By Bella Rowe, Link-Up Co-Leader
Our fifth group of Links embraced the opportunity to explore, make decisions, and get themselves through tricky situations (ever paddled toward your campsite through torrential rain?). Facing these things as a group over the course of the week helped everyone develop a healthy sense of independence and showed us how to orient our actions toward the collective, rather than just ourselves.
Links arrived Monday and played pool and basketball before setting up for dinner - fried chicken, kale salad, and potatoes. Over a campfire and under a little bit of rain we discussed options for Tuesday before returning inside to jot down ideas on a whiteboard. Top contenders were WWII history, swimming, natural sciences, and exploring the ocean. What if...we could do it all? The decision was made for a trip to the NH Seacoast!
Tuesday morning we woke up and swiftly moved towards the van. On the drive to the coast, weather began to clear and we arrived at Odiorne Point State Park to blue skies and a lovely 75 degree temperature. Links explored and learned the history of the area: in 1623 Englishmen came to Odiorne Point to fish and trade with natives. During WWII it was turned into a military base and the property was changed forever, bunkers and gun batteries now dot the coastline behind tidal pools filled with crustaceans and tangles of seaweed. We marveled at a submersible used for research and learned that seven adults would spend up to five days in the submersible and we wondered...could there be a 2025 "underwater" Link-Up trip?
We made a stop at Jenness State Beach to swim and four Links chose to jump in and out of the waves, bodysurfing towards shore with some success. We piled back into the van and made it back to Mayhew in time to visit the island for free time and dinner. The group ended the evening at the Base House with a group challenge that involved holding a climbing rope and making shapes while blindfolded.
Weather looked a little ominous on Wednesday so the group circled up to decide how and when we wanted to travel to Belle Island. Links agreed, "we should get going early on our setup if there's a storm coming." After breakfast we packed the canoes to prepare for the trip, when a Sysco truck arrive with food for everyone on Mayhew Island. Links jumped into action and helped out by carrying food from the truck to a Mayhew boat, to be unloaded on the island. Some rain moved in so we ate pesto pasta for lunch indoors and when we believed we saw we had a clear weather window, we headed to the canoes for our trip to Belle Island.
As we paddled past Arrowhead Point the rain really came down. On the bright side we had the whole lake to ourselves, there was no wind, and watching the rain approach us in a line across the water gave the impression we were going into battle - against the weather. Links were yelling out, we were all soaked, and at times we couldn't make out Belle Island through the clouds. The rain eventually petered out and it was equally as impressive to see the sun emerge and fog cover the nearby hills. We felt successful as we reached shore in record time and unloaded canoes before setting up a number of tarps, noting that the storm was likely an hour or so away from us. We swam and fished before getting out when we heard thunder, ate dinner - thai curry and rice - with our tarps prepared (we had even set up a 'living room' with a picnic bench and lots of games). As we went to bed, we realized that there was no storm, and what we thought had been our clear weather window had actually been the majority of the rain that day. We pulled down the tarps that were over Links' tents to help everyone stay a little cooler and went to bed.
On Thursday we woke up early to a beautiful sunny day and immediately got in the water to fish and swim. Some Links chose to swim to the north end of the island and picked some trash out of the lake as they went. We had a grab-and-go breakfast of muffins and orange juice before packing up, putting on sunscreen, and heading for the mainland.
We re-packed for Mt. Cardigan after refueling with burritos and began our hike up in the late afternoon. After the rain, the mosquitoes were out in full force. On arrival, one Link got to work cooking our ramen dinner and then we headed up together to the north peak for a very red sunset (red sky at night, sailors' delight?) We walked back in the dark and enjoyed cookies, watched the stars, and played Ravine. Some Links even woke up at 4am to see the planets when they were a little brighter.
We had a lazy start to Friday before blueberry pancakes and hiking out around 10am. At the bottom, we ate our lunch and took photos before weighing whether we wanted to swim at the lake and have ice cream, or go to Welton Falls. Choosing the latter, Links had a wonderful time at the falls going down natural waterslides and sitting under the waterfall. One Link made cookies and others contributed to pizza making at the Base House as we cleaned up and reflected on the week.
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