First paddle 2013
05/05/13 05:09
Today is Placerville Sunday at our church. It is a celebration and promotion of our church camp. Placerville is located in an absolutely gorgeous location in the heart of the Black Hills, right next to Rapid Creek below Pactola Dam. The Camp is well managed with a small board and an experienced director who fulfills roles as diverse as maintenance man, cook, janitor, groundskeeper, and program director with equal grace. We are very fortunate to have the camp and to have is so well staffed. But Placerville shares some features with other church camps across the nation. The number of campers has declined with increased pressures on the schedules of families from other activities. Family sizes are considerably smaller these days than they were in the 1950’s and the camp has to be innovative in its marketing to develop and discover new ways to use the facility to reach people.
Church camp experiences are an important part of my personal story. My parents took me to church camp as an infant and every year of my growing up life. We attended family camp every year and when I became old enough I attended the age-specific camps. I met my wife at church camp. It was at church camp where I discovered the first inklings that the ministry would be my vocation. Many important faith formation experiences occurred while participating in the programs of our camp. As an adult, I have continued to be active in church camping programs and activities.
I know that experiences in the outdoor world can be important faith formation experiences. I find going out into God’s world to be critical to the nurturing of my spirit and maintaining balance in my life.
Yesterday was a bit late for the first paddle of the season, but April weather around here wasn’t the best for heading to the lake. I’ve been busy and I had a lot of activities planned for the morning, but in the afternoon I was able to sneak out to the lake for an hour of paddling. I wasn’t the only one with the idea. I often paddle first thing in the morning and am used to having the lake to myself, but there was a canoe and a couple of motor boats on the lake when I arrive and the shoreline was dotted with fishermen. The water is cold and options for self-rescue are limited if I were to capsize. There is little danger with a kayak on flat water, but I stayed close to the shore just to keep things on the safe side.
The motor boaters both had new high-powered ski boats. I imagine that they were purchased last fall or early this spring. The owners had been chomping at the bit for a day to take them to the lake and try them out. The sound of their deep-throated engines echoed off of the hillsides as they roared around the lake. But it was too cold for water skiing yesterday. And Sheridan Lake is a bit small for such fast boats. One of the boats had the stereo turned up loud so that they could hear it over the roar of the engine. I suspect that they, like some of the shore fishermen, didn’t know or had forgotten how sound travels over the surface of the water. I know their musical preferences as does probably everyone else who went to the lake, with the possible exception of the folks on the other motorboat, whose engine was pretty loud by itself. A couple of trips around the perimeter of the lake and the folks in the motorboats had done what they could at the lake. They idled their boats to a calm cove and sat bobbing on the water and talking to each other.
The canoeist was a fisherman who happened to own a canoe, not a canoeist who happens to have a fishing pole, if you know the difference. He was trolling by back paddling across the lake and switched his paddle from side to side nearly every stroke in order to maintain a straight line. He had a fancy fishing chair in his boat with a sturdy back and was concentrating more on his fishing equipment than on his paddling technique. No worries. Canoes are great at teaching their users how to paddle. Often no instruction is necessary. After a while, he’ll get tired of the drips from his paddle as he switches it from side to side and will discover how to make a simple J stroke or apply a small pry or draw occasionally to allow himself to go where he wants without having to lift his arms so high on every stroke.
Usually when I go to the lake for my first paddle, I arrive on a Monday morning, Mondays being my day off. I’ve been otherwise occupied on Mondays recently so I was there on a Saturday afternoon which meant that the wildlife that I was observing wasn’t so much the eagles and beaver and ducks and other residents of the area, but rather the people who had come to the lake to play and fish. There was a small group fishing together with several in boy scout uniforms. I haven’t kept up with the requirements for the fishing merit badge these days, but I know that it requires the scout to catch at least one fish, clean and cook it. It used to require that the scout knew how to remove a fish hook that lodges in the skin of another scout. Usually fishing in clumps provides the scouts with opportunities to demonstrate that skill to their scoutmasters. I didn’t see either kind of catching going on while I paddled by. They waved. If I had brought a canoe, I could have offered to help them work on their canoe merit badge as well. That badge requires demonstration of strokes that the canoe fisherman wasn’t showing.
Some of the solitary fishermen were out there for solitude and I respect it by not talking, but just waving. Some waved back. Some didn’t.
It was a good day for a first paddle and a good first paddle for the season. I’m itching to get out in a canoe. It is a different kind of paddling and I’ve been working on mastering Canadian style paddling recently. Of course one never really masters a life skill like paddling. You just keep refining it.
As I loaded my boat back onto my car, I was grateful for the day and grateful for the place. I also know that the skill of sharing the lake with others is essential. I suspect that all of the people at the lake yesterday needed to get out to the lake as much as I did.
Church camp experiences are an important part of my personal story. My parents took me to church camp as an infant and every year of my growing up life. We attended family camp every year and when I became old enough I attended the age-specific camps. I met my wife at church camp. It was at church camp where I discovered the first inklings that the ministry would be my vocation. Many important faith formation experiences occurred while participating in the programs of our camp. As an adult, I have continued to be active in church camping programs and activities.
I know that experiences in the outdoor world can be important faith formation experiences. I find going out into God’s world to be critical to the nurturing of my spirit and maintaining balance in my life.
The motor boaters both had new high-powered ski boats. I imagine that they were purchased last fall or early this spring. The owners had been chomping at the bit for a day to take them to the lake and try them out. The sound of their deep-throated engines echoed off of the hillsides as they roared around the lake. But it was too cold for water skiing yesterday. And Sheridan Lake is a bit small for such fast boats. One of the boats had the stereo turned up loud so that they could hear it over the roar of the engine. I suspect that they, like some of the shore fishermen, didn’t know or had forgotten how sound travels over the surface of the water. I know their musical preferences as does probably everyone else who went to the lake, with the possible exception of the folks on the other motorboat, whose engine was pretty loud by itself. A couple of trips around the perimeter of the lake and the folks in the motorboats had done what they could at the lake. They idled their boats to a calm cove and sat bobbing on the water and talking to each other.
The canoeist was a fisherman who happened to own a canoe, not a canoeist who happens to have a fishing pole, if you know the difference. He was trolling by back paddling across the lake and switched his paddle from side to side nearly every stroke in order to maintain a straight line. He had a fancy fishing chair in his boat with a sturdy back and was concentrating more on his fishing equipment than on his paddling technique. No worries. Canoes are great at teaching their users how to paddle. Often no instruction is necessary. After a while, he’ll get tired of the drips from his paddle as he switches it from side to side and will discover how to make a simple J stroke or apply a small pry or draw occasionally to allow himself to go where he wants without having to lift his arms so high on every stroke.
Some of the solitary fishermen were out there for solitude and I respect it by not talking, but just waving. Some waved back. Some didn’t.
As I loaded my boat back onto my car, I was grateful for the day and grateful for the place. I also know that the skill of sharing the lake with others is essential. I suspect that all of the people at the lake yesterday needed to get out to the lake as much as I did.