Compiled by Louis Levin
In my time as a camper, I took plenty of wilderness trips, and like many campers find, those trips provided a lot of healthy challenges for me. And like many alumni, those trips are perhaps the thing I relish the most about my time as a camper. Tripping has become a part of who I am as an adult. I’ve revisited plenty of the beautiful places that I experienced as a camper. I loved hiking in Pictured Rocks 11 years after I first visited, and revisiting the vistas of Sleeping Giant that I enjoyed as an 8th grader. I retraced the Lady Chain in the Boundary Waters as a 27-year-old. As an adult, I learned to appreciate the difficulty I had as a camper on our wilderness trips. That difficulty made the trips I go on as an adult much easier.
There was one trip I didn’t take as a camper: Grand Portage. Perhaps the hardest trip we offer at Nebagamon, our Grand Portage route travels the US-Canada border from Saganaga to Superior, ending with an 8.5 mile portage, the trip’s namesake Grand Portage, that leads our campers from the Boundary Waters Canoe Area to Lake Superior. After camp this summer, I sought to rectify this regret, and planned a trip for my wife Maggie and I that would take us along the exact route our 9th grade campers take
Foolishly, I remarked to Maggie before our trip, “The campers do it, so how hard could it be?” I even built in a few advantages for ourselves. We budgeted our trip an additional day; 9th graders do the Portage route in six days and we gave ourselves seven. We only had two people’s worth of food and gear; our campers pack out a trip for nine. And, of course, we had the luxury of taking a lighter and more fragile river canoe; campers traverse the portage with our trusty 85-pound aluminum canoes.
What transpired over our seven-day trip left me gobsmacked. Each night, Maggie and I would arrive at our campsite close to dinner time and I’d review the map, unable to comprehend how our campers would have pushed through another three lakes and portages compared to what we’d accomplished. We faced strong headwinds on big lakes, like a seven-mile paddle across Gunflint that left our arms sore, and I could only wonder how you’d keep a group of three boats together when steering through the gusts that proved difficult for a single canoe. And when it came to our last day, the big one, the eight-and-a-half mile namesake Grand Portage, I was lost for words. Our Trip Director, Jonah Domsky, told me most camper groups can push through the portage in about three and a half hours. It took us nearly eight.
While I was really proud of launching our canoe into the big lake to end our trip, my pride was outweighed by a much larger emotion: a humbled awe. I was awestruck by our campers. The fact that 15-year-olds not only do that route, but do it faster than I can imagine, is extremely impressive. And I was floored with the trip staff – with every snag in our trip, I gained more and more respect for our intrepid trippers guiding a group of campers down the border route and keeping their poise.
So while I was looking forward to this trip to check off a regret from my camper years, I was quite surprised by what I actually walked away with: a much deeper understanding of what our campers are capable of and an even greater admiration for our trip staff…and a knee problem! Glad I snuck this one in before it was too late!
As for news of the camp family, our reunion tour will begin next month so until then, please feel free to send along news items my way. You can reach me at louis@campnebagamon.com.
WEDDING CONGRATULATIONS GO TO… Noah Star (Evanston, IL/Anchorage, AK 2003-’09) and Shoshi Belier.
IN THE BIBS AND DIAPERS DEPARTMENT… It’s a boy, Elliot, for Dan Levis (Chicago/Park City, UT ’98-’03,’05-’08,’16) and Lia Levis. It’s a girl, Zoë, for Ben Donchin (OKC, ’03-’08) and Stephanie Donchin (OKC).