Chicks Can Camp

It was the summer of 1997 and Lisa and I were invited to go on a “Chicks Can Camp” adventure with her husband’s sister-in-law and her sisters.  No boys were allowed and we were going to camp on the banks of the St. Croix River and go canoeing.  We couldn’t wait for our weekend trip!  I dropped my 3-year-old off at Mom’s house, we packed up our sleeping bags, our tent, some food and our handy 2-man canoe and set off for Minnesota.

When we got there, we had to pack our stuff into the canoe and paddle over to where the other girls were.  They had all of their stuff already set up.  They had obviously done this before as they had everything you could possibly need. From steaks for dinner to every spice known to man for making bloody marys.  Lisa and I were prepared but were much more minimalist than they were.  We had some clothes, our tent and sleeping bags, and a roll of toilet paper.  We looked like poor relatives in comparison.

On Saturday, we thought we were going canoeing down the St. Croix.  Turns out, the intention was to simply float down the river.  Sounded like a much better idea to me.  We were driven to our launching point and everyone else had their rented huge, heavy aluminum canoes.  Lisa and I, on the other hand, had our little 2-man canoe. Our canoe was wider and shorter than a normal one with styrofoam along the sides, making it extremely stable, and it only weighed 29 lbs. Everyone was laughing at us until it came time to get the canoes into the water.  For us, it was a piece of cake.  

We all got into the water and simply hooked together so we could float along as one big group.  We talked and laughed and drank our way down the river.  It was a beautiful day.

Then we came across an old rickety railroad bridge.  Someone had the brilliant idea to go up on the bridge and jump off.  Lisa and I thought, “Sure – we can do that.  Everyone else is…”  So, we abandoned our canoes and climbed up the bridge, but by the time Lisa and I got up there, everyone else had already jumped!!  So much for our bonding moment.  As we debated how we would do this, our floating group continued to get a bit farther downriver and we knew we had to decide and either do it or swim after them.

So the decision was made that I would push Lisa off the bridge.  After I did that and saw she survived, I realized I had no one to push me off! Crap!  So – 1… 2… 3…  I jumped.  Worried that my eyelids would flip open and I would lose my contacts, I slapped my hands over my eyes just in time to hit the water.  Whew!  I did it!

The rest of the trip was rather uneventful, but when we got home and relayed the stories to Mom, her first comment about the bridge was, “Why would you jump off a bridge?  Did you want to leave your child motherless?”   Actually – that thought hadn’t even crossed my mind.

Lisa and I haven’t been on another Chicks Can Camp weekend, but we are hoping to do something similar soon.  This time we are looking at Explorer Chicks (https://explorerchick.com).  This trip will be a bigger adventure than Chicks Can Camp.  Instead of floating down the St. Croix, maybe this time we will be exploring Peru or Iceland! 

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