One week into the 2016 camping season and Chippewa is alive with the joyous cries of campers being launched from the thrill matt, chased among the pine of lower camp or locked in a painfully close game of table tennis. There is a buzz—a hum of liberation: of elation about camp, an irresistible mist of gleeful anticipation which seeps through the cracks in the weathered wooden walls of the cabins, engaging all who feel its touch.

The wealth of talent and more notably, of potential, is tangible with not a single meal going by without the announcement of some new feat of excellence. As the sun sets in the west, the moon casts its soft glow over the shimmering waters of Cass Lake and the “dipper” within. Its conquest across an ocean of stars counts down the hours of another day which promises to be rife with opportunity. The ship has set sail, but this journey is only just beginning.

    -Will Bowes-McTear