Since yesterday’s blog was so quick and devoid of photos, I thought you might enjoy a few quick pics from the Ben Lomond hike.

Before I share these, I want to report that we are seriously sore.  No, that does not mean Susie and Steve.  We are ALL sore.  Even the 15 year-old boys.  While we did longer hikes, none were as fast or as completely up or down.  Nepal went up and down alternatively.  Tongariro had variation.   This went up for 2:30 hours and down for 1:15.

Everyone is sore.  Since the kids are young, the massive soreness in these thighs cannot be solely attributable to age.

Beautiful Drives

I know that I have talked about the beauty of this place, and I know that I sound like a broken record, but here are more shots from our drives.

Liam’s Namesake

When I went to camp as an 8 year-old, I met a guy named Liam Phillips that would become my best camp friend for 11 summers.  In fact, he is one of the reasons than we named our son Liam.  Liam Phillips was a legend at many skills - all useless.  For example, he could repeat entire sentences entirely in reverse even as he heard them.  He could play any piano piece after only hearing once.  He would snap wasps out of the air with a rat’s tail.  [Note: I do not approve of rat’s tails at Camp Champions, but Liam was still a legend in the 1970s.]

Most importantly, Liam was the greatest rock-skipper I have ever seen.  He could skip a stone between 15 and 20 times consistently.  He could skip a rock once and then hit a tree across a river with David-like accuracy.  Simply put, he was good.

Here, I have channeled my inner Liam.  We have found great skipping stones and I have taught all of my children to skip rocks well.  I even made a few tosses myself (with at least 2 going over 14 times).  I think it is somewhat ironic that I am connecting with my camp self so far away from camp.

Steve Sir