on the Hill after every meal, swimming, and so much more. Some campers got to put on a fashion show with items from our Macaroni Outback (mac-o-back, where all the hiking gear lives), while others did collage, played tetherball, a game invented by SAM staff called “Say What?”, amongst others. We ended the first night of camp with a classic, noodle tag!