The Daily Log 2024

The last day of camp's 130th season started with a blast from the cannon! A final breakfast concluded with council goodbyes and the presentation of a handful of theater and activity cups. For acting, Teddy Linz won both the Green Room Cup and the Pop Watson Cup and Harry Linz won the Coons Cup. For activities, Forest Phelps won the Anniversary Cup helping to carry the Brown Bears to victory in the Club Contest, ending a drought going back all the way to 2003. After singing the final two verses of the camp song in Mem Hall, the campers finished packing and prepared for the final Inspection. In the Chapel Line, Inspector General Lorenzo Parker-Pillow awarded the Inspection Cup to Birch Hall. Mr. Michael gave a sermon revolving around taking camp home. After the service, we had a tearful goodbye and the 2024 camp season came to a close. Quietly, all excused.

Our day started with heavy anticipation for the Watersports program. Super duties followed breakfast; a couple of the special duties this year were the picking up of 300 "perfect" pinecones, shucking corn, and, Mr. Michael's favorite, sweeping rocks. Tub and Inspection came after, and then lunch and a short rest before the big program. It was a windy afternoon, good for the exhibition sailing but an annoyance for most other events. Fortunately, only one Senior Four-Man Canoe flipped. Some highlights of the spectacle were the obstacle races, won by Cody Wittwer and Emmett Brown for the Sub-Junior and Junior leagues, respectively. John Ackerly secured Junior General Excellence by winning the 50-yard swim. There was an air of excitement to see parents and the whole afternoon was spent giving them tours of Camp. Everybody stopped by the Shop to see the cool projects. The Glade Play and Theater Play also put on their second performances, both of which went extremely well. Dinner was barbecue chicken and cookout-style fixings, but the highlight was black raspberry ice cream for dessert. We had Singing and a bonfire to end the night with the parents; the bonfire was designed with a wooden, cutout bear to eulogize the bears that had invaded the dumpsters this summer. At the very end of the night, the character cups were awarded and 16-year-old lanterns were given out. Archer Dansby was awarded Most Faithful Boy, Ryder Hopkins the Mauran Cup, and Coop Jones was given the Mr. Teddy's Cup. There were optional circles and then one last time to sleep in our not-so-bad bunks.

Today was the last day of activities at camp, the day started at a cold 60 degrees. It was also a wet day starting with some light showers for prayers and mines. Once we all got ready, we had a great breakfast, then a quick and efficient duty period, followed by wet AM activities. When activities finished we had an early Soak at 11:30 because it was the last soak of the summer. We chanted everyone's name to jump into the water; once the whole camp was mostly in we all got excited for the 16-year-olds to jump in. They all put on a show to jump in, like wearing ridiculous outfits and saying funny things. Even the doctor went in the water! In the afternoon the final heat of the regatta happened in which Barrett Whitaker and Rhys Jones' boat won by one point! The day finished with a 7:10 Shop Show and we saw all the beautiful projects from the summer. We also saw all the Nature Projects. When it was 7:40 we had the Sigma Alpha Awards Ceremony where all the winners of competitions got a medal. The most exciting win was Maruli winning the open dive at 14 years old. During camp statistics, 12-year-old Damon Hu was voted Most Cheerful! After all the awards were done, we ended with Mines, Prayers, and Taps.

We started the day with late Reveille for the second day in a row, a pretty rare thing. The COD messed up on the date during morning prayers, which was funny. During the morning activity period, some people finished up projects in the shop, others worked on final touches for the play set, and some canoers had the Pasquaney Mile. Liam Bonnet Eymard and Chris Amato won with a time of 11:27. The glade play had their first rehearsal period free in a month. In the afternoon we had the Pasquaney World-Series where "Rob Head's Nonchalant Dreadheads" faced "Micheal Rorer's Do The Roar". Rob's team won with a 12-1 blowout giving Rob the title and an undefeated 5-0 record. The other main event was the 3rd heat of the regatta. Maruli Sianturi and Oliver Rajimakers secured the at-large bid for the finals. At night we had the Theater Play and leading actors Milo Lomas and Bixby Hanrahan made many crack up. It was a great play and all in all it was a good day.

