Cabin Overnights at Junior Camp

Tuesday lunch came with a demonstration. At the front of the Dining Hall, Will Wilson, Falling Creek’s Outdoor Adventure Activity Director, sat on a table with a backpack and began solving one of the afternoon’s more pressing mysteries: how in the world was all of this stuff supposed to fit in there?

Sleeping bag. Sleeping pad. Rain gear. Water bottles. Headlamp. A change of clothes. Will loosened straps, compressed the sleeping bag, and showed the boys where everything belonged. Around the Dining Hall, Junior Campers watched closely. In a few hours, they would be carrying all of it themselves.

There was plenty of excitement about the cabin overnight, but there were some nerves mixed in too. Luca S. of Charlotte, North Carolina, had already taken inventory of his gear and reached a concerning conclusion.

I’m just nervous about carrying my pack. It feels like it weighs 200 pounds with my sleeping bag, sleeping pad, headlamp, all that stuff.

Judging by a few of the faces around the room, Luca was not the only one wondering how far 200 pounds might have to travel.

Making the Unknown Smaller

That was part of the reason for Will’s lunchtime lesson. A backpack feels a little less intimidating once someone shows you how to pack it, and sleeping outside feels a little more manageable once you know where you are going and what you need when you get there.

Basketball counselor Quinn Kelliher of Houston, Texas, said the overnight sites are close enough for counselors to have what they need if something comes up.

“But to the boys,” he said, “it feels a world away.”

For Austin Z. of Charlotte, a second-year camper, there was less mystery. His backpack, sleeping bag, sleeping pad, and water bottle were ready, and he already knew one important thing about the evening ahead.

There would be s’mores.

Then They Went

Half of Junior Camp headed out Tuesday evening, and the remaining cabins took their turn Wednesday.

Once they reached their sites, nobody seemed terribly concerned anymore about exactly where the sleeping pad had been packed. Sleeping bags were unrolled, firewood was gathered, and dinner got started. There was time to explore, talk, tell stories, and watch marshmallows until each boy decided his had reached the proper degree of toasted.

James S. of Lexington, Kentucky, said one of his favorite parts was simply sitting around while dinner cooked. Chicken fajitas were followed by s’mores, and both seemed to meet expectations.

Of course, a night in the woods does not always cooperate with the plan.

CJ A. returned after a rainy overnight looking at the experience with the kind of flexibility that comes in handy at camp.

It was pretty fun. I got hardly any sleep. It rained on us all night.

His cabin played cards, told stories, and searched for enough dry wood to get a fire going. The s’mores happened eventually, which surely helped.

The Stories Come Back Too

By the next morning, boys were returning with the same backpacks they had worried about the day before, only now the packs seemed far less interesting than the stories coming home with them.

Asher H. of Albany, Georgia, said his cabin heard a stick crack and leaves rustling during the night and became convinced a bear was nearby. As Asher told it, “the bear just went on his way.”

By the time he was at paddling later in the day, the possible bear had already moved comfortably into the category of stories worth retelling.

Weston P. of Charlotte, North Carolina, came back with a little natural history too. His counselor had pointed out an orb-weaver spider, giving Weston something new to notice in the woods.

He had also reconsidered his packing list.

If Weston had to do it again, he said he would leave his toothbrush behind. Considering Luca had estimated the entire pack weighed about 200 pounds, apparently those final few ounces were what pushed it over the edge.

Why Give Up a Night?

Junior Camp lasts only six days. There are only five nights, and plenty of things boys would happily keep doing until somebody made them stop. So why spend one of those nights carrying beds into the woods?

Because at Falling Creek, the overnight is not really time away from camp. It is one of the ways boys get to experience camp.

Out there, the schedule quiets down. Boys gather wood, wait while dinner cooks, poke around the campsite, and spend an evening with the same people they have been sharing a cabin with all week. There is enough time for conversation to wander and for boys who met only a few days ago to become a little more comfortable with one another.

Counselor Doug Johnson of Birmingham, Alabama, sees the cabin overnight as an important part of what makes Falling Creek, Falling Creek.

“FCC is overnight camping,” he said.

Junior Camp is a six-day sample of a much bigger camp experience, and Doug believes adventure needs to be part of that sample. For older boys, adventure may eventually mean carrying a pack for several days, paddling a river, climbing at Looking Glass, or mountain biking beyond the camp gates. For a Junior Camper, it can begin much closer to home: packing one night’s gear, walking into the woods with his cabin, and sleeping somewhere unfamiliar.

The distance may be shorter, but the lesson is much the same. Boys begin to learn that being adventurous does not mean feeling completely comfortable before they go. Sometimes it means going anyway and finding out what they can handle once they get there.

And, according to Doug, the night does not have to unfold perfectly to work.

It could go terribly wrong and it will still be your favorite part of camp.

Getting Comfortable Being Uncomfortable

Matt Sloan, Falling Creek Program Director, said learning to be comfortable outdoors sometimes begins by being a little uncomfortable there first. Boys get a chance to trust themselves while paying attention to a world that is not quite as controlled as the one inside four walls.

There are bugs to notice, skies to look at, woods to listen to, and all sorts of living things a boy might miss if he never steps into them.

You can’t experience it unless you go into it.

That also gives this week’s theme of Kindness somewhere practical to live. On an overnight, boys share the work, wait for one another, help with gear, and spend an evening paying a little closer attention to the people beside them.