What always amazed me about Laketrails campers was their amazing morale and general good mood no matter what situation was presented.  On a trip to the infamous Mason and Reid lakes my co-guide and I got disoriented, and after many questions about where we were, we determined we were, in fact, just plain lost. The trip had started out great because we had found a beautifully “paved” trail into Reid Lake.  However, we chose to bog our way out of Mason Lake back into Monument Bay.  After bogging and portaging for hours, we at last realized we needed to consult our charts once again.  Reluctantly, we determined that we would be sleeping in the bog for the night, literally on the smallest piece of rock imaginable to fit three tents.  We decided we should inform our campers of why we were staying in such a horrible spot.  To my co-guide and I, it seemed like the absolute worst spot imaginable to pitch a tent, and we felt terrible asking our campers to do so.  Then we sat down and gave each of them a cold bagel for supper and talked to them about our campsite for the night.  We were somewhat surprised with the response we got.  One camper declared it was the coolest spot he had ever slept in his life, and another said he had seen an awesome spider while portaging.  A third said he didn’t care where we went for the rest of the trip because it was the most beautiful view he had ever seen, and the rest looked as if they were elated to just have a bagel in their hands after such a difficult day.  All in all, we never once heard a negative comment, and we even heard them bragging to other campers once we got back to Base Camp.  Yup, Laketrails campers are the best!

from Nick Collette, former Laketrails camper and Guide.