Through the Eyes of a Tripper

A Zodiac camper’s tripping testimonial

Each year our cabin gets extremely excited to go on our canoe trip. Canoe trips give us time to bond with our as a cabin, take risks, make long lasting memories and learn to become friendly with the outdoors.

When we think of canoe trips we think of, sleeping under the stars, paddling through the peaceful lake, watching moose in their natural habitat, eating delicious pancakes and grilled cheese, watching the sun slowly rise, singing songs as we make our way from one camp site to another, swimming in the fresh water and helping each other defeat fears. These memories and feelings will never leave us. When we are in the city we constantly talk about the funny things that happened on trips in the past. When we are at camp, we think of how we wish we were making these memories. Without Walden canoe trips my camping experience would not be what it is today. The loss of canoe trips would be the loss of many smiles.

Our cabin is filled with unique personalities. Some of us love being outdoors while others aren’t as fond. To some, canoe trips are a fear and create nervousness, but as a cabin, with encouragement and passion we convince each other and ourselves that missing a canoe trip is unheard of and that we will have a fantastic time no matter what.

The trippers are fantastic. They always make us feel comfortable and laugh with us as friends. They are extremely knowledgeable about the outdoors. The comfort and smiles of each and every camper is what is most important to them. If someone feels un-well during a trip they will completely alter the plans in order to make that individual feel better. Their diligence for what they do is tremendous. Over the course of each short trip we always feel such a strong bond with our trippers and they become our friends. We always love visiting the Tripper cabin at camp to see how they are doing and we speak constantly speak to our Trippers in the city.

One year it was raining very hard and we had to stay inside our tents for the night, this did not seem enjoyable. Well, as the night went on, we were actually very thankful for the rain because we got the chance to spend the night will all our friends, counselors and trippers. The rain was something we will always remember because while we were in the tent we got to know much more about each other, and laughed for the entire night. Although this had at first come across as a negative, we quickly realized that we had the power to turn it into a great night and that’s exactly what we did.

When I asked my cabin mates what their favourite parts of canoe trip were they responded; FOOD, scenery, chilling by the camp fire, canoeing, eating the amazing food, sleeping in the fresh air, not caring what you look like… They little things like remember sitting outside eating tons of marshmallows until we had so much energy! They loved when we named two paddles and had a wedding ceremony for them. Most of all they love that when they think of trip, it makes them smile and think of being away from everything excepting for each other and making memories. Of course in our many years of canoe trips there were times when there were problems, but we managed to figure out ways to making them into adventures and all the memories that come back to us today, are positive. We want to thank the tripping program for giving us these amazing opportunities.

— Ashley S.