The Nizhoni Life: 8 Week Grind

The weeks flew by quickly as I just completed my 8 weeks working with the Bear Valley Summer Camp. What an interesting time it was with a lot of firsts: I had the opportunity to develop my own personal skills in outdoor education and recreation, my first time working fully with children, work with younger people (co-workers), and stepped away from a corporate environment that left plenty of room for unprofessionalism.

The camp was centered around skills to help children develop knowledge and safety, get them excited about learning and built “levels” to keep them trying. Part of my days were spent in the morning playing disc golf, making sure kids didn’t shoot each other or kill me at archery, hiking while teaching outdoor living skills, fishing, creating scavenger hunts, field games then afternoons were spent rock climbing – mostly belaying, hikes or bike ride up to Bear Lake to sail, kayak, swim, stand up paddle board or stare a windsurf. I was fortunate to be able to check out new places while getting paid, awesome places include Stanislaus Campground River area for the rock slides and hiking, Utica for kayaking through the lily pads and checking out granite islands, rock climbing at Stanislaus Meadow, and many lake days at Alpine. I had the opportunity to take a teenage group out to Moaning Caverns for some spelunking, repelling and zip lining. Funniest conversations I’ve ever heard were from the 12 – 16 year olds. One that had my chuckling for a while was a girl asked a guy, “What do you think girls talk about in the bathroom?” His response was, “Uh I don’t know, peeing while standing up.”

One of my favorite trips was kayaking Utica for an overnighter on the sandy island to watch the Perseid meteor shower. I think for one it was an awesome idea and two we ran into some pirates. The 3 girls I was with were stoked for camping on the one big Sandy island because every where else was rocky and they didn’t want to haul everything for a long distance, remember they are 12 – 14 and just want to lay on the beach as soon as possible. As we pull up to the beautiful sunny sandy island we are greeted by a 50 year-old man wearing a t-shirt with a pirate on it that says, “Give me the booty,” real clever. He tells me in a very unintimidating yet rude manner I can’t stay there and he is going to be there for 12 days and has a party of 25 people that will be smoking pot and has 2 kegs, also has 2 vicious dogs that eat children. After much harassment I gather my ladies and assess the situation, they were not afraid and could see right through the old people they were just being rude and mean and they were determined to camp there. So after being “greeted” by several people and their children eating dogs playing fetch with the girls, Steve their main pirate approaches me for a final time. I let him know there is nothing to say to one another and he needs to have fun with his own party as we will ours. He commends me on my campsite, as it’s the best but tell me we’ll be sorry for staying. I finally look at him as I am setting up a tent, “You know these girls have been through a lot and what if this was their last wish as cancer patients to camp on this very island to watch the meteor shower? We don’t want you here just as you don’t want us and if you wanted to reserve a camp space there is plenty at the camp group on shore, if you’re here for 12 days you won’t mind us here for one.” He asks if I was serious, my response was “I don’t know, am I? Thank you for remaining mature and reasonable in front of the ladies.” He then grabs a tent pole and assists us with our tent set up. After he left my point was to the girls, no matter how old you get you will still deal with assholes that act like children, also you don’t know who you are dealing with we are all human and should be respected. I would like to mention they were not rowdy and went to bed earlier than the kids. I ended up a camp legend when we returned.

Another new experience in which I haven’t had too much of in my past is working with people younger than me and in a place with no HR. Working hotels in Portland majority was a few my age but definitely much older; knowing this was going to be a new experience because as I have mentioned before this is something I should have done when I was their age but I am glad I did not. I think through my work experience to come out here to work in the High Sierra the small stuff doesn’t matter. I was so relieved (at the beginning) to be working in a highly unorganized environment with harassment calls left and right. I think I out of everyone had a huge tolerance for it because I was looking for something completely opposite of the stuffy Marriott on 5^th and Oak and The luxury boutique Nine’s off Morrison - especially when my boss was a ferocious bull dyke of a micromanager, our camp director was definitely opposite of what I have ever been used to and in a sick way it was refreshing; you know, small stuff.

Aside from the interesting leadership, clicks, drama and gossip the young co-workers went through I am happy I got to be in the Sierras to observe and learn from their behavior while “on stage.” They worked so well with kids and as first timer for me I was a total creep and stared at them to see how to responded to horrendous kids. Jumping in, playing, having fun and being direct seem like simple things to know but I had no knowledge of this. We each had different unique personalities and skills to contribute to our team; I really wish some could recognize this early on to eliminate drama. Nevertheless, things came to an end and we continue integrating our lives in new environments and experiences as we get older. I love getting older.

Again I will say working with children and different people is surprisingly awesome and rewarding, I feel a lot better like I did something meaningful with my day. It’s refreshing working with actual children rather than adults that act like children. I am hoping to continue this path on getting kids excited about recreation and wilderness skills. I have increased my knowledge heavily on the Sierra Nevada area. There is so much more to learn about the land, history, floral, fauna, geology, etc. I feel comforted while hiking that I can identify plants and trees - this is exactly why I came to this area. Expressing passion for something wins, I have not had a day I regretted or felt bad about.

Here are some highlights from my 8 weeks: