The Old Ranger Watches Camp El-O-Win Wake Up June 3, 2011

If you were one of the first people entering camp in the spring you would see everything covered in snow.  In fact you would have to snow shoe or ski into camp.  There are feet and feet of snow.  It slides off cabin roofs making huge piles, as high as the door top.  The sign at the gate is nearly buried in snow.  Snow banks lead down the hillsides south of camp, blocking the road in many places. So first, there is too much snow. Trucks of the Friends of Camp El-O-Win coming to prepare camp get stuck.  Even the old ranger spent an afternoon in May shoveling snow! Quite rapidly, the snow melts and then there is mud. Trucks get stuck in it.  It covers the old ranger's boots and pant legs.  If you take a footstep, it soon fills with water.  The melt water from the snow forms pools and ponds.  There is a large one by the dining hall, another down at the shower house with little steams flowing between them and eventually into the creek. The frogs love all this water.  Our frogs have a huge booming voice: "RIBBITT" not "ribbitt."  The Old Ranger hears them at night or sometimes even during the day, calling out over the roar of the creek.  They are really noisy down at Iroquois and the fire circle. When you, dear campers, read this, someone may be telling you, "Stop Running!  You are making too much dust!"  Just a few weeks ago you would have had wet, muddy feet as you walked to lunch in the dinning hall. The Old Ranger hopes the wagon carrying the shower curtains and cleaning supplies makes it through the mud.  No matter, the Old Ranger has to go on, campers are coming soon!

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