“This was the best trip I’ve ever been on in my F&W career.”
That’s what I heard from campers and staff returning from trips yesterday. We sent out a Mammal Tracking trip to northern Massachusetts, a canoe trip on the Raquette River in the Adirondacks of New York, and a local area Survival trip, and apparently every one of them was a wonderful adventure. Flagstaff, our canoeing and hiking trip to Maine for our older campers returns tomorrow (it’s our only six day trip) and we’re expecting rave reviews there as well. In part the success of trips this year is due to Sun Panther Gives, our trips coordinator who’s been in his position for three years now, but it’s equally a result of a fantastically skilled and passionate staff and of course a whole passel of great campers.
Here are some of my favorite stories from trips so far: Raquetter River saw an otter and a bald eagle and made a chocolate pancake scramble for their last breakfast; on the Survival trip every camper slept in a debris shelter he had made himself, and they apparently made a delicious wild-edibles stew for dinner one night with cattails, nettles and leeks; I was on the Mammal Tracking trip so I know those stories the best. We had seven campers and went to the Montague Sand Plains in Massachusetts. While there we tracked dogs, coyotes, deer, possum, squirrels, raccoons, mice, and a handful more, plus we got to see a mother bird feed its baby just a few feet away from our faces! There are of course a ton more stories, but you’ll have to wait to hear those from your very own camper. The piece I wanted to share with you for now was that thanks to everyone’s hard work, these were some of the most enjoyable trips FC has run, and your camper was there.
Though it’s hard to believe, we only have one more week left in the session, so I’ll write again next week and then say goodbye to many of you. Of course you’re always welcome to keep reading the blog or sharing it with friends and I hope if you have questions or ideas you’ll be in touch.