Crafting Lifelong Memories

The Green River Preserve is a land of firsts for everyone. For some, it’s an introduction to camping, backpacking, hiking, and enjoying what nature has to offer when you have some sweat on your brow. For others, it’s a first encounter with nature overall – a break from the never-ending rush of traffic and sirens in the distance and a taste of silence, peace, and oneness with the world. I find that even when speaking to the most experienced among us, reports of firsts are still fairly common.

Here’s an example: During the spring season, before campers started arriving, a group of staff went out on a hike to Long Rock, one of our most popular mentor hikes. We arrived a little bit past 9:00 in the morning, bundled up in raincoats, ponchos, and sweatshirts, as it was still very chilly. When we made our way to the rock itself, we saw something incredible – The surface of the rock was covered in steamy mist, like something straight out of a fairytale. Stepping onto the rock felt like taking a leap into another reality. It took an incredibly specific combination of factors for this to happen at all. The rock itself had to be warm, and it had been–the temperature on the previous days had been unusually high. There also needed to be a sudden temperature drop overnight, which certainly took place–that morning, the warmest it got was in the mid-40s. Finally, it needed to be humid enough that the moisture on the rock would evaporate on contact with the air.

The result of all of these conditions being met was a stunning, otherworldly picture that even the senior mentors reported they had never seen before. Whether you’re brand new to The Preserve or thirty years into your career as an environmentalist, you can still be surprised by the secrets that the land holds.

When you think about that and then remember that this summer camp is a place visited by hundreds of young environmental stewards every year, it becomes a little bit more incredible. Every soul touching the land is experiencing something that might change the trajectory of their life forever, whether that’s seeing the view from Lower Bald for the first time or saving a salamander from a tight spot. At GRP, we craft lifelong memories by allowing people to try things that they never had before–and no matter how old you get, you’ll never be too old to see something that you’ve never seen before.

Story by Li Shuford with photos by Brandon S. Marshall & Samantha Keebler