The Arrowhead Archives

The Arrowhead

Camp Nebagamon's Monthly Newsletter

Volume XCI

Number 1

January 2019

Return to Our New Style

Adam Reflects from the Road

By Adam Kaplan

As many of you know, a large chunk of the “off-season” for Adam Fornear and me is dedicated to traveling around the country for camp reunions. To date, we have already visited fourteen cities this winter with many more to come! In fact, we figure that we travel about 10,000 miles a year together in a car, and this is our tenth year doing so. Imagine that….100,000 miles in a car with either of us as your travelling companion. Needless to say, we know each other well – the quirks, the sleep habits, the eating weaknesses, the musical tastes. (Though, in truth, we rarely ever listen to music. Believe it or not, we spend most of our time either talking about camp, or ribbing each other about one thing or another. We tried books on tape, but Fornear could never stay awake, especially problematic when he is driving! Personally, I think he fakes falling asleep during the books on tape because he misses talking to me.)

Adam and Fornear at the Manhattan Reunion

Without a doubt, this annual cycle of travel is one of the more fun aspects of this job. Through this work, we have been through forty-seven states in the past fifteen years (amazingly, we have never been able to pull off Vermont in the lower 48!), driven through countless beautiful landscapes, visited some of the more iconic and interesting off-the-beaten-track sites around the nation, and, most importantly, visited many people in their own hometowns.

This experience has allowed us to notice many things about different communities. First off, we have noticed that, no matter which metropolitan area we seem to be in, there is a HUGE shopping area with a Best Buy, a Target, an Olive Garden right next to a Red Lobster, several Starbucks, a Bed, Bath and Beyond, a Home Depot, and an Office Depot. We have become completely convinced that were we to be blindfolded and taken to any one of these shopping areas around the country, when the blindfold was removed, we would have absolutely no idea where we were. But….that triple Caramel Macchiato would still be pretty darn good!

And then we have noticed that each town has its own feel to it as well. Whether it be the beautiful brick homes of St. Louis, or the lovely wooded feel of Louisville, or the steep hills of San Francisco, or the stunning views of Lake Michigan from all over the Chicago area, or the awe-inspiring concrete jungle of Manhattan, every place we visit seems to have its own character and uniqueness.

Highlights from DC, including the reunion and a walk through the monuments at night

One of the other things we have been struck by is the sense of pride almost everyone has about where they live. If you give them an ear, they will regale you with tales about how the people in their town are the nicest, how the weather is the best, how they have the most wonderful restaurants (and by the way, almost everyone will claim to have the best barbeque restaurant anywhere….something that I have really enjoyed trying to flesh out!), and how, simply put, they live in the best place in the country. At first, I assumed that this was simply a byproduct of living a somewhat insular life. I thought people just needed to travel and see what life is like outside of their hometowns. While this may certainly be a part of the reason people are so positive and passionate about the place that they live, I think there are at least two other important factors that play into it.

The first is this idea of diversity that we hear so much talk of these days. In most cases, diversity is mentioned in reference to the color of people’s skin or their ethnicity. But, clearly, all of the extraordinarily varying tastes in geography are symbolic of another very real aspect of diversity. Those folks that live in San Diego are passionate about warm days and want nothing to do with earmuffs and scarves. The families that hail from Minneapolis cannot imagine a January without sledding and snowball fights. The folks that live in Denver or Salt Lake would feel at a loss without the mountains surrounding them. The families that hail from New York City would feel completely cut off were it not for their intensely busy and cosmopolitan surroundings. This is real diversity in action.

The second factor that plays into why folks are so dedicated to their hometowns is just that…….it is their home. It is the place where they have either grown up, or raised their kids, or both. It is the place where they enjoy all of life’s highs and endure all of life’s challenges. It is the place they are comfortable. No other place can possibly match up to HOME. It is the best place on earth. (Now, my friends often make jokes about the fact that I always find a way to tie these articles back to camp, so I won’t do it this time. Though, it might be an interesting exercise to re-read this paragraph and think about your OTHER home!)

Happy New Year to all of you and, for those whom we have not visited yet this winter, we will see you soon!

