Every once in a while here at camp, we really let our competitive flags fly, and yesterday was one of those days, literally: on The Grand Pursuit, each team unfurls a bright, colorful flag representing their fur trading company, and campers parade around with these flags the entire day. That’s right – our second session all-camp competition day was yesterday, and we went all out.
The Grand Pursuit is a Voyageur-themed day in which the boys are divided into four fur trading companies all competing to control portages and establish trade routes through a map of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area and Quetico. The theme of the day permeates the entire event, from the costumes that transform our village directors into company leaders, to the food we eat – a voyageur’s diet of wild rice with every meal: wild rice hash browns with breakfast, wild rice soup in a bread bowl for lunch, and wild rice alongside pork tenderloin for dinner – to of course the music. Ah, the music. We play a couple of French-Canadian paddling tunes on repeat in our Rec Hall throughout the day, and it really sets the scene.
Thursday night, after an opening ceremony filled with much pomp, circumstance, and pounding drums, the campers who participated in last year’s day joined their team, ready to welcome the new campers into their arms in a grand sorting ceremony. Part of what is so cool about the Grand Pursuit is that the boys will stay on the same team for their entire camper careers, so it really is a welcome home for these new campers. As their names were read, campers joined their new teams with cheers and high fives, and received their ceremonial team sashes. Each team headed to share in a BBQ together and begin their strategizing for the big day coming up tomorrow.
Yesterday morning, the games began. Campers competed in events from the serious and athletic, like a soccer shootout or a home run derby, to the voyageur-themed portage run (with a paddling pack strapped to your back) and the downright silly, like our crayon coloring race, limbo, or the crossword competition. Events in the morning count for pelts (ok, points, but let’s stay with the voyageur theme!), which each team then uses before lunch to establish their position on a giant board game designed just for camp. We all gathered at our Council Fire Ring to start playing the game just before lunch, and that’s where the competition turns up another notch.
The board is the center of the day. Each team starts in one corner of the map and uses the resources they collect throughout the day to maneuver across the board, surrounding lake chains, establishing trade routes, and targeting special bonuses that gain them more pelts. Afternoon challenges in team sports, such as the canoe tug-o’-war, ultimate frisbee, cornhole bag toss, and the camp-classic Water Push Ball are followed by our marquee events to end the day: a canoe paddle relay, the tug-o’-war, and the crosscut sawbuck, where two campers from each team race to saw their way through an 18” log. Each event earns the winning team a move on the game board – the ability to explore new portages, protect their own, and perhaps most contentiously, steal control of portages from other teams.
This is where the strategy comes into play. Throughout the day, teams discuss amongst themselves what the best moves are, which parts of the board to target, which other teams with which they should form alliances and which teams present the greatest threat. Our campers are really into this board game; groups of them will play it in their free time. Sitting at the Council Fire Ring during each game session, our campers follow along with each and every move, offering suggestions and hashing out the best way for their team to establish control of the board. Throughout the week leading up to the big day, our youngest and new campers have opportunities to learn the game from older campers, and our older campers take them under their wing to ensure all have a good time playing a giant board game together.
Of course, as the boys are so familiar with the game, we need to keep it fresh. Each year we introduce a twist: a new mechanism, new rules, or new activities that ensure the campers are on their toes. This year was no different – partway through gameplay, a villain dressed in all black strolled down into the Council Fire Ring and let out a particularly villainous laugh. He introduced himself as Baron Blackstone, an investor who is looking to open a mine in the Boundary Waters… a villain as relevant as ever!
Baron Blackstone placed his stronghold right in the middle of the board and began exploring portages in search of precious metals, poking holes in each team’s trade routes along the way.The campers took on the challenge of not only defeating their peers, but squeezing out Blackstone throughout the evening of gameplay. Chants of “Leave No Trace” and “Protect the BWCA” rippled through the crowd around the Council Fire Ring. It seemed that the values we teach about stewardship stuck – campers banded together to run Blackstone out of the Northwoods, and succeeded in doing so.
Toward the end of the night, the Baron received a letter from his investors. He’d run out of time and out of luck, and failed in his own personal pursuit to open a mine, much to the delight of our voyageurs. The competition continued a few more rounds of gameplay until each team was out of moves to make, and a winner was decided.
Each team then marched up to the Upper Diamond to the beat of drums to receive the results . As the sky darkened, we lit an enormous bonfire in the middle of the athletic field and campers waited in anticipation for the results. Our Homme du Nord, the honorary emcee of The Grand Pursuit, bellowed across the field: “In fourth place…”
BOOM, one by one, fireworks shot up into the sky, illuminating camp in each team’s colors as we announced the winner of the day. Cheers rang out across the Upper Diamond as the winning fur company celebrated their victory before heading off to bed. Hats off to our whole community for making a spectacular day like The Grand Pursuit happen. This day is not possible without the hard work of each and every corner of our camp, contributing to a truly special event for all our campers.
It was a grand day, one for the ages, one where our boys really got to go all out. From the minute the drums started Thursday evening beginning the Grand Pursuit, to the final firework last night, the flag of each and every team was displayed proudly, passed from one camper to the next throughout the day. And in each team’s colorful flag, campers see what The Grand Pursuit is all about: lots of team spirit, their fur trading company’s logo, and their camaraderie with their companymen. The competitiveness, scheming, and strategizing that they pore over all day long as they vie to control the game board. And most importantly, these team flags represent one of the most all out fun days of the summer.
All is well in the Northwoods!