Cabin Night

This last weekend we went backpacking on Chiloe Island to Cole Cole Beach for the night.  We took a ferry from mainland Chile to Chiloe and drove to a secluded national park on the coast.  There were lots of parts of the adventure in which we did not know our exact location or where we were headed.  It was exciting, hard, silly and rejuvenating!  It was just a mere 36 hours that felt like a week!  All four of us kept noting how it felt like time just stopped.  We hiked on the beach, we found uses for all the ocean sponges, and more!  Camping and sleeping and adventuring together seems to always stop the clock and we all come out with a shared experience, creating tighter bonds with the four of us. 

Our trip to Cole Cole was our family’s version of a cabin night at Belknap.  It reminded us of the importance of a Belknap cabin night.  A trip to little huck always feels momentous.  The challenge of organizing our food, clothes and gear and getting there before dark.  Cooking over the stove and campfire creates an additional change of pace.  Many of our cabin nights we only spend 15 hrs. away from the cabin, but the rhythm changes.  That change creates a sense of accomplishment  and every paddle back from an island or a walk back from Outpost or the “New Lands,” creates a renewed feeling.  A shared experience where everyone in the cabin is a bit closer and just a little more full of life.  The simple effort of stepping out of the usual routine, creates wonderful perspective in all of us. As we write from Chile, we look forward to observing those summertime cabin nights.  The opportunity for a shared cabinal experience, is essential, it’s in these moments the Belknap Spirit it at its strongest. 

No matter our location, we all need a cabin night once in awhile.  It’s our cabin night moments, that allow us to feel grounded, connected, and fufilled.