Oak Ridge

saturday. june, 22

"You ready for tonight?" Blake asks as he sits down at the breakfast table. "Johnny says all of our stuff is ready to go and we just have to come by next and get it before we go up. You remember the way up?"

Myles and I both nod and continue eating our grits. We found out about the trail up the mountain from the older counselors when we first started working here. Apparently it's been around as long as the camp has been around. I guess the staff needed a break back in 1980 too.

There's an old camp t-shirt tied to an oak tree limb where the "trail" starts. I guess it's not really a trail, but just a series of t-shirts ties to trees until you reach a pretty large clearing up the mountain.

"And you remember the plan?"

"It's the same plan every year, dude. Pretty sure we got it," Myles assures him.

Twenty minutes after lights out, Princeton sneaks out of his cabin to the Main Lodge where Eric has a small room in the back. After he makes sure that he's asleep, Princeton goes to the staff quarters to round up the small group of kitchen workers, activity directors, and lifeguards. That group goes first with all of the supplies while the counselors make sure all the campers are asleep before sneaking out in boy-girl pairs. Can't have anyone getting lost.

You can feel the staff buzzing with energy and excitement for the events to come and the bell rings outside for us to move on to our meeting spots. The older kids challenges will be a little different starting today, so instead of going to the Big Oak tree and wait for my girls, I go to Myles' spot to meet his boys. I'm actually really excited for our challenge this morning, but I feel bad because I know for a fact that the girls are gonna lose. I don't explain any directions other than we'll be on the obstacle course again.

When we arrive at the course in the woods, Myles and my girls are already there waiting.

"Okay everybody," his deep voice gets everyone's attention. "You've probably noticed that things are a little different today. As of right now, I am the new leader of the Armada!"

The girls give confused looks but the boys just look kind of blank.

"For this morning's challenge, we're back on the obstacle course but with a twist," I pause dramatically. "Today, you'll be leading us through it while we're blindfolded. By this point you've gotten used to your leaders and the way they work and how they operate, but we want to see how you'll do not only leading someone else in general, but leading someone you're not used to."

Myles pulls out two blindfolds that Penny so graciously tie dyed for us. I'm not too worried about the course considering I've memorized it, but if one of these boys purposefully runs me into a wall I'm gonna be so pissed.

We decide that Myles will go first and we place him at the start with his blindfold on. He's usually pretty good at getting through the course because of how strong he is. He can easily pull himself over walls and climb, but hopefully he'll suck at following directions today.