2023 A Session Has Begun!

Pathfinder 110 has begun! With 3-days under our belts, here are the headlines. 

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Saturday's Canada Day and Pathfinder Big Moment saw fine weather and warm swimming waters. A fire ban remained in place but recent showers brought optimism it could lift in the Park soon. The camp staff bustled around all morning, primping Pathfinder one last time. The crew that started work May 1 looked proud of the new builds and repairs that had Camp shining. A final all-staff swim break before lunch, then Campers began to arrive, bringing their trunks and parents to the Motorboat Dock. The energy level immediately cranked up another notch.

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By 9:00 pm, all our campers had arrived safe and sound. Gonzalo's crew served the classic first-night pasta dinner and trimmings, with Omar's vaunted cookies. A fine evening saw age groups gathering in their areas for introductions. The only absence was campfire light, but Pathfinder spirits provided the warmth, and everyone is in on the effort to keep the Park fire-safe these days.

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The following week has been full of trip training, the swim and canoe prep we all do before heading back into the north woods. Campers are dusting off our sport courts, archery range and arts space. A big wild first TurboDodgeball game included pranking our awesome new nurse with calls for the oxygen and backboard - a long tradition she might well pass on to the next newcomer.

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Most important, all the age groups, including the newest Loons, right up through the ranks to AAs, LITs and CITs are headed back onto the trip trail. DOT Andrew Beecher is off and running, with 8 trips already underway, including Loon warm ups all the way to full season AAs embarking on Via Rail's Canadian toward a 38-day trip to Fort Severn on the arctic tidewaters of Hudson Bay.

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See the trips so far ... See our photos so faro - The Peace of Wild Things (Wendell Berry)When despair for the world grows in me / and I wake in the night at the least sound / in fear of what my life and my children's lives may be / I go and lie down where the wood drake rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds. / I come into the peace of wild things / who do not tax their lives with forethought of grief. / I come into the presence of still water. / And I feel above me the day-blind stars / waiting with their light. / For a time I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.