The Big Trips of 2022 live up to high expectations
By ROGER MILLER
When the Seniors load their canoes and push off from the Trips Center, there is an unmistakable feeling of anticipation and excitement in the air. As they paddle further away from Deer Island, the jokes and chatter start to dim while an internal reflection on what lays ahead begins. The Big Trip, the three-week, 350-mile canoe trip up to Hudson Bay, is finally here.
The Big Trip is more than just another canoe trip. It’s the journey the Seniors have been working towards since their first summer at camp. It’s the trip of legend that holds a mystical quality. Campers grow up during their summers on the island hearing stories of shooting whitewater larger than anything they’ve seen before, paddling with the aurora borealis dancing above, countless polar bears and endless untamed wilderness. Stories that sound so fantastic it’s hard to believe all of them can be true. As the Seniors load their canoes and gear onto the bus, one question seems to be on everyone’s mind: Will we return with similar stories?
In addition to paddling through some of the purest and most abundant wilderness in North America, the Big Trip offers the opportunity to reflect. Seniors, who are rising juniors and seniors in high school, get the rare chance to entirely disconnect from the modern, high-speed world, and focus their energy only on the tangible present. While there are many challenges presented on this trip that require immediate and devoted attention—pulling up the Old Man River, creating new portage trails through dense forest, or staring down polar bears in the tundra—there are plenty of opportunities to zone out and enter a private world of thought.
Many Seniors spend their time paddling thinking about what they are going to do when they return home, and creating goals for what they want to achieve in the future. Conversations on my last trip ranged from the excitement of playing the rival high school’s football team again this fall, to upcoming family vacations, to planning out extended trips to Asia after graduating high school. Life slows down on a canoe trip, which is, especially after the stress of the pandemic and two years of remote learning, incredibly important for young men during this period of their lives.
Part of the reward of the Big Trip is the bond that is formed between those who spend three weeks paddling and pushing their limits together. An unexpected challenge of this trip is trying to explain the experience to those who have not done it. How can you adequately explain to your parents or friends back home what it’s like to shoot huge rapids in 45 degree temperatures while it’s raining, the relief of what it’s like to paddle across a glassy lake after days of whitecaps due to high winds, the raw fear that comes from being in the middle of a river surrounded by polar bears, or what it’s like to finally see Hudson Bay after 350 miles of paddling?
Perhaps there is no way to accurately describe the Big Trip to those who haven’t done it before, and maybe that’s part of what makes those three weeks seem like a mythical journey. It’s an experience that can only be fully appreciated once you have accomplished it. Even though stories of the journey may sound so fantastic that they are being exaggerated, those who have done it know that they are true. They don’t require further explanation or fact checking, as they, too, share that bond of reaching Hudson Bay.
The final leg of this year’s Big Trip was to paddle back to Deer Island after 36 hours of transportation time. Returning to the island, full of campers again, was an amazing feeling. Younger campers greeted us on the Sailing Beach and eagerly listened to the stories of what it’s like to be on the Bay. There was certainly envy, but even more excitement, knowing that within a few short summers, they would be the ones returning from Hudson Bay with stories and legends of their own.