Camp pine moose
Trapped on a island
By Madelyn Sweet
“HUH HAAA!” I sighed sitting around the campfire. My name is Lesly and this is the camp I stay at every summer break. This is camp pine moose. A camp in Maine that is located right next to Acadia national park. This is the place where we are surrounded by pine trees and the summer breeze. This is the place to be.
My other cabin mates were sitting spread out around the campfire. To be honest, even though we have been together in this cabin every year since I was in kindergarten, the only person I really talk to was Christa, my best friend.
And still today, I haven’t talked to them a lot, and we share the same cabin so it’s CRAZY.
“Hey Lesly.” said Christa. She and I go to the same school and have been going here since the beginning of time. But this is the first time we get to go to islands outside the camp premises. Tomorrow my cabin gets to go in a big paddle boat and go downstream until we get to an island.
“I can’t wait to go exploring with our counselor out on the lake! You know how she is terrified of the water, especially leeches.” Christa said as she put a marshmallow on her stick.
“Yeah,” I said looking up at the stars “I bet it’s going to be great.”
The next morning I woke up and saw blue skies and puffy white clouds and the sun shone through the trees without a sign of bad weather.
After I woke up I went to the wild hall. The wild hall is where all the campers eat their meals.
I’m always one of the first ones there. I call this “First dibs” because I get the best fruit, not the ones with bruises in them. After my breakfast everyone was waking up and getting their meals and this is my opportunity to get dressed. Two layers of shirts, sweatpants and most importantly my aqua shoes.
After my cabin got breakfast and dressed in some lake clothes, me and the counselor and my cabin all went down to the docks to get to the boat.
As soon as we got out of the camp premises our counselor started to get antsy. Some of us laughed but I thought that was just sad. Our counselor is doing this for us even if it means having to go on the lake.
Then suddenly we went into a deep fog making it so we can’t see anything in front of us that is at least three feet ahead of us. “It’s okay everyone.” said Maggie (Counselor) Even though she was just as scared as we were, more actually, because we are not scared of the water.
Hours past and we were still on the water. Then Maggie had enough, She turned around and took the paddles and just as her paddles touched the water we hit some sand and we all got out and started to pull the boat to shore.
“Well we got to some shore out of the camps premises!” Said Maggie “But I just don’t know where.” She said and she put her hands on her hips and looked at the fog.
“Well, I guess this is where we camp and then we can just go upstream back to camp tomorrow when the fog clears out.” Said one of the campers and then Maggie turned and started towards the boat.
“Come on girls, Help me get all this to where we want to pitch camp.” she said as she hoisted the tent onto her shoulder.
After we helped build the jumbo tent, we gathered some firewood.
Me, Christa and the C.I.T (Maple) went into the forest that was on this island and noticed that this island is small. But enough with the smallness. We don’t know where we are and that’s a big problem.
We got back to camp and the others already built a campfire base. Maggie lit the fire and popped out a bag of marshmallows.
“The chickadee cabins tradition is to have marshmallows on the island we land on,” said Maggie and then to our surprise Maple got out a guitar. “It’s also a tradition to sing campfire songs.” She said as she started to play ‘Sweet Caroline’ and we all knew it by heart. And then she played my favorite songs ‘count on me’ and then ‘Baby don’t worry about a thing’ Even though those weren’t campfire songs I still liked these the best. And I think we all did. Because it’s telling us that at the scariest of times or the scariest thing that happens out here, we will still be together. And at the end of the song we all went into the tent and in our sleeping bags and Once I dozed off I already knew that every little thing was gonna be alright.
In the morning, I woke up to a cloudy sky, Not a good sign. And at that moment, lightning shot itself across the sky and once it stopped a big boom went to my ears. My eyes widened. Everyone else in the tent jumped awake when the next lightning bolt shot across the sky. I got inside the tent and jumped under the covers.
“OH NO!” shouted Maggie as she got up and looked at the water.
“The boat! Everyone out! Help me pull it up!” She said as we ran beside her all the way to the seashore.
Once we got there the rain was already pouring, we looked at the boat, or what was left of it.
