We Could Hear Thundering Hooves On The Bridge. (A CAMP INSANITY STORY)

It was a beautiful day on the Sacandaga River while camping and enjoying the peace and quiet along with the river music, that babbling sound you hear when water rushes over rocks. Then all of a sudden we heard the noise of thundering hooves running across the bridge from the park picnic area to the camping area. We looked up and a dozen young people were running to our campsite. They were joyful and excited about something. I stopped them and asked what's up? They told me they saw some sculptures from the other side of the river and wanted to know what they were.

Now I probably should tell you here,  that in years past we've had some minor problems with kids who think we build these Carin's for the sole purpose of letting them knock them down. We've even had words with angry parents who wanted to know just why their little darlings can't come into our campsite throw rocks and knock down the sculptures that we built? Huh - and that would be okay because??

Well not this year. I told them what they were and why we built them:

An inukshuk is a man-made stone landmark or cairn, used by the Inuit, and other peoples of the Arctic region of North America . (But theirs were a lot bigger than ours) Theirs were built to represent things that were important to the first people such as a beautiful campsite, a good place to hunt, a good place to fish or an abundance of food. Ours were built to entertain us and in remembrance of those who loved this river before us. We call them our "guys" - our homage to the River Gods.

Just look at what these young people did!

I will add a disclaimer here - when we make these rock sculptures we make the rocks balance. Our young engineers chinked the rocks to make them balance. We forgive them that cheat because what they made was awesome!

These 20-somethings were excited to see the creativity on the river and they asked if they could build some too - Be our guests! And they did. When they left they thanked us for letting them play and we admired their art from our campsite. They said they were recent engineering grads and enjoyed the challenge. Then they were gone.

This year we had a lot of people go by our sculptures and the sculptures built by those kids and no one even tried to knock them down. There were tubers, canoes, kayaks and swimmers. Most people floating by would stop and build a few and then move on. We even watched a fisherman and his family walk around them to fish and when one in that party knocked one down by accident, they rebuilt it!

The ranger told us photos of our sculptures were used in a power-point presentation for all the rangers in the Adirondacks before the season opened talking about customer service and how in this economy they expected more people to camp this summer and how to encourage creativity and fun along with safety.

I remembered last summer when a ranger we enjoyed who loved our Inukshuks told us while we were gone for a grocery run his boss had been by and he showed the boss the sculptures. He mentioned the boss running to grab his camera.

So, the next time you see a few rocks laying around - be creative!

All photos were taken by me or my sister Elaine M. My sister just posted a story about this year's Camp Insanity and you can find that here. All our stories and photos are copyrighted by us and are now a part of the Camp Insanity Archives.

Why do we call our Camp - Camp Insanity, you ask? You can find the answer to that question RIGHT HERE!

The Sacandaga Campground is a N.Y.S. Park. It is located 4 miles south Of Wells, NY on Route 30. It is part of the Adirondack Preserve. To get there from the NYS Thruway exit at Amsterdam and head north on Route 30. When you smell the pines and campfires you are almost there.