This morning, the 16-year-olds woke camp up with the blast of a cannon and costumes.  Running around to get camp excited for 16-year-old breakfast. We had a delicious breakfast of monkey bread and Chic-Fil-A style chicken biscuits, along with a side of fruit salad. After our duty period, activities kicked off with a lot of finals matches and species. The highlight of the morning was the diving competition, consisting of division competitions and an open dive. There was also the Sub-Junior singles tennis final won by Coop Jones. The afternoon activity period had even more final events than the morning. These include the Senior Swims final, won by Nick Martin, the Senior tennis singles final, won by Jean Vivier, and the Junior baseball final, won by Gavin Spina’s "Carolina Reapas." After a quick afternoon soak the camp got ready for a 5:25 bugle for the Glade Play, Our Town. It was an excellent performance about the cycles of life in a small New Hampshire town. Afterward, we headed to dinner and got ready for our last singing campfire and Circles before watersports.

The morning bugle blew to start another day of our final week. After breakfast and duties, the highlight of the first activity period included Junior semi-final Swims. At Soak, the sky was cloudy but the lake was calm. Play rehearsals and free-time wallball followed, but unfortunately, the tetherball had fallen off the pole again! The afternoon hosted lots of tennis, with the Junior Singles Final between Rafe Dewey and Emmett Brown, and the Senior Doubles Final with Jean Vivier and Liam Bonnet-Eymard competing against Ian Caperton and Nick Martin. Charlie Bahn's Subjunior baseball team also played against Jaxon Butterfield's team and won the championship 8-3. During free time, the Boys vs. Council Basketball game was an exciting event. There was a large audience, lots of energy, and a good matchup. The Council won 27-16 in the end. For Campfire, we had the final Varied Option with Mafia, art, activities on the ball field, and more.

We arose from our bunks after the storm to a clear morning. After having pancakes for breakfast and our usual duty period, the activity period began. Some notable events were the opening of the sailing regatta where the first two heats concluded while the wind petered out in the last heat. There was a high-stakes seniors obstacle race final between Jean Viver and Barret Whitaker. The race concluded with a paddleboard race with a dingy to the diving raft to complete a flying Hawaiian. We then had ravioli for lunch before rest and a standard afternoon activity. For Campfire, after a sausage and buttered noodles for dinner, there was the second and final music night which ended with everyone singing along to “Hey Jude” by The Beatles.

We woke to a brisk Sunday morning. Following chapel practice, we had our duties followed by free time and Tub. We rushed up to our dorms for Inspection Prep. Inspection was followed by Chapel in the Watson Theater. The sermon was about what happiness really is and how it’s really achieved. Afterward, we headed down for Cookout. The highlight of the day was the Crew Regatta; Birch boat flipped in the 3rd Boat race, and Dana Boat flipped in the Junior Boat race. The Senior Boat race was a spectacle with Tradition and Birch beating the Camp record for the course. Ultimately, Birch claimed the victory. After, we had singing which ended early due to a storm rolling in. Because of the storm, we had to get to Upper Camp by shuttle and take cover under our bunks. All in all, it was an exciting end to the 6th week at camp.

We woke up late, even though it was a Saturday with an 8:00 Breakfast. After an uneventful morning routine, the campers went on to practice crew and diving, search for edible plants, and take a trip to Mowgli's Cove. After an incredible lunch of Korean BBQ, we went to rest with the sun just starting to beat down on the hillside. There was a birdwatching and canoeing species. Tennis had the junior doubles finals, which was won by Emmet Brown and Rafe Dewey. Baseball had the Boys vs. Council match, which was won by the council in a tense and exciting 9-8 win. With Fantastic acting we closed the day, we had the trustees' weekend play which was a Mad Breakfast.

In the most unsurprising turn of events, Townley scheduled the Senior boats for yet another outing on the flat water. With the start of Trustees weekend underway, various trustees began arriving throughout the morning and at lunch were introduced by counsellors and Mr. Michael. With the wind staying nice and calm, we had the Senior four-man canoe races in the afternoon. After some nail-biting time trials, Liam Bonnet-Eymard, Bixby Hanrahan, Jean Vivier, and Michael Rorer rose to the top in the final, winning the competition. A subbie baseball game also took place with Jaxon Butterfield’s team securing the win against Keithan Dorsent’s team. In the evening, we enjoyed a guest reading by Mr. Vinnie of Pearl Gets a Dump Stickah. Another humid and sticky night awaited us as we nestled into our bunks.