Down at the Nature Shack, our monarch chrysalises are about to hatch. Our Nature Lore instructors guided campers in scouring milkweed plants around Camp for monarch butterfly eggs, collecting them in an insect tank, and providing milkweed leaves daily for the caterpillars to eat. About 10 days ago, the bugs began spinning their cocoons on the roof of the tank to the amazement of our campers, and now the butterflies are about to reveal to our patient campers their beautiful wings. It’s going to be a big celebration when they emerge this week, and the timing is fitting… a lot of our campers are achieving their goals and becoming their new selves right around this time of the summer. One story in particular encapsulates this value perfectly.
This summer, an eighth grade camper came to Camp with a lofty goal: get his Instructor rank at C.N.O.C., our campcraft project. The Instructor rank is a particularly difficult rank to get. Many Camp seasons have come and gone without a camper achieving this highest rank, and it takes enormous dedication and perseverance. An Instructor-in-training must construct a shelter in our woods to sleep in overnight, ignite a fire using wood that’s been soaked in water for three days, and serve as the Older Boy Responsible, or OBR, for a Swamper cabin trip. It’s the “Instructor” rank after all, so it’s pretty fitting that the budding campcraft Instructor must instruct younger campers on a Camp Nebagamon Trip. About that last part…
The eighth-grade camper in question here has attended Camp since 2021, and didn’t quite fancy himself a tripper. He set off on the Swamper Overnighter in 2021 and his fifth grade cabin trip in 2022, and hasn’t stepped foot on trail since that summer. He didn’t feel comfortable on these trips, and in hindsight told me that as a younger camper he wasn’t in the best mindset to succeed in the wilderness. As a result, he developed a bit of a fear of camping. So when the camping trips became optional when he hit sixth grade, he opted out. Village directors in years past would ask him if he was interested in heading out on trail, and he’d politely decline. It just wasn’t for him, he told himself. Still, over that same time he developed a knack for campcraft. He started working through the CNOC ranks, learning complex knots and lashings, becoming increasingly proficient with a pocket knife and hand axe, and spending time teaching younger campers the skills he’d mastered in Camp. He knew coming into this summer that to achieve his last rank, he’d need to get back out on trail to tick off the final requirements.
A few years removed from his challenging tripping experiences, our eighth grader was ready to give it another go. He was excited to push himself past his former limitations, and finally see the beautiful Boundary Waters Canoe Area that he’d heard about from his friends all these years. So with the support and encouragement of his cabinmates, counselors, trip staff, and CNOC staff, he signed up for a BWCA trip a few weeks ago. The night before he left, the nerves returned. It had been a while since he’d felt those nerves around trips and he had told himself he wouldn’t go on another trip. He worried what would happen if those feelings came back when he returned to the wilderness. That night, the camper developed a mantra: “I don’t do things because they’re easy, I do things because they’re cool.” He carried those words with him into the wilderness. He knew that this experience on trail would be positive if he could embrace the challenge and he found it in himself to do just that. He returned from the trip with an enormous sense of accomplishment. When reflecting on the highlights of his camping trip, it wasn’t the natural beauty or camaraderie that he was most proud of… it was the comfort he felt in the woods for the first time. He built his skills and confidence in Camp and got out there and became the tripper he wanted to be. However, the requirement he needed to achieve to earn his rank wasn’t just going on a wilderness trip, it was serving as the OBR. He went on his first BWCA trip to ensure he was ready to take on the big responsibility of accompanying a cabin trip as the OBR. This camper hadn’t been on a wilderness camping trip in years, and two days ago, he left Camp with a group of Swampers on their very first camping experience.
A transformed eighth grader returned to Camp. He stepped out of the van behind the Big House and helped this cabin of younger boys sort out their gear, hang up their tarps and tents to dry, and do the dishes, and his village director broke out of our administrative meeting to give this camper a big hug. The staff on the trip spoke highly of his leadership and enthusiasm for teaching tripping skills to campers. He worked with them on preparing meals, setting up camp for the evening, and teaching them the knots they needed – he only regretted not being able to teach the fourth graders how to portage a canoe. Our canoes weigh the same as many of our fourth graders! And he had fun with the younger boys, swamping their canoes and swimming in the lake, and inventing goofy campsite games for them.. He was a role model for these first time trippers, ensuring they had as positive an experience as possible for their first wilderness trip at Camp Nebagamon. He told me it was a full circle moment from his own cabin trip, and even reported that he hopes one day to get to lead campers as trip staff himself. Truly, it was a life-changing experience for this camper.
The Camp Nebagamon program is designed to provide opportunities and challenges that keep Camp fresh and exciting for seven or eight years of camping. The trip program, our ranks in Camp, and the village structure all work toward that goal, and ensure campers are not boxed in or stuck in who they are, what they like, and their experience of Camp. No camper at Nebagamon is a trip camper, or a sports camper, or a talent show camper – the year-over-year nature of our program allows campers to be all of these archetypes at once, discover a new love or passion, or change who they are and what they like one year after the next. They come to Camp as caterpillars, and we nurture them and feed them plenty of vegetables (or, at least, tater tots). Within our supportive community, one day they discover a new side of themselves and spread their wings. It was a five-year journey for this camper to take flight on our trips, and he’s already passing on his skills and experiences to younger campers who will follow in his wake.