Update from the Northwoods

We’ve had a busy few days at camp since the 4th of the July.  There’s been so much going on at camp, it’s been hard to find time for a Rambling!

We had a great Green-White Marathon on Monday, and though the White team jumped out to a big lead, it still came down to the wire at Boil Water Boil.  The Green-White Marathon is a race that involves all over camp and includes every camper participating in events anywhere from running, swimming and biking, to softball throws, bed making, and singing songs with crackers in your mouth.  In the end, it all concludes with “Boil Water Boil,” where two campers from each team work to boil water so that it is running over the top of their No. 10 Tin Can, all while the whole camp stands around cheering them on.  It always makes for a great day.

The evening of the 5th we had our All-Camp campfire, where we all gathered at the Council Ring for an evening of stories, songs and jokes.  We shared many laughs, especially at the traditional “Talking Contest,” where our campers square off to determine the best talker in camp.  The Talking Contest has two boys standing eye to eye, and on the command “Ready, Set, Talk!” both are to begin talking simultaneously until they can talk no more. The contest ends when one participant hesitates, stutters or repeats himself.  Our championship match between heavily favored senior Andrew R. and underdog Spencer M. went on so long that Leb had to postpone the conclusion for a later date.  There is no doubt that our boys can talk!

We also heard from Alex F. on behalf our Pine Manor group about their experiences on the Canadian.  Alex told the camp a little about the week and a half long camping trip to Quetico Provincial Park, and more importantly about what it meant to all of them. Alex told us about how the trip really brought them all together as a group, as they needed to work together to accomplish the daily tasks that they faced in the wilderness.  This year our group really had beautiful weather throughout the trip, and they caught a lot of fish as well.  The consensus was that the trip was a memory that they will share forever, and that it help to cement these camp friendships that will last a lifetime.

We had another great Cruiser Day yesterday with some perfect weather for a great day.  The Junior Village had their Village Cruiser Day and they went to the Hayward waterslide, played mini-golf and jumped on the giant air pillow there.  Then they were off to Hayward Beach for some frisbee and a cookout dinner, before stopping at Dairy Queen and heading back to camp.  Back at camp, we had all kinds of great things happening, including J-3 filming their own remake of Rambo!  We had the slip-and-slide set up and as you can see by the look on Jon Kohl’s face above, there are few things our Intermediate Village Director would rather be doing.

Now we’ve got a busy week coming up as we make preparations for United Nations Day this Sunday!  The summer is just flying by…