Lennard

May 25th,


      Wether you had three hours of sleep or not there's always a lot to do, as Memorial day weekend approaches life at the camp goes from busy to insane. Gabriel and I had a list of tasks to complete that day and decided to start with remarking the stream. So here I was in the shop of our barn trying to strap a six foot ladder to my back with rope as Gabriel lay there, totally cemented to the floor,having fell down bound by the weight of his own pack now filled with thirty pounds of "posted" signs, two hammers, and a bucket of nails.  We finally made it out of the barn with much struggle and hit the trail looking like a homeless duo straight out of a cartoon with ladders bobbing from our backs and a backpack that would crush a small elephant.

 This was all for the purpose of remarking our stream which is becoming an annual task.  One of the positions for our signs is on a lovely shale face twenty feet above the water and a flat rock footer, don't ask why.  As I'm beginning my ascent with a hammer hanging from my side, nails in my pockets, and a sign in my mouth Gabe shouts for my attention and points to a small snapper turtle no bigger than your palm being helplessly washed downstream.  Now there are some things in life that don't need to be done and some that do, this was an absolute must. I threw the sign to the side, dropped my hammer and took a flying leap to the closest shale slide, determined that I would save this young victim from certain doom, all the time keeping my eye on the minuscule  black dot now toppling down the waterfall. I waded out to where I could receive him and scooped him up in my hands, before I could even announce his rescue I knew his name was Lennard, it had to be. So me and my new pal Lennard set out to finish scaling that daunting rock face despite loosing our ladder in the waterfall and almost falling to an ugly end several times.  Looking back I'd say it can be the smallest things that bring a warm smile in the midst of a cold, wet, tired world.