Weekly Update: July 30th, 2023

We had been talking about awe and wonder this week–especially when we saw the cover of this month’s Outside magazine (we can’t wait to read all of these incredible articles!) after glimpses of the moon through a telescope, seeing shooting stars from mountain tops, watching incredible sunsets and sunrises, and feeling proud of shared accomplishments like trail building, bear bag hanging, bridling and coaching near peers…and then we had a gigantic thunderstorm this afternoon and it knocked out power for a moment, and our internet and phones for the rest of today and, most likely, into tomorrow.

So it seems more appropriate to talk about flexibility, adaptability and the lessons we learn when we live in the natural world. This week, High Trails campers will head out on their 3, 4 and 5 day “long trips” and will collectively hike hundreds of miles, climb 13 different mountains, circumnavigate 11 Mile Reservoir, ride trusty steeds through miles of pine and aspen forests and across wildflower-filled fields, and capture the landscape around them through art and their own personal expression.

To help campers get excited about hiking over 30 miles on the Colorado Trail or bushwacking up the side of Mount Yale or descending Saddle Mountain on horseback, many of the trips will have themes: some will “graduate” from the Ivy Leagues (many mountains we climb are in the “Collegiate” range) and others will have mascots (Snails on Sherman) and many of them will have moments that will be hard and challenging, and all of them will have more moments that will be fun. Staff have been planning these trips for a couple of weeks, and–after six weeks+ in Colorado–our staff understand that many of our trips include fun…and sometimes that is “Type 2” fun. “Type 2” fun is the sort of fun that may not feel fun when it is happening–but, after it happens, we tend to find those moments to be the most powerful, memorable and, oddly enough, delightful.

Similarly, Big Spring campers will spend this week on ever more challenging overnights and all day trips–with climbs of Mount Princeton, Oxford/Belford and La Plata. They will also take on new challenges and adventures with mountain bike trips to brand new sites and a “Rock n’ Ride” two day trip where campers will ride horses to the rock crag, transforming cowboys into climbers and back again and a never-before-attempted Survival Tracking overnight. There will also be fishing, river floats, rock climbing, horseback rides, hikes to Pancake Rocks and Mueller State Park, fossil beds explorations, NASA overnights, tasty treats on Artisan Chef and so much more. Again, on all of these trips, there will be lots of fun–and, undoubtedly, moments of challenge and “type 2” experiences.

Our newest, and final group, of Sanborn Junior campers will arrive tomorrow to help us usher in these last two weeks of camp with their enthusiasm and excitement for everything that is camp. They will backpack, explore, ride, hike, rock scramble, float and dig (in the mud, for fossils, in the culvert, in the sand) and play, play, play! We were sad to see our third session campers leave on Saturday–it was a fantastic group. They all had great Closing Campfires under a beautiful sunset on Friday evening where they sang songs, read quotes and reflected on how they had grown over the two weeks by trying new things, making friends, being with supportive counselors and–once again–having a lot of fun!

One of the characteristics of individuals who have been campers at Sanborn is that they do not tend to give up easily, nor do they struggle when situations become challenges. Our campers and staff members realize they can rely on each other to improve situations that no one would find fun (hiking up steep rocky scree fields with heavy steel tools to do trail work above treeline) and transform them into far more doable experiences. In Outside’s recent podcast, author and ACA speaker Florence Williams breaks “awe” down into an acronym: A=Attention; W=Wait; E=Exhale and Expand. In this physical space, our campers have the opportunity to focus their “attention” on the immediacy of the world around them; they are invited to “wait” and be present in the moment, away from the scrolling time drain of technology; and they are allowed to “exhale”–breathe out the challenge or nervousness or uncertainty–and “expand” their own capacity by overcoming challenges. They learn to experience wonder simply by being at camp and with each other.

Not having internet isn’t particularly hard for us–but it does require us to find new locations for photo uploads and weekly update emailing–and it will delay delivery of the camper letters written today (our printer/scanner needs the internet to talk to our database company) and will send you directly to voicemail if you call the main office (our phones are internet-based). But we know that everything will be okay until, and even after, the next big storm. Storms often provide the most memorable “type 2” fun experiences anyway: how else can we tell the story of our adventures unless we “survive” the storm?

We all will “survive” this little hiccup without phones and internet at camp and we can’t wait for you to get their scanned letters about the week once we are all back online–we will send out a Campanion “push” notification once they are available. Thank you for your patience!