The Road Show Rolls On

Adam Kaplan and Adam Fornear returned just a few weeks ago from the East Coast; at the beginning of 2019 the Adams will complete the Midwest section of the reunion tour. We can’t wait to see more of you in the coming months!  Listed below is the entire reunion schedule, which, as usual, is subject to change. A few weeks prior to each reunion, we will email invitations to members of the camp family in the communities we’ll be visiting. Please be courteous and RSVP to the host families.

City Dates Reunion Details
Chicago January 13th Heller Nature Center, 2:30 PM
2821 Ridge Road, Highland Park
Minneapolis January 16th 6:30 PM, Home of the Malk Family
San Diego February 5th 6:30 PM, Home of the Effress Family
Los Angeles February 6th 6:30 PM, Home of the Posen Family
San Francisco February 10th 3:00 PM, Home of the Susser Family
London March 17th Home of the Hoffman Family
Denver TBA

News of the Camp Family

Compiled by Adam Fornear

Ice skating the Big Lake with the Duluth Skyline in the background – Sweet!

I’m not really sure how to describe winter thus far here in Duluth. It was off to a great start and then suddenly just went kind of… blah. Snow has been non-existent, which really takes away from the season. There has been a mix of cold/warm/cold that is making it difficult to adjust. Last week, recreationally speaking, was a bit odd. Saturday, I headed out ice climbing at an old quarry in the city. Had to hit the ice early as it was going to hit 40 degrees by early afternoon… not great conditions for ice. Then the next day I was out in a small boat on Lake Superior trolling for salmon over by the Apostle Islands. We did ok, and I had some fresh brown trout for dinner over at my brothers. My eight-year-old nephew, Niko, can’t stop eating fresh baked salmon or trout. Anyhow, it’s just been a weird start to the winter and it has many of us up north wondering what the deal is. Well, nothing to do but cope with the hand Mother Nature deals you! So, the skis stay in the basement and back out to the ice with some skates — deal with what you are dealt, and keep those wheels moving. I think many of us can relate to that with our experiences at camp. I remember a couple summers back when the first round of trips went out and at the same time a cold front dropped in from Canada. We had eight trips out and all of them experienced rain, temps in the mid 40’s, and some early hatches of mosquitos. When those trips started rolling back into camp and the campers piled out of the vans, we were there to ask them, “How was it?” Some responded that it was tough…highlighting the cold, the wet, the bugs…but when asked if they would go out again…they all said absolutely. They pushed through the unexpected and still had a sweet time out in the backcountry. Moments like that reassure me that what we are doing with our wilderness trip program is spot on. Of course, we all want bluebird, bug-free days in the backcountry but if Mother Nature deals some weather our way, Nebagamon campers and staff are ready for all challenges.

Winter break is upon us in the Nebagamon office. Soon though we shall be hitting the road in mid-January for more reunions (lots of jelly donuts in Chicago!), and hopefully we will be able to cross paths. If you are unable to attend please pass along news so I can make you famous in the Arrowhead! Email me (Fornear) at fornear@campnebagamon.com. Best wishes for a great start to 2019 and I hope you all get outside doing something awesome!

IT MAY INTEREST YOU TO KNOW that in New York Randy Ventura was a wide receiver for Fox Lane High School football team. Jash Sanabria has joined the writing club, philosophy club, art club and the cooking club at his high school. Jared Greaves is playing a lot of basketball. Justin Pagan is in his 4thyear volunteering with Bricks for Kids, a Lego themed building activity. Nicky Fleischer is a point guard for the Bank Street Bulldogs basketball team and Justin Blumberg is also playing basketball this winter. Gabe Heller plays center mid for the Whitecaps soccer team. Their team recently won the championship game. Syd Rosenbloom is keeping busy with the winter soccer season. Gavin Stern ran cross country this fall and is now in full swing with the winter ski racing season. After an awesome time exploring the NYC and catching up with old friends, we headed towards D.C. for an amazing crab cake and some even better reunions. At the D.C. reunion Si Kessler informed me that he was running cross country this fall. Michael Cohen is rowing crew and Lawson Wheeldryer is playing soccer. Emmitt Gerstein recently held a 5K race, raising $2500 for the CHARGE Syndrome Foundation which helps people with his brother Tomer’s condition.

IN THE WHERE-ARE-THEY-NOW DEPARTMENT: Robert Bedington (Durham, UK/Singapore ’05-‘06) was recently recognized as an Innovators Under 35 by the MIT Technology Review. Robert leads a team of quantum satellite-builders at the Centre for Quantum Technologies at the National University of Singapore. In 2019, they will launch the nanosatellite SpooQy-1 to demonstrate quantum entanglement in space. In collaboration with the UK’s RAL Space, the team will advance to delivering quantum encryption keys from space. Robert is also CTO-designate at S15 Space Systems, a start-up that aims to build a constellation of quantum key distributing satellites. Robert received his PhD from University College London and worked at the Japan aerospace exploration agency on space-weather instrumentation and elsewhere on instruments for astronomical telescopes. Brayden Levy (San Francisco ’06-’11, ’13) is finishing a masters degree in Mechanical Engineering at UC Santa Barbara and will begin work for Garmin this Fall. Liam Sandrial (San Francisco ’06-’11) is living in Utah, working as an Assistant Lighting Director for concerts throughout the state. Michael Fried (D.C./San Diego ’05-’11) is in school to become a Veterinary Assistant and is currently working at a veterinary hospital.  Harry O’Gorman (St. Louis ’07-’11, ’13) is a research fellow at the National Institutes of Health in Maryland, and is planning to attend medical school in the fall. Max Lerner (Chicago ’06-’11, ’13) is living in Chicago with Grant Chukerman (Chicago, ’06-’11, ’14-’16) and working as a paralegal, with the intention of attending Law School.

WEDDING CONGRATULATIONS go to Justin Blue(Denver/NYC ’87-’93,’95-’96) and Bonnie Harris (Denver).

BAR MITZVAH CONGRATULATIONS go to Zach Riven(Dallas)

Mailgabber – A 9th Grader Looks Backward and Forward

By Charlie Cohen

Charlie Cohen is a current camper preparing for his 9th grade summer. In this letter, he reflects on his time as a camper, and his final summer ahead.

As a Swamper sitting at the 9th-grade Council Fire, I did not imagine that I would be returning to camp for the next six summers. I soaked in the Keylog Ceremony, which as a Swamper felt endless, and I thought to myself that this summer had been fun, but it was going to be my last. I returned home the next day with a similar mindset, but my parents told me something that changed my camp life and shaped me to be who I am today.

Through my frequent and often verbose letter writing, my parents were able to see the bigger picture of my summer. Sure I was homesick at the beginning of the summer, but the following three and a half weeks had been some of the most fun I had ever had. By the time I arrived at home, I had forgotten all of the fun times with my cabin, our great overnight trip, learning photography, and the delicious MOCA treats. The emotions of the last few days of camp had been running high and had lead me to forget all of the fun. My parents remembered for me, and told me that I would be returning to camp the next summer, and each summer after that until I could honestly tell them that I loved camp. Then, if I wanted to, I could stop going. This seemed like a fair deal at that point, so I agreed to go back to camp until I loved it, then I thought I would stop going.

Last summer was my first summer going for 8 weeks and I truly loved it- it was the best summer of my life. So I won’t be going back for my last summer! Just kidding- I can hardly wait to get back one last time. I may try to break my record of 42 nights out on trail, or I may opt for a little lazier of a summer, building up to the Quetico trip I have been looking forward to for years. I know I will love it, and I know the 9th-Grade Council Fire will still seem very long to me, but I won’t want it to end.

Caretaker Joe Skis Into the New Year

by Joe Crain

The Lake Nebagamon Lighthouse oversees the frozen lake

Well, as imagined at the end of last month’s article, Mother Nature did make an about face, and the November that was like a December gave way to a December that was like a November! Right from the first day of the month of December the temps rose into the low 30s and the meager snow cover that had survived the unusually snowy November began a steady decline that continued through the month. The second week of the month gave us a brief visit with normalcy, as the temps hovered in the mid 20s throughout the week. With that little exception, the rest of December was well above average as the temps rose to the mid 30s, with the weekend of December 15th and 16th topping things off with 45-degree readings both days. With little to no precipitation recorded until the last couple of days of the month, the snow cover was reduced to an icy couple of inches and mostly bare grass under the trees. It wasn’t until the 29ththat things returned to ‘normal’, with the day starting in the single digits and reaching only into the teens. And now our snow cover has returned to close to average levels as well with a rather abrupt and aggressive two-day snow storm that happened on the 27thand 28th. Here on the outskirts of the south shore of Lake Superior, we were blessed with just over a foot of fresh and rather sticky snow, while those lucky souls on the north shore of the Great Gitchi Gumi received a whopping 24 inches of the glorious white stuff. The storm affected much of the Midwest from the heart of Texas on up into Canada. For us the storm started with nice fluffy flakes on Wednesday night, followed by three hours of heavy rain on Thursday morning. Then that was topped off by about eight inches of heavy wet snow throughout the day, and the storm finished off with another several hours of fluffy flakes into the day on Friday. I figure that if the temps had stayed cold throughout the storm our snow total would have easily reached the 24 inches that the north shore of the big lake received, where the cold held out. With a quick check of Skinneyski.com, it looks like for the first time this December the Afterhours Ski trails of the Brule State Forest will be groomed and ski-able. Can you guess what I will be doing this afternoon?

Speaking of skiing, I was able to keep my early ski season going despite the warm and dry conditions of this month by skiing on Lake Nebagamon. The beauty of ice skiing is you only need an inch or so of snow to get a good grip and glide! I took full advantage of my opportunities to ski on the ice and was able to ski a good number of days, and was able to make tracks on all four bays as the conditions failed on shore. And not a skier to give up easily, as the lake conditions began to fail as well when the temps hit the 40’s mid-month, I donned my new wide and short back country skies and toured along the sides of the roads. But alas, that too began to melt down and I was forced to lose a whole week of ski time. Fortunately, the recent storm hit and things are looking up again.

Range cabin windows getting a facelift!

In the shop, things have been all windows! With caretaker Andy installing all new windows in Range cabin E (Associate Director Adam Fornear’s summer abode). Cabin E has needed re-windowing for years, as the old slat style (think old mobile home style) windows have lost most of their mechanics to age and were very drafty and leaky. Andy had to tear out the old windows and do some casement work, then install some good mid-range side sliders. For my part, I have been in the shop working on the “French door” style windows of cabins A, B, and C (or Apple, Birch and Cedar for you who are newer to camp) that I had taken off of the cabins before the weather turned cold in November. The job will take me well into the new year, requiring Hours and hours of removing the old and applying new glazing compound and scraping and painting. And of course, Caretaker Jack, who is seasonal staff, is on his annual winter break, probably sipping cold drinks down at his property in Florida as I type here in the finally-frozen Northland.

Very ready to use up my last week of vacation this year by again skiing the Back Country of Yellowstone National Park the 1stweek of January, it’s Caretaker Joe At Camp.

The recent snow has buried Camp!

More Registrations for 2019!

It’s 2019, and registrations continue to roll in to our inbox for the upcoming summer! If you are planning on returning to Nebagamon this summer, please register soon so we can make sure you have a spot for the 2019 camp season. Listed below are the boys who are currently enrolled – let’s get your name on this list for the February Arrowhead!

2nd Grade Campers: Elliott Kleiman and Lazer Rosenbloom

3rd Grade Campers: Jake Finkelstein, Gabe Fisher, Eli More, Julian Saddleton, Sagiv Siegel, Jacob Solomon

4th Grade Campers: Jack Agran, Sam Cohen, Tate Gell, Will Gray, Miles Hall, Charlie Heist, Ari Held, Eli Hoffman, Logan Hoffman, Aidan Huberman, Gibson Kapp, Eli Karp, Gus Karsh, Chase Kornblet, Avi Maidenberg, Coulson McConnell, Linus Quinn-Pasin, Matan Radwin, Noah Schriftman. Seth Starhill, Juddah Thacker, Tanner Toback, HJ Walberg, Aaron Zelvy

