Ch 8

A camp story

Our schedule taped to the door said Suspension Bridge Sleepout w/ Shoshone but the cabins were split in their support. All twenty of them were in Teton after Pathfinder Pow-wow petitioning what they wanted while Sarah and I tried to make a decision.

"It'll be cold... There are bugs... It's dirty... I'm too tired... I don't want to... I just want to stay in my bed..." argued half of the girls while the other group pleaded, "I've never gotten to sleep out... It's already on the schedule... You promised... I'll never get to again... It's on the suspension bridge... We have tooooo..."

"Ok girls," said Sarah Roberts and they all got quiet. "Here's what we're going to do. Anyone who wants to go sleep-out from either cabin will go with Sarah Wright. The rest of you will come sleep-in Shoshone and sleep on our floor if you're from Teton." The girls scattered to grab their stuff relieved that both sides had won.

I met the group of brave, outdoor-loving, adventurous, hyper girls on the back porch: Mary, Margaret, Livvie, Ellie, and Lizzie from Teton and Jackie, Amber, and Nora from Shoshone. We all clicked on our flashlights before walking into the woods. Our trip was anything but quiet with girls laughing and shrieking as they tripped over tree roots and jumped out at each other in the darkness.

We had already done devotions back in Teton with the whole group. Once we got to the bridge the girls immediately claimed their sleeping spots--no one wants to be in the middle in case the bridge collapses and being on the end is too scary because a raccoon might crawl up in the middle of the night (neither of which would ever actually happen). I took the middle spot to roll out my sleep bag and zipped my flashlight, glasses, sandals, water bottle and alarm clock inside my backpack so they couldn't accidentally fall off the bridge into the lake.

I sat with the girls in a circle, leaning up again the chain link sides of the bridge, and pulling my sweatshirt sleeves down over my hands before I crossed my arms thankful for the breeze over the lake, a relief from the humidity. We told stories about life at home and laughed about things that had happened during Amazing Race with Araphao earlier that day. We looked up at the black sky until we spotted a shooting star. Livvie did a monkey call so loud that it echoed back across the lake. I'm sure that counselors sitting on their porches in River Village probably could have heard it. We stayed up past mid-night talking, thankful that we had chosen to come sleep on the bridge even if it was cold, dirty, and there might have been a spider or two.

As a camper I experienced a sleep-out on the tennis courts and I think one on Ft. Disco but I barley remember them now. As a counselor, the nights that we sleep-out are some of my most vivid memories maybe because they're more recent or perhaps because I have a greater appreciation for them.  No where else do groups of kids get to live in community like this for a week (or two if they're extra lucky). No where else do people sleep on suspension bridges under stars this bright with friends so special and with so much peace. As a counselor I want to take opportunities to make nights like that happen for my campers.

Early the next morning we woke up to my beeping alarm. Our pillows and sleeping bags were wet with dew and our backs ached from sleeping on the boards of the bridge. With our eyes half shut we silently walked back to our cabin, too tired to talk this early. Our cabin mates were just waking up when we walked in and the girls suddenly came alive telling stories of our night on the bridge.

We quickly got dressed and headed back out to get to breakfast, excited for baked oatmeal day.
"Did you know that camp has monkeys?!" I heard from a group of boys at flagpole. "It's true," one of them said, "I heard them yelling in the woods last night."