Camp Tales - Flooded

In honor of the recent heavy rains...

At the first camp I spent my summers in the Craft Hall, the camp was divided into two sides and connected by a driving a bridge and an iconic walking bridge. The boys cabins were located on one side, with the pool, a Recreation Building, and a scattering of other buildings. This was usually refered to as the "Boys' Side," for obvious reasons. The other side, included the multi-purpose building (that housed the staff), the camp offices, the dining hall, the Craft Hall, and of course, the girls cabins. (This calling it the "Girls' Side.) Each side had bathrooms and showers and a road to get in and out (although the one side was less used and needed a vehicle capable of rougher terrain.) The bridges were very important to movement back and forth connecting camp, as well as for non-resident staff to get to the staff parking and for delivery trucks to the dining hall.

Boards were placed in the car bridge regularly to dam it for canoeing, a feat that often took multiple staff members to achieve safely. We had to be careful in times of rain, especially rain as the water would rise a start to lap over it. With caution some vehicles could get over this like going through a puddle, but after one very heavy rain driving over the bridge became impossible for ANY vehicle, not matter how high they sat. The high water flooded over the driving bridge and onto the bank, too fast and deep to risk any vehicle, and leaving access to the two sides of camp to a higher sitting walking bridge. (Where all these pictures were taken from.) Extra caution was taken and food delivery trucks had to be unloaded on one side of camp and carried across the foot bridge and across most of the camp to get to the kitchen/dining hall. The real adventure was seemed to be on the smaller cars "trapped" on the other side of the bridge, unable to leave without using the back road, a rough one through trees and up a steep hill. With caution, it could be done, but there was a very real fear of bottoming out or getting stuck.

Camp life was rarely boring and one never knew what might lead to the next adventure, even heavy rain and a low lying bridge.