Days 4 & 5 | Voyageurs National Park

You know those days you wish you could tuck away somewhere safe so you could pull them back out when you need to remember that the world is still full of really good things? That was our last full day at Voyageurs. By Day 4, nobody was trying very hard to impress anybody anymore. Hair was questionable, clothes had definitely been worn more than once, and we knew who needed coffee before conversation and who was going to make us laugh before breakfast was even over. Somewhere during the week, this group of people had simply become our people, and goodness, I love when that happens.

After breakfast, Rodney led us through our Kindness Web SEL lesson, and it was one of those activities that looks simple until you realize what is happening right in front of you. One person connected to another, and another, and another, until there was this beautiful web stretched between us. It was such a picture of what had happened all week. We had held one another up, noticed each other, encouraged each other, made room for each other, and somehow created this little community in the middle of Voyageurs National Park.

Then Tiffany led us in Sound Mapping, and for a little while we got quiet enough to really listen. We heard the water, the birds, the wind, the insects, the leaves, and all those little sounds we miss when we are busy talking and moving and doing. There is something powerful about simply sitting still and paying attention. The world has a lot to say when we quit trying to fill every bit of silence, and Voyageurs certainly had plenty to say to us.

Rodney brought out Shadow Drawings, where sunshine became part of our art supplies. We traced the shadows of nature and played with light and shape and perspective, watching science and art get all tangled up together in the best possible way. Then Ann led us through Belly Botany, looking at the plants and pine cones, trees and bugs, rocks and things we couldn't identify. Diving deep!

After lunch, we gave ourselves the rest of the day for free time, and I think it may have been exactly what all of us needed. We swam, fished, canoed, climbed into hammocks, sat beside the water, talked, laughed, and just enjoyed being together. Nobody needed to accomplish anything or be anywhere else. There was so much love in that campground, and sometimes I think those unscheduled hours are where the real magic of STEAM in the PARK happens. You look around and realize people who didn't know one another a few days ago are sitting together like old friends.

That night we topped it all off with one absolutely crazy KampiOKE, and I am not sure Voyageurs National Park will ever be quite the same. There was singing, dancing, strange performances, great song choices, and so much laughter. Lord, did we laugh. It was loud and ridiculous and joyful, and it was exactly the way this group needed to spend our last night together.

Morning came awfully early, and by 6:00 a.m. we were taking down tents, stuffing sleeping bags, packing gear, dismantling our little camp kitchen, and hauling everything toward the water. Somehow all the stuff that had fit on the boat coming in had to fit on the boat going back out, and for a while it felt like we were moving in twenty different directions at once. It was busy and hectic and a little bit ridiculous, but somehow it was also perfect. Everyone jumped in, everyone helped, and before we knew it we were loaded up and heading across the water toward the Ash River Visitor Center.

As I looked back on the week, I kept thinking about how Voyageurs gave us this perfect blend of everything. We had beautiful weather and incredible wildlife, eagles and eaglets, loons and otters, white pines and dark skies, water that seemed to stretch forever, Ellsworth Rock Garden, fishing poles and canoes, daisy chains and night hikes, science and art and music and laughter. We had adventures we planned and moments we never could have planned, and somehow they all fit together into one beautiful week.

But the greatest gift was the people. I know that I say this every week, but it is true. That is the thing I keep learning summer after summer with STEAM in the PARK. We come to these places thinking the national park is going to be the story, and of course it is a huge part of it, but then the people show up. They bring their stories and their gifts and their weirdness and their laughter and their kindness. They sit beside one another at picnic tables, paddle together, learn together, sing loudly together, and help take down somebody else's tent at six in the morning. Somewhere in the middle of all of that, strangers become friends, friends become community, and a place on a map becomes part of who we are.

Voyageurs, you were everything we hoped you would be and so much we never could have planned. Camp #11 is officially in the books, and somehow this summer that began so many miles and memories ago has brought us to our final camp. Now we pack everything up one more time and head toward Camp #12 — Sitka, Alaska, ready for one more group of people, one more incredible place, and one more chance to show up, pay attention, and be where our feet are.