Hi all!
I hope you’re checking in here often. In case some of you are new here, I wanted to let you know that you can expect a new blog post every week, usually on Wednesday evenings. These posts are usually a little story from the week, and a nice photo or two. The articles here will usually be by me, but some might also be by Forest Flame since he’s warming up his directorial fingers this summer on the blog. As always, let either of us know if you want more or less of something, and feel free to pass along the link to this page!
Also, if you want more photos, you can log into the “parents only” section of the site, which you’ll learn about in an email soon if you haven’t already.
Now, on to news of the week!
We’ve been diving right into camp for sure. After the orientation days, we moved into “Sacred Order” activities, which are the activities where we practice some of the core skills for someone learning to survive in the wilderness. My hope is that in addition to being able to chant the sacred order (“Shelter! Water! Fire! Food!”) the boys will come away from the summer with a basic understanding of how to build or find shelter, how to find and purify water, how to make a safe, sustainable fire and, of course, how to get food from the land. We had a great time building a couple of shelters as a big group, and we’ll have people sleeping out in them soon. The nice thing about the ,shelter building projects is that the guys get a sense of just how much work it is, but they also get to have some fun. I think the results are pretty great, but we’ll see how they do once people are sleeping in them!
Since then, one of the most fun parts of the week (for me at least) was our Day Trips. We sent a group in each direction out of camp: One went north on the Catamount/Moosetrack trail to the top of Round Top; another bushwhacked West to the top of Saltash Mountain; a third went East down our stream towards Sliding Rocks (a cool natural water-slide nearby) and the fourth headed South towards Lake Ninevah and a pretty phenomenal Swamp Romp! I was lucky enough to tag along for the swamp romp, and I can tell you one thing: we got right into it! In addition to all the mud, we found places where deer had rested, moose tracks, cattails we could eat and a beautiful beaver lodge. Oh, yeah, and a bunch of leeches… but we dealt with them.
One of the real values from a day trip like this, in addition to having fun and building connection with each other and the land, is that we can push our edges a little bit. Usually, we’re not supposed to go into the deepest mud we can find and splash around. Usually, going waist-deep into cold water is a bad thing. For us, it’s not just okay, we actively encourage it! The goal is to help campers realize how much cool stuff is happening in nature, just off the beaten path. Sometimes that means you have to get a bit wet or dirty, but it’s always worth if for the amazing discoveries you can make!
I hope you’re all having a great summer, too, and for all of you out there praying that we get great weather, thanks! You’ve done a great job so far!