Summer Wrap-Up: Wilderness
Luke LaRocque
Wilderness has come and gone, and we're suddenly so sad to see all our 15 and 16 year old campers leaving for the summer! The last two weeks have been filled with laughter, memories and great learning about God, with some campers choosing to stay over from Basecamp last week for Wilderness and the four day canoe trips this week. Without further ado - here are some highlights from Kodiak for Wilderness 2018!
Favourite Moments: It's always fun watching campers climb off the bus at the end of the canoe trips. It's usually a combination of tiredness, good memories and a certain canoe trip smell that we encourage the campers to get rid of in the showers! 2018 was no different, but there was something... else... added to the mix. Apparently, one of our Massasauga trip leaders, Guillaume, brought a small rubber chicken on her trip, and her campers really took to the chicken, who they started to call "Chicken Nugget". You can only imagine the pandemonium that broke loose when one of the other canoe trips in Massasauga stole "Nugget" from them. (Empty) canoes were tipped, paddles were stolen, and everyone got off the bus on Thursday morning with some of the most hilarious stories I've heard from a Wilderness trip in years. The best part was that they all continued to jokingly challenge each other about the "Massasauga War" in good-natured fun. I'm definitely looking forward to seeing if campers remember this and it comes up next year!
Silliest Moments: See above. :)
Meaningful Moment: Basecamp and Wilderness seems to be the age group when campers really start to have to make sure that their faith is their own. It's amazing to see them respond to the challenges of our staff, who often share little parts of their lives during evening sessions. It's everything we can hope for and more as full-time staff to see a camper talking to a cabin leader who just shared their testimony. Without naming names, there were quite a few times that I saw that this week, and it makes my old camp director heart very, very proud!
The Weather Report: The weather never feels more important than when campers are heading out on their canoe trips - nobody wants a wet, rainy outtrip, but we don't want scorching hot weather either! Thankfully, we had a nice mix of small rain and beautiful weather the whole week, and everyone seemed to deal with the weather so well, no matter what the situation!
That's that for Wilderness! We're already looking forward to planning some great new adventures for Basecamp/Wilderness 2019 - stay tuned!