Camp is Awesome: Chapter 1

Welcome back, Grant. Thanks.
I am introducing a new short, interactive series for everyone to hopefully participate in here on the Camp Chippewa Blog. I will be sharing my favorite stories about some of the many places that make camp so awesome. Many of you have been to these places, so please chime in on the comments section to share your favorite story. Today's place...

Hook Island

Brief History - JP and Jerry found it. Cap loved it. It's in Canada. It rules.

In the summer of '99 Mike Thompson (back before he was Director. That's right, I know him way back when) and I took Demonia Cabin to Hook. Back then Demonia had some long time all-stars that some of you may have heard of like Evan Tomer and Scott Tonsfeldt. After a long morning of fishing in the pouring rain and only catching one fish, we took a break for lunch and some relaxation in the cabin. In the midst of me trouncing everyone in some UNO, we began to hear this low rumble in the distance. It was constant, so we know it wasn't thunder, but that was all we knew. We continued playing cards, but the rumble kept getting louder and louder. To me it sounded exactly like a stampede of horses. Unlikely it was horses since it is an island, but I was still pretty sure.
At this point we all got up and headed to the windows to see what it was. Looking out across the lake you could see what appeared to be a giant white wall in the distance spreading across the width of the lake. The wall continued to get closer and closer until it just off the tip of the "hook." We were about to be in the eye of hail storm! As soon as the storm came it was gone and I have never seen anything like it again.

OK, your turn! Light up the comments section with your favorite Hook Island story.

75 Years and Still Fishing

(Jerry at the Final Banquet, 2007)

2010 will mark camp's 75th annivesary with exciting new canoe trips, fun special activities and an alumni rendezvous. Looks like Jerry Graham beat camp to the punch, however. Jerry recently celebrated his 75th birthday. Congratulations Jerry!

Jerry has been working with the men and boys at Chippewa since the 1950s. No doubt we'll be seeing him at age 76 back at Silent Isle, his Canadian getaway, and of course on Cass Lake. One of his friends In Miami, Oklahoma wrote a short homage:

Good gracious sakes alive,
Ole Jerold Graham is seventy five.
He has no hair to part
but has a kindly heart.
Behind him are birthdays galore.
Now is the time to wish him more.

(Jerry in Canada circa 1980)