“Oh no,” Christa whispered as she came to my side. Only pieces of the Boat were on shore being swayed by the waves. Maggie knelt down to her knees and grabbed the pieces and looked at Maple and Maple said “She has been with us for many years, Maggie.”
“I’m not worried about that,” Maggie replied “Boss is gonna kill me.”
We went back to the tent and waited for the rain to clear out. I got dressed into dry clothes and everybody followed.
“Let me get this straight,” said Christa breaking the silence, All eyes were on her. “So we went on a boat and got lost in the fog and got stuck on a deserted island and neither of us even got the slightest thought of tying up the boat?!” None of us spoke, She got a point there I thought sinking into the sleeping bag.
“Now that I think of it.” Said Katelyn (Another camper) “We can’t just sit around, we got a job to do!” She said standing and pumping her fist in the air.
“Yeah, Sitting around won’t get the job done!” Said Christa
“Whoever is with us say Aye!” I shouted, now standing with the rest of the campers.
“AYE!” Said the rest of the campers as we all put our hands in for a chickadee cabin cheer.
“GOOOO CHICKADEES!” We all said as we all left the tent to get to work on a new boat.
We had a couple of problems on the way, Once we bumped into a snake and then the first boat we built sank and the biggest problem was the rain.
“Me and Katelyn and Lesly are going to look for some material in the woods.” said Maggie as I followed her. We looked for even the slightest bit of material but when we thought all was lost, I saw in the corner of my eye a big blue cylinder shape.
“Wait Girls.” I said looking towards the cylinder shape. I went over to it and the other two followed. As I got closer to it I noticed what it was. Big empty jugs.
I gasped, “This is amazing.” I said “We can totally use these to help make the boat float!” I said as Me, Katelyn and Maggie lifted the jugs and carried it to the boat.
“Were saved!” said all the campers when we walked out of the forest with the jugs. There were 8 jugs but this was only the first round so all the others helped us carry the rest.
Once we got the rest, we set to work. Putting the jugs on the sides and then tying them to the boat with some rope and (sadly) the strings on our shoes.
“Too bad I didn’t think to bring rope.” Said Maggie
“Too Bad You didn’t think to tie the boat down.” Whispered Christa as she nudged my arm with her elbow.
We got the jugs and got the boat in the water then we climbed in. We all held our breath once the last person came into the boat. Nothing. The boat is floating.
“YAAAY!” We all shouted as Maggie got out a contractible shovel from her bag and used it as a paddle.
“Hey tacomonusuwalky! Swish.” Said Maggie as she paddled the boat. This was a sailing song that a certain tribe sang when they went canoeing. And we all sang it when we went canoeing.
I joined in, and soon all of us were singing the song and paddling with our hands.
As soon as we reached the sign that said “Pine moose ahead” We all cheered. We were all back, like all the years before.
As Soon as we got to the dock we hid the boat in the bushes. And headed up to our cabins.
We Got back to our cabin and talked all about it, About the thunder and the fog and everything, and then Maggie said “Okay, okay settle down we all just lived it.” she said sitting on her bed. As we calmed down, Maggie said “Now, what was your favorite part?”
Everybody said theirs but when it was my turn to speak, mine was the best of all. “My favorite part was knowing that we all had the same experience that we were planning,” I replied “The people before us went on an island and had marshmallows and slept and woke up and came back, But the thing that was special about this trip was that it was different, in a good way, we were connected to nature and using what the environment provided and I bet that none of the campers before us slept with a smile on their faces or even worked together to help build a boat, and I know that for a fact because that boat wouldn’t be here for that trip down. So that’s all that mattered to me, was that we did the traditions and a little bit more.” I knew that mine was the best because everybody was silent. But not for long because Christa said “I agree, that was my favorite too.” and then all the campers started agreeing too, I blushed.
And then the intercom went off and said that it was time for lunch. Me and my cabin were more connected now and Katelyn finally didn’t run ahead of us, we all stayed together and talked together and sat together. And I knew something inside us changed that day, something magical, something that brought us together, and that makes us the chickadee cabin. 🙂 😀
Sincerely Madelyn Sweet 😀