On Saturday and Monday, Red Arrow put aside the basketballs and lacrosse sticks, the saddles and the rifles to get up on stage to sing, dance, and act in this summer’s camp play, “Northwoods Gangsters.” Both performances were stellar…the audience loved it and the campers had a blast being in the show. As the final curtain closed and the campers took their bows…it’s safe to say the 2008 camp play was a huge success!
Photos from the play

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Jack was selected by the campers as the Horse of the Year. On Tuesday, he was showered with accolades in front of the camp as they raised the American flag. Henry Davis, this year’s winner of the equestrian event in the RAC Olympics, had the honor of placing the Horse of the Year ribbon on Jack. After flag raising, Jack was surrounded by campers who petted and congratulated him.

Photos from Jack’s coronation

Castle and Chateau both had a blast playing on the rope swing on Trout Lake during their final cabin night on Wednesday. We snapped some great mid-air photos, which you can find here.

The RAC Olympics on Friday were a tremendous success. The sun shined all day, and the lake was calm for the skiing competition but windy later in the day for the sailing race. Many events came down to the wire: the trap competition was decided by one bird, for example, while the sailing race was won by just inches. One Red Arrow record even fell: Drew Meyer shattered the senior high jump record by leaping an astonishing 5′9″. But most importantly, every boy gave his best effort.
Photos from the Olympics

For the last songfest of the year, we decided to bring back an old tradition of singing around a campfire alongside Trout Lake, which we haven’t done in at least thirty years. Check out photos from the night here.

It has been half a century since the last riding trip at Red Arrow Camp, but last week a handful of the best riders in camp had the fortune to go on such a trip. Led by Fred, Dave, Oscar and Jeremiah, the boys rode for two days with packs on the horses and slept overnight at a campsite built for groups with horses. The trip was a success: the horses behaved well, the coyotes serenaded the boys, and everyone enjoyed the long rides through the woods. It was a trip that the boys will never forget.

Photos from the riding trip

This morning, scores of boys rose to the challenge of swimming from the shore of Red Arrow to Haunted Island, which is 4,500 ft (85% of a mile). Led by Division 1 swimmer Will Vodak and Ben Black, the boys all successfully swam to Haunted Island, which is an impressive feat. Two boys, Pat Lynn and Ed Becker, even swam to the island and back.

Photos from the swim

The Red Arrow seniors defeated their most formidable opponent of the summer, Towering Pines, two to zero last night. The win capped off an undefeated season for the senior soccer team. Alfonso Cano and Drew Meyer scored Red Arrow’s goals. Congratulations to the team on a fantastic summer.

Photos from the game

A few of Mikey Barker’s best photos of his cabin from this summer have been uploaded here. Included are pictures of John McCormick’s two-foot Northern Pike, which he caught on his third cast at the pickup point of their recent canoe trip.

On Saturday night we had the annual Carnival, which is certainly one of the boys’ most favorite nights of the summer. After the boys spent the afternoon setting up their booths, the girls from Osoha came over to join them for an hour and fifteen minutes of playing games and enjoying treats. Some classic booths were back, such as the Pillow Fight, Tilt-a-Whirl and Haunted House, along with some creative new ones, such as Plinko and Mini-Golf. It was great to see the kids’ teamwork, both in setting up the booth and taking everything down at the end of the night.
Photos from Carnival

We were treated to quite the sunset during our evening dip on Friday, as the lingering clouds from that day’s thunderstorms lit up in color. Check out some photos from the sunset over Trout Lake here.

The men of Chalet recently completed a very successful trip on the beautiful Isle Royale in Lake Superior. Some of the highlights of the trip included sightings of fox, a moose, and a pair of moose antler sheds. The boys learned how to cook meals, set up and properly maintain a safe campsite, and they hiked very hard across some tough terrain. The total mileage of the trip for six days was right around 40 miles. The boys serenaded some Camp Nicolet girls both before and during the trip. The second attempt had much better results, in which they had a fun and rough boat ride back to Copper Harbor with the girls. The trip included great bonding, fun, and was physically demanding for all. Beautiful scenery, sunsets, and memories…

Photos from the Isle Royale 

The 2008 Canadian trip began at Brown’s Clearwater Resort outside of Mine Center, ON. After one full day of lake paddling, we wound up at McQuaint’s Castle: an enormous log cabin built on the shores of White Otter Lake. Another day of lake paddling brought us to the Turtle River, where we remained for the rest of the trip. High water led to fantastic rapids, which were paddled well by all. While the weather was less than perfect, everyone enjoyed the few dry evenings when we could take a dip or look at the stars. The fishing was wonderful, especially at the first rapids camp site and Horse Falls, where nearly everyone caught several fish. While more sun would have been enjoyable, everyone had a great time and agreed this was probably the best trip they’d ever been on.

Photos from the Canadian