It’s opening day for Session B, and the final opening day for Four Trails for the summer! Our Trailblazers, Explorers, and Adventurers for this session have arrived and over the next couple of days they will all be diligently preparing for the upcoming adventures. Additionally, our Voyageur and Odyssey campers are continuing their adventures in Canada and the Northeastern U.S. Here’s the rundown:
Trailblazers will spend this first week in camp. Tonight they signed up for Interest Groups and participated in Opening Council. They’ll be a part of Night’s Doings all week. They’ll also participate in a Graceland Interest Group this week where we’ll begin introducing them to all of the skills they’ll need for their trips next week! More to come on that later this week.
Explorers have a quick turnaround here at camp. Tomorrow they’ll do all of their trip prep in addition to a short hiking shakedown in the afternoon to the Well Sit (about ¾ of a mile away from camp). It will give them a chance to feel what a hiking backpack feels like before they leave on Tuesday for their week long hike through Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore. The drive will take up most of Tuesday and then they’ll begin their hike bright and early on Wednesday morning.
Adventurers have a few days in camp with 3 days of training designed to help them practice the fundamentals of cycling, road safety, and bike maintenance. With such a large trip ahead of them, it’s important for them to take their time getting acclimated to loaded, self-supported cycling (carrying all of their gear on their bikes). They spend a short day of cycling to a local ice-cream shop on unloaded bikes and then the next day they’ll do a similar ride with loaded bicycles.
Voyageurs just finished traveling through a chain of islands called The Chickens and the Fingerboards. They are headed toward the Outer Fox Islands. Soon they finish up kayaking through the French River Provincial Park and will be making the curve south toward the Bying Inlet where they’ll resupply with our driver. That will be near the end of the week on Friday, so more updates on that to come. If you’d like to get mail to them, it must arrive at Miniwanca by this Wednesday afternoon, July 24th for us to put it in the van to drive up on Thursday.
Odyssey is steadily making their way across New York. After a beautiful rest day at Niagara Falls, they’re traveling quickly toward the Adirondack Mountains. It’s been very hot in New York this weekend, so they have been taking some shorter days and trying to be finished cycling before the afternoon. They’ve been drinking plenty of water and wearing plenty of sunscreen and they’re looking forward to the temperatures dropping below 80 degrees for the rest of the week. Their next mail drop is in Old Forge. It will be on July 24th, so it will need to arrive quickly if it’s going to make it on time. Here’s the address:
Participant Name – Camp Miniwanca
General Delivery – Please Hold for Pick-Up
2992 NY-28
Old Forge, NY 13420
For any Session A parents out there still reading along (and to VOY/ODY parents as well), thank you for an incredible first session. I’m so grateful to work with so many wonderful parents, campers, and leaders alike and this was such a wonderful three weeks. So grateful!
Andrew