By Noah Stein
Since 2005, my first ever summer at Nebagamon, the end of the summer has always had a very similar arc. There was the profound and emotional 9th grade Council Fire on the last night of camp every summer, followed the next morning by an extremely tough 6AM goodbye session on the Lower Diamond as the buses loaded and pulled away. My mind quickly had to refocus on “the real world,” which, depending on my age at that time, meant heading back to school, or packing up for college, or restarting my job as a therapist. The last day of camp always meant, well, the last day of camp!
But not anymore, as Joe Briggs reminded me this summer. We sat in the office one morning before the KP bell and I asked him a question about how things work in the “offseason.” He quickly responded “Noah, there is no more offseason!” It was a glorious reminder that in this new life of mine there is no such thing as the last day of camp! I have been gifted the opportunity to get to live camp all year round. And so it was after the “last day of camp” this summer, I got to get right back to work…and that means MORE CAMP!
If I am being honest, in addition to being very excited, I am feeling a bit nervous about my first offseason. Everyone who has been around Nebagamon for the past two decades is used to other folks doing a lot of this off-season work; they are used to their style and rhythms. I sometimes get nervous that people will have a hard time getting used to me in this new role, with my own style and rhythm.
So, I figured that before I jumped into it all, I needed something to help me relax after the summer and launch myself into my first offseason. Naturally, I decided to go camping with camp friends! My first weekend back in Denver, Grant Sachs (’05-’10, ’12, ’15, ’24), Matt Myer (’06-’11, ’13-’16) and I loaded my car with camping gear and food for the weekend and meandered our way southwest to Colorado’s San Juan Mountains. Our plan was to car camp at a trailhead and, the next morning, climb a 14,000-foot peak which had been on my to-do list for some time. (I’m on a mission to climb all the “14ers” in Colorado.)
As we drove through the last little town on our route before transitioning from pavement to dirt road and crawling at a snail’s pace up a ten-mile-long four-wheel drive road, I noticed my “fun-meter” working overtime. You see, I have always had this bead necklace hanging from my rear-view mirror which I call my “fun-meter” because when roads get bumpy and the beads jump up and down and from side-to-side and into my windshield, I know I’m having fun…we were definitely having fun! The road careened through pine trees and then aspens, whose leaves were just starting to transition to their fall pigments, and then traversed alongside creeks beneath increasingly tall mountains.
Finally, we reached our destination, a stunning trailhead above the timberline, in a cirque of jagged peaks. Before the fun-meter had a moment to settle, the three of us vacated the car and started campsite setup. It was like clockwork. Grant and I set up our tents as Matt organized the car’s contents into a food pile and a gear pile. Within a few minutes the tents were good to go. Grant grabbed firewood and ignited a textbook log-cabin style fire. Matt chopped some veggies, and I lit up our camping stove to get some water boiling. Within no time we were relaxing around the fire enjoying our pesto carb, a classic Nebagamon trip meal, and watching the sun begin to set behind the mountains. If you’ve been on a Nebagamon trip, you know that this is more or less the order of how we do things when we go camping.
As we sat around the fire, I observed that camping with camp friends is different than camping with anyone else. Everyone gets it. Nebagamon folks know their tripping skills well: how to set up a tent, light a fire, get a stove lit, and cook some darn good pesto carb! (If I do say so myself.) Camp people share a common understanding that when we all work together and take care of our campsite setup, we’ll get through it efficiently and get to spend more time chilling around the fire. They know the order of operations.
As the evening wore on, two people pulled up in a truck, the next campsite over from us. We watched in awe as they removed a big propane tank from the bed of their truck and attached it to an impressive stand-up camping grill. Soon they were cheffing up what looked to be delicious burgers with ease. When they were done, they set up their tent and went to bed.
As we sat there, mouths agape, we were speechless. Our instincts were to criticize their approach. We wanted to judge their order of operations. We almost laughed about how un-campy it was that they brought a propane tank and a stand up grill to cook with. But instead we were silent in thought. Eventually Matt broke the silence and said, “Man, those burgers they made looked amazing.” And Grant chimed in, “Did you see how quickly they got that all done?” We were all impressed and admitted that there were lots of ways to set up a campsite and lots of ways to cook a great campsite meal. New styles were welcome.
And there it was. What on earth am I worried about?! Nebagamon has gone through several transitions in its storied history. Each time, a nervous director (or set of directors) would step into the role, and each time the incredible, welcoming, open minded and accepting camp family embraced them with warmth and a genuine desire to see them succeed. I have felt that from the entire camp family since I started in May, and I have no doubt that I will continue to feel it from all of you.
Off to work, Noah-style!