Learning to Love Canoe Trips

Woods. Bugs. Mosquitoes. Long nights under cold rains.

The canoe trip is something many kids fear when coming to summer camp for the first time. CIT Gen Ram was no exception.

“When I was little I was very scared of them,” Gen said.

The day before the trip was always filled with worry and nagging questions, but every time she went she found herself loving it. And now? Well, you could say Gen is a convert.

Last summer she opted to go on the twelve-day long trip, roughing it in the Canadian wilderness with some of her best friends and loving every minute of it.

So what is it that Gen loves about canoe trips so much?

“It brings you closer,” she explains.

It’s where you bond with your friends, bond with your counselors, and learn how to work together as a cabin. It’s the food cooking on the fire, the card games in the tent, and the hours spent on an open lake with great people. It’s finding strength in yourself that you didn’t know you had, and finding that same strength in others.

When I asked Gen what her favorite canoe trip memory was, she told me about a being caught in the rain.

“We were in the middle of a lake and it was pouring rain,” Gen said.

Her cabin group had no choice but to keep on paddling, and the only way to do this was to work together.

“Even though we were tired we all had to cooperate to get to the site,” Gen said.

So they did, joking, laughing, and staying positive until they got there.

“The things we did during the rain – it was ridiculous,” Gen said, laughing.

“As long as you have a positive attitude, it can actually be the time of your life.”

– Colin J. Fleming