Camp Mohawk, the Wilderness Unit and Bear Rock Trip Center are favorite memories of mine.
The trip shed at Mohawk was a small cabin between the Quad of cabins and the Lighthouse. There were many shelves with various cases of dried food packets and camping supplies. The trip leaders packed all our food and gear into a green truck with benches and off we’d go.
The Wilderness unit was a campfire ring and a giant pale green canvas tent that slept as many people as needed. Easily 15 campers, their duffel bags, three guides under training [affectionately known as GUTS] and any counselors were housed there. Climbing over all these people with flashlights in the middle of the night for trips to the Lighthouse was disruptive at best. And many bugs were let into the tent.
We received camping etiquette and skills training before we drove to northern New England or later Canada for our excursions. We did come and go and often missed the flag raising and accountability lines. We had a unit song and did sing it after meals when in Camp. Usually, we ate on the porch of the dining hall on the side of the flag and not everyone in Camp seemed to know who we were.
Our trip were two to four weeks long and occasionally we traveled with the Hi-Rock boys and set up a base camp together. Campers would hike for two weeks while the others were canoeing and then we would switch activities.
In the rear of our base camp vehicle (a large bus) were crates of dried apricots and other fruits and often a giant two-inch-thick dark chocolate bar that was the size of a door mat. The counselors would use an ax to cut the chocolate into hunks for us.
Fresh food was quite limited and after a day or two when our ice ran out, we “prepared” boiling water to rehydrate our Seidel’s brand white meal (chicken a la King) or our red Seidel meal choice. Boiling water for Swiss Miss chocolate and a portion of oatmeal made for a fast getaway in the mornings. We had a plastic cup and a spoon. We drank bug juice or water. Everyone was pretty hungry after a few weeks without their usual home snacks. Returning campers became experts at packing candy carefully in their gear and selling it to other eager, hungry campers for a profit.
Our trip leaders were very friendly and respectful in the state and provincial parks. They had good relationships with campgrounds and various officials wherever we went. Leaders in the 1960s and 1970s included Eric Bailey, Don and Pat Pratt, Lulli Boe, Marilyn Downing, Genie Wing, Gusty Lang and Pete Wallach.
On one fun trip in Quebec, the park staff allowed our group to found campgrounds on various islands for new canoe circuits they were establishing. Driftwood for campfire cooking was plentiful and fishing was amazing in bounty. The black flies and mosquitos were so awful.
When the Wilderness Unit moved to its new location at Plantain Pond near Camp Hi-Rock in 1972, we slept on bunkbeds and had in-lodge toilets. A camp chef was hired to update and improve our camping meals, and how we packed and carried the food for extended periods. Even a camp photographer was assigned to one of our long canoe trips.
Those were the times. Getting lean, getting tan, getting strong, getting unbelievably bug bitten, improving our wilderness skills, and enjoying the spectacular outdoor world of hiking, canoe camping and companionship.
I am happy to say that I fell in love with and married fellow Wilderness staff member Steve Lynn. We now live in Boulder Colorado.
Liz Lynn aka Lizza Goldman
Thank you to Hope Hutchinson, Nick Prout and Lulli Boe for contributing to this post.
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