Write-up: Bobbie Scarpino
Leader: Bobbie Scarpino
Co-leader: Mike Huss

Our 8th annual Camp Fowler Weekend is one that will be remembered by the 28 Tramps that ventured to Speculator. The week before, we were all wishing for snow. Be careful what you wish for! Friday found many of us driving up in a massive snowstorm, with large flakes falling at 1-2 inches per hour and a total accumulation of several feet. The trees were bent over, having been coated with ice during the night, and then covered with the heavy wet snow. Travel to Speculator was a challenge with unplowed snowy, icy roads, and poor visibility, not to mention the logging truck blocking Rt. 8 for several hours, and downed trees causing detours. Tramps trickled in slowly all afternoon (Cocktail hour started long before 5:00!) and into the evening hours. Some came long distances – Deb and Halsey from Cranberry Lake, and Tom and Nancy from their skiing trip in Maine.  Imagine crossing Lake Champlain on the ferry in a snowstorm! The weary travelers arrived at camp to find that we had a power outage, a common occurrence in the north country. Luckily, Camp Fowler has a backup generator for the lodge, so we had some overhead lights in most of the rooms, one common outlet for everyone to charge phones, heat, hot water, and a functioning kitchen. The prayer cabins were more of a problem. The gas stoves kept the cabins warm, but no lights or hot water. That night we were still missing 5 people, but they purposely waited out the storm and safely arrived on Saturday.

Saturday was cold . . . single digits. But the sun was shining and out we went into Old Man Winter’s  beautiful landscape painting. Jerry and Lori got to the frozen lake early and broke trail for all of us. But as the group started out across, some found that they were breaking through the snow into a watery slush, causing skis to stop gliding. There was a layer of slush on top of the ice before the storm and the snow insulated enough so that the slush didn’t freeze. As always, Tramps are flexible and find another venue to continue on.  Many of us skied or snowshoed back to land and on to Moffitt Beach State Park, which connects to the camp, and enjoyed skiing around the campsites and beach area. Here is where a couple of Tramps decided to play games.

Following right behind 3 skiers, Karen, on snowshoes, decided to stop and play “Hole and Go Seek.”  It’s an unusual game where the snow on top caves in, causing the player to hide their leg, foot, and snowshoe in a huge hole.  The rest of the players have to dig with ski poles and hands to try and free the stuck player. This was not an easy game. The snowshoe could not be dislodged, binding couldn’t be reached and 20 minutes of digging was not helping the situation.  Dark brown slush and water covered her boot. A call to 911 was seriously being considered when Bernie, determined to win the game, leaned down into the hole and dug with all his might.  Finally, our hero was able to grab hold of the snowshoe, caught in a culvert pipe, and pull Karen out of the hole. Bernie himself also thought of another game to play just as Karen’s leg disappeared into the hole. It’s called “Skin the Ski.” As he turned around toward Karen, the entire strip on the bottom of his ski slipped off and slid across the snow! You can’t make this up!

After lunch we split into a couple of groups to enjoy some afternoon adventures. Some attacked the downhill ski slopes in the area. A large group checked out the trails around Camp Fowler on skis and snowshoes. A smaller group decided to snowshoe the trail to Auger Falls, although the trailhead took some bushwhacking to locate with all of the snow. The trail to the falls paralleled the river and the scenery was just beautiful. The falls, covered with ice above and below were amazing. On the way out there was a short very steep, very icy chute to maneuver. The best plan of attack seemed to be the “butt slide.” Could this be a new Olympic event? This group wanted more exercise, so decided to drive back into Speculator and down Elm Rd. Here they parked and snowshoed in to “Outhouse Corners” and Cave Hill Rd. to try to find Kunjamuk Cave, where legend has it French Louie would go to enjoy his drink. But after walking more than a mile, there was no sign of the cave.  It had to be close, but with the sun quickly setting, Jerry began singing, “Lou-i, Lou-i . . . oh, oh . . . We gotta go now!”  With that, the group turned around to make their way back to the cars just as darkness was settling in.

We were all glad to see that the power was back on and that the food truck, which had been delayed by a day because of the storm, had finally made it to the camp. We enjoyed a delicious stuffed pork loin roast that evening.  After dinner, Jeannie lit a sky lantern and set it afloat with a full moon as a backdrop.  Lively rounds of Pitch topped off the day.

If we thought it was cold Saturday, Sunday dawned even colder, -11! Jeannie got some of us warmed up with a early morning Zumba session. By the time breakfast was over and everyone was all packed up, it was a balmy -1! The Kunjamuk Trail was our destination, with two more Tramps driving up from Mapledale to join us for the snowshoe/ski. After about 0.5 mi. we encountered an obstacle of tangled icy trees and limbs across the trail and entire surrounding area. Not even the Tramps could go under, over, through, or around it! So various plan B’s were made. Some went home, some went to hike a trail off of Rt. 10, some went to Egypt Rd. close to home, and some stayed to snowshoe the passable Kunjamuk snowmobile trail.

The Camp Fowler staff was awesome. Harv, the manager, went out of his way to make sure that we were all comfortable. Jorden and Doug stayed longer on Friday night preparing and serving dinner at a much later hour to ensure that those who had a delayed arrival would get a warm delicious meal. Teddy, Harv’s well-trained and very cute golden labradoodle charmed us all.

Mike and I thought that we would give Camp Fowler a rest and skip next year’s winter trip to Speculator. However, everyone enjoyed the wonderful accommodations, comradery, and adventures. The general consensus was that they want to return next year . . . so Camp Fowler Weekend 2021 is in the plans!