Packing for Summer Camp

     It’s difficult to imagine why a child who lives a stone’s throw from the BWCA would want to leave for a week to go to summer camp.  It’s really hard to understand why she would want to do it twice during the summer, but that’s my Abigail packing for summer camp again.

     Earlier this summer Abby went four hours south to spend a week at a Girl Scout Camp.  The focus of this camp was horses.  Why the fixation with horses when everything around us is water?  Grandpa Prom happened to mention something about buying her a horse 7 or 8 years ago and she’s been wanting one ever since.  This was the second year in a row she attended the horse camp.

     This year the opportunity arose for Abby to attend Camp Birchwood for Girls.  This is the sister camp to Camp Birchwood for Boys which is located right across the Seagull River from us.  However, the girl’s camp isn’t a wilderness canoe camp like the boy’s one across the river.  It’s a beautiful camp on a lake in Laporte, MN with sailing, archery, waterskiing and yes, of course, horses. 

     So, while I struggle to pull Josh away from his frogs or fishing at  Voyageur we’re packing Abby for summer camp again.  Independence, adventure and new friends are ahead for Abby and the thing that scares me is she’s only 9 years old…