Surviving Camp

Well, I haven't been to youth camp or anything like it in many years, but this past week my sister invited me up to visit her in northern BC while she was medic at youth camp. This week was teen camp, so youth from 13-16. My three nephews were also there. My youngest came with my sis as a volunteer support staff, so he did chores as directed. My eldest nephew was support staff so did all sorts of things and stayed in the dorm rooms with other staff, and my middle nephew was a camper so stayed in the cabins with his team - "Italy" as each cabin represented a country. There were 50 teen campers and about 20-30 more support staff and leaders. I first bunked in a double room with my sis, but my bed was next to the door which had an automatic door closer that slammed each time they went in and out as my youngest nephew was also staying in the room. Needless to say, I did not get much sleep. As well, the head of the bed was up against an uneven wall, so had an 8 inch gap where my pillows kept falling...thankfully I only had a couple of nights there and the last three nights in my very own room with a window and no automatic door closer. It was divine. We shaared the bathrooms as they were group style, not suite style, which was just fine with me. Just like a hostel really. The dining hall was large and we ate with the youth each meal, after they had all been through the lineup. There was no real choice for meals, and for the most part they were okay but portions in the first couple of days were very small until they realized that teen eat WAY more than their younger campers. Some of the boys were as big as grown men. My eldest nephew has a moustache!! The dining hall was an experience...it was fun on the first day, albeit somewhat overwhelming with yelling out of songs and pounding of the tables, antics and so on, and each cabin trying to outdo the next. By the end of the week my ears were ringing and those silly camp songs were stuck in my head - "Get your elbows off the table, this is not a horses stable, its a first class dining table!" And so on...and on, and on...until they reached 5 per meal. Thankfully there was a limit. At least once a day youth would choose O Canada or God Save the Queen so we would all have to stand up. 

The site was gorgeous, so green, lots of forest, lots of open green space, beautiful lake, lovely docks, canoes, kayaks, paddle boards, etc I thought about going for a paddle but would have to go alone as my sis needed to be immediately accessible. Then I worried my hands would not cooperate and I'd be out there stranded like a dumbass waiting for someone to rescue me. So in the end I chose not to...as much as I would have like to paddle around. The only design flaw in the building is that the sleeping quarters were directly below the dining hall and chapel, which were very noisy places at times, often all evening long. 

We went for a big hike on Thursday to the top of Barrett Hat, which was both a bit of a challenge, and very scenic. The view from the top was stellar! 

It was a nice relaxing hike with my sis as we lagged toward the back of the pack and enjoyed nature while chatting away and hooting for the bears - one must always make noise in the bush to let the bears know we are there as they do not like surprises. We saw enough fresh bear scat to confirm that we were def initely in bear country! Now I am heading back to Victoria...