His name was synonymous with what we called our 10kw generator at Camp Shasta. He maintained it and switched it from gasoline to butane, making it a far more consistent provider of our evening light. It was our only source of electricity and, therefore, a significant contribution to our safety and quality of life.
He came to Purple Sage in the early fifties as a young boy with his younger brother and sisters. His world-renowned father called me to his office for a serious discussion about my responsibility to offer certain growth necessities for his children that he was unable to provide due to his work. He said, “I need you to make my children dirty and bloody, things I cannot do.” What a remarkable man!
Camp and their groups did their best to create these opportunities for them. The story that follows is special: We were on a backpacking trip in the Sierras, above Yosemite Valley, and the oldest, who was at this time about 8 or 9, said that “The pack is too heavy, and he couldn’t go any farther.”
I told him I would take him to the valley, and he would be with a younger group enjoying less demanding activities. He shook his head, so I said, “All right, I’ll carry your pack.”
He started to cry and defiantly looked at me and screamed, “f—-you, I’m not giving up.”
He didn’t and carried his pack on one of the most arduous hikes we have ever been on. (That’s another story).
That hike took place in the Fifties. Recently, in January 2023, he told me that that hike made him a man, and he has drawn upon that experience ever since. I believe what he said. Certain events have the potential to change us. We can run, we can hide, or we can face them. He did and became his own person. In my eyes, he has always been a man!
Sy
Sy, I wonder how many of us former campers had similar experiences backpacking, I know I did. My first summer at camp we backpacked in the Warner Mountains up to a glacial lake and I wanted to quit, and thought I would never make it. You kicked my butt up that mountain convincing me I could make it, and I did.
As I’ve shared with you, my grandchildren are going to a summer camp in Minnesota this summer, and I’ve been reminiscing about my time at camp and that first backpacking trip and comparing it to my last backpacking trip when a group of us hiked a circular route out of Tuolumne Meadows and returned there a week later. We hiked 40 – 50 miles on the John Muir trail, near Mt. Lyle, and returning over Kiop Pass at about 10,500 ft. and back down to Tuolumne Meadows. My first trip and my last trip, bookends of my backpacking experience with camp. I was last to get to the lake in the Warner Mountains and first to reach Kiop pass, sitting 5-10 minutes alone with God, overlooking the High Sierra’s. I have a momento from Kiop Pass, a piece of rock that sits on my bathroom counter reminding me every day, that we are the only ones that limit our success. A lesson I have to believe most everyone who attending Camp Shasta learned.