practicing the art of the overnight

Yes, during staff training there's a night when all the villages go out on an overnight. They do precisely what they are going to do when taking their campers on overnights each session, four times at least, this summer. I went to visit the Lakota/Outpost overnight (at Sawmill). They'd seen three bears and were a little anxious, but had a fire going, and were eating fajitas. I spent an hour with them, helped them gather wood, watched them get started on s'mores, and begin to settle in for the night. It was cooling down fast, the stars were out, and if you turned all the flashlights off and looked toward the Neversink River, you'd see an entire near horizon of fireflies. Thousands of them, blinking near and far in the dark. Spectacular.

Above: three happy Lakota staffers after a round of s'mores; some of the Lakota counselors and JCs as they packed for the trip.