Four Days at Camp

It is a rainy Sunday in Sacramento. I am currently sitting in Temple Café (a great little coffee shop Maggie Thomas introduced me to), sipping hot chocolate and eating a delicious croissant, safe from the wet and windy outdoors. There could not possibly be a better opportunity to take a few minutes and update everyone on the goings on the past week. A week ago was our first day back on campus after spending four days in the redwood forest at Camp Mendocino. It is unreal to me that it has only been a week since then. So much has happened in between. But really, that belongs in a different post, and I will get to it soon.

First…Mendocino.

Similar to the rain today, it was raining our entire time at Mendocino. Groups that went ahead of us had beautiful weather, so our bad luck with weather was definitely a bit of a downer, but we did not let it ruin our time in the woods. I was so excited to be going to a summer camp. As most of you surely know, I have been a summer camp enthusiast ever since my first summer on the shores of Lake Ossipee at Camp Nellie Huckins. Mendocino is definitely a different place than Huckins. It is a camp for the Boys and Girls Club of San Francisco and many of the campers that attend the summer camp are there either for free or at a discounted price. It is a in a rather remote location, only accessible by excessively windy and narrow mountain roads which caused some discomfort for those on my team who experience motion sickness (not me, thank God).

It was wet upon our arrival, but no currently raining. The air was crisp and it felt amazing to be outdoors. We moved our stuff into our cabins and then explored and killed some time before our official tour of camp. Then it was time to go see the big tree! We had heard of the biggest tree at the camp and were eager to witness its grandeur, so we headed down the train tracks. We did end up finding a tree that was quite impressive, but later found out it was not actually “the” big tree. It was a fun adventure nonetheless and a better work out seeing as we ended up walking probably at least a mile more than necessary. We did end up going to see the real big tree our last night at camp with Abby to show us the way. It was dark when we went, so I could not get good pictures, but it was really a breathtaking sight.

After our adventure, it was time for dinner followed by a Green Unit game time where we played “The Newly Team Game,” a fun spin off of the newlywed game.

The next day we woke up and headed out to PT at the normal time of 5:30am, just to find out that the rain pouring down meant PT had to be canceled. They held an optional PT in the cafeteria which I decided to attend (I was up anyway). The remainder of the morning, my team had 1 on 1 meetings with our team leader, giving us a great deal of free time/ nap time. I snuggled up in my sleeping bag, drifting in and out of sleep while listening to the rainfall on the cabin and the music of Jack Johnson playing from my friend’s ipod. It was a much-needed break. Then I met with Abby and it was time for team building to begin. We were scheduled to go out on the ropes course, but we started out with the team building exercises indoors, hopeful that the rain would calm down by the afternoon when we were going to head out to the high ropes course and zip line. The indoor activities went very well. Our team works well together and we were able to really see improvement throughout the day. A lot of the trainings that we have had as part of CTI (Corps Training Institute) have had to do with knowing yourself and knowing how to work with others. It sounded a bit corny to me at first, but I really do feel like I am learning a lot about myself that I did not previously know. I won’t go into details, but I can definitely tell that this year will be a tremendous growing and learning experience for me and I am so happy that I am doing this.

After the indoor activities, the rain had not calmed down, but it was time to head out to the ropes course anyway. It was completely worth it to go out in the rain. I had never done a high ropes course before. A few aspects of it were definitely a bit frightening, especially with the slippery and cold conditions, but it was hugely satisfying to accomplish. And then we each ended with the zip line! Another first for me, I love love loved the zip line! Despite the rain, the day had been a huge success. We were soaking wet and cold, but happy. Abby collected our wet clothes to dry in the laundry room and we changed into dry and warm clothes, our coveralls. Because of my height I had to get large coveralls, but I swim in them and look rather ridiculous. Oh well, they were warmer than just pants.

After dinner that night, each team got up in front of the unit and did a skit of some sort. Our teams skit was very well received. The 1 on 1 meetings we had the day before had been dedicated to going over our ILPs (Individual learning plans) that we had filled out about our goals for the year and beyond. A big portion of the ILPs was dedicated to Life After Americorps goals. This is what our skit was about. We had three different people go to the team leader in the skit and when the team leader asked “what do you want to do with your life after Americorps” we went into dream sequences. The final dream sequence involved Dominique performing a rap that she wrote when she was 12. In one word: amazing.

The following day, we knew the rain was predicted and we did not have to get up for PT! We got to sleep in until 6am and then after breakfast we were prepped and ready to go for our service day. Now, the day before, as we were doing the team building exercises, several teams were doing their service days in the rain digging trenches along the road that leads to the camp. What unpleasant work. Well, lucky for us, we did not end up continuing their project the next day. One of the men who runs the camp has a sister who works at a community center in Fort Bragg, about 45 minutes from camp. The community center needed a considerable amount of help setting up for their Halloween carnival and haunted house, so we headed back to civilization and spent the day setting up for Halloween at the Starr Community Center.

That night was our last night at Mendocino. We had a fire in the fireplace of the cafeteria and did some reflections lead by our unit leader. Then we played games and made s’mores.

Saturday, before leaving, we had PT in the morning, running ladder runs back and forth throughout camp, we cleaned the cabins and bathrooms, and then we had Amer-Olympics for some friendly competition between teams. Then after a unit photo and team photos, it was time to hit the road and head back to Sacramento, where I immediately took one of the most satisfying showers ever and settled back in to life on campus.