That Summer Camp Feeling

Lily Barrie, University of Tennessee at Chattanooga

This August, I had the incredible opportunity to participate in NCHC’s Partners in the

Parks program at Glacier. It exceeded my expectations, if I ever really had any to begin with. My first impression of the trip was meeting my trip leaders, Brian and Karen. While driving around Kalispell and getting groceries with them in my first few hours in Montana, I immediately knew this would be a fun trip with great people, but I had no idea the extent to which this would come true. Before this, I had never been to the western United States or a national park aside from my home park of the Smoky Mountains. I had never seen views so grand or climbed higher peaks. I had no idea what a huckleberry was before arriving in Montana, and now I miss their company on trails and their overwhelming presence in gift stores. I had never smelled so strongly of dirt and fire and been so fulfilled.

Despite all the newness surrounding me, my greatest treasures taken from this adventure

were the immediate bonds and full relationships built in one week that I have missed ever since. An experience like this has the tendency to fuse together people who would never interact otherwise. It’s a bit like summer camp in this way and has an air of magic to it—like you’re not in the real world anymore and social barriers have dissolved completely. For seven days, we did practically nothing other than exist together and talk, learning more about each other than some of our closest friends might know about us. Making breakfast, we talked. On the trail, we talked. Eating lunch, we talked. In the car, we talked (or sang). Making dinner, we talked. Cleaning, we talked. Around the fire, we talked. There was not a moment where there was nothing to be said, and it created something beautiful and special out of quite literally nothing. It gave me an entirely new appreciation for trips like this and the art of conversation in bringing together a hodgepodge group of virtual strangers. For seven days, we had only each other and the park, and evidently, that’s all we really needed to build something memorable enough to miss. We spent our days camping, hiking, taking in the views, counting huckleberries, asking weird questions, singing through long car rides, swimming in the (freezing) lake, cooking and eating together,

reflecting by the fire, and working as a unit.

An experience and community like this are difficult to sum up so simply. All I can really

say is, if you know that summer camp feeling I’m talking about, you know. It's a special memory that remains slightly golden in my mind—something everyone should seek out and experience in their life at least once. I learned so much about Glacier and the Parks Service, but even more about myself, my friends, and how to build community anywhere. It’s easier than you think— just camp in the middle of nowhere with a group of strangers, no distractions, and a million weird questions for a week!