5th Grade Campers: Austin Abeles, Brooks Coyle, Emmet Felner, Levi Gladstein, Charlie Goshko, Jackson Green, Nicholas Kallos, Milo Karsh, Nathaniel Kehrberg, Johan Kleiman, Ben Laytin, Cameron Louie, Ryan Mack, Drew Malk, Reece O’Connor, Mason Pedroza, Micah Rosenbloom, Syd Rosenbloom, Jonathan Schiff-Lewin, Logan Segal, Benji Solomon, Asher Toback, Levi Whalen Stewart, Jorn White, Elijah Winkler

6th Grade Campers: Atlas Barnes, Judah Callen, Solomon Cravitz, Matthew Gordon, Ollie Gray, Jack Hughes, Ezra Maidenberg, Sam Montag, Auden Osburn, Rafa Pasen, Ori Radwin, Zach Riven, Jacob Rolfe, Wesley Schwartz, Asher Sigman. Kobi Silver, Milo Solomon. Micah Stone, Eli Terman, Murray Wieseneck

7th Grade Campers: Alexander Averbuch, Jasper Braunschweiger, Joel Fisher, Levi Gell, Mark Gingiss, Gabriel Heller, Chase Herbert, Jack Krupnick, Jacob Lutsky, Hudson McConnell, Sam More, Milo Peterson, Ben Polonsky, Jonah Rontal, Owen Rosenthal, Matan Siegel, Lawson Weeldreyer, Josh Wells, Eli Zelvy

8th Grade Campers: Sebastian Alderman, Caleb Caraway, Michael Cohen, Charlie Duncan, Adam Eberhard, Nick Fleisher, Emmitt Gerstein, Jacob Greenwald, Ben Hackney, Nurali Kuanyshbek, Seth Lambert, Jacob Laytin, Josh Marcus, Rolando Martinez, Nelson Mendels, Henry O’Connor, Jake Paderewski, Rahul Pai, Nathan Starhill, Ollie Tannahill, Steven Weeldreyer

9th Grade Campers: Sam Bloch, Justin Blumberg, Jordan Carlin, Jesse Chan, Charlie Cohen, Ben Effress, Nick Friedman, Jesse Gell, Jackson Goldblatt, Jack Goodman, Jack Gordon, Trevor Harriman, Daniel Heller, Matthew Hooper, Gabi Huberman-Shlaes, Julian Jackson, Kasper Jorgensen, Peter Kallos, Jonah Karafiol, Adam Lewis, Miles Lokken, Sean McSherry, Eli Moog, Jake Powers, Brady Rivkin, Jack Rivkin, Daniel Sabados, Ben Shacter, Jason Shacter, Toby Shapin, Gabriel Sloan-Garcia, Nate Wells, Solomon Wexler, Nate Woldenberg, Noah Yaker

Congratulations to our January Birthdays!

January Birthdays Include

1st –    Samuel Matayo, Jimmy Tapia

2nd –  Ethan Blatt, Judah Callen, Michel Doege, Justin Pagan

3rd –   Carson Bates, Ethan Garchik

4th –   Matteo Colibazzi, Matthew Lazarov, Michael Rivkin

5th –   Adarius Cooper                    

6th –   Oliver Tannahill

8th –   Justin Blumberg,  Davin Lewis, Henry Sohn

9th –   Alexander Averbuch, Jonah Docter-Loeb

10th – Ethan Berman

11th – Leo Preiser, Nathan Susser

14th – Sebastian Alderman, Sam Cohen, Gus Karsh, Amy Mack

16th – Gabriel Heller

17th – Eli Fromm, Seth Lambert

18th – Jeremy Berkowitz, Jake Lescher

19th – Micah Rosenbloom, Oliver Swack

20th – Sam Apple, Fredire Gregorio

21st – Daisy Mack, Leo Mack

22nd- Nelson Mendels, Asher Mendelson

23rd – Trent Flegel

24th – Sam Feldman, Brett Patterson

26th – Yonser Morales, Cindy Rolfe

27th – Andrew Guest

28th – Jaime Hensel, Matthew Kotcher, Harrison Reichert

29th – Noah Penson, Milo Peterson, Eric Portillo

31st – Jack Wineman