Hey, Camp Fans!
Your camp stories for the Everything Summer Camp ‘Share Your Camp Story’ Contest were all so great! I had such a fun time reading through them all and now I’m excited to be sharing them with all our readers here on the Blog! Since I’ve finished announcing our ten lucky winners who took larger prizes, I’ve moved on to the rest of your submissions and we’re posting each submission one by one!
The following post is from Catherine G. who wrote in to tell us about her son’s summer stay at Camp Arbutus Hayo-Went-Ha. Here’s what she had to say:
My name is Catherine and I’ve been going to Camp Arbutus Hayo-Went-Ha for 3 years. I love camp and it’s one of my favorite places to be. This summer me and my cabin went and backpacked on North Manitou Island in Michigan for 4 days. We hiked through rain and shine. But it was one of the most amazing things I’ve done. The scenery was absolutely beautiful and it was such a rewarding experience. I had never backpacked before this so I didn’t really know what to expect. I was a bit nervous going into it but I was also excited. My two awesome counselors told us that we all were going to rock it even if at times it was challenging. Our first day we hiked 2 miles and it felt like nothing. Even though it was raining we all had the best time. Hiking through the forests and by Lake Manitou was gorgeous. The second day we hiked 7 miles. This day was harder for me. At times I felt like I couldn’t go any further and that I just wanted to stop. But my amazing cabin mates and my counselors pushed me and encouraged us all to keep going and that we could do it. Our third day we hiked 5 miles. This is was a better day, but we were all sore but knew we could do it. Our last day we only hiked 1 mile. At the end of the trip I was sad to leave, but more importantly I was proud of what I had accomplished. I would’ve never been able to do that without the support of counselors and cabin mates! This is one of the many reasons why I love camp so so much.
15 miles in four days is no joke! Way to go on completing this challenge, Catherine! While they can often be fun, adventures are full of challenging moments that stretch our endurance and compel us to give ourselves pep talks. The scenery usually ain’t bad either! I’m glad you got this experience and that it means so much to you, Catherine! Isn’t camp awesome?!
For everyone else, you can give Camp Arbutus Hayo-Went-Ha a closer look. Check it out for yourself by clicking here and, as always, thanks for reading!
- John