Camp Chanco certainly is amalgamation of people, moments and an unusual Spirit that penetrates the 5 senses even after we have left it.

Whether it has been years or even decades (yes decades - it is nearly 40 years old) I cannot recall how often but there are those moments in our corners of the world where we taste - Bug juice - we smell -OFF repellent - we see - the moon tucked up high as if it is guarding over the James.

Which leads me to think of the physical character of the land and those nooks that were carved out of the Woods over the years. I am certain that the current location has matured and aged and worn itself into a fine specimen but I cannot express how vivid the original site still is to me this day.

I am almost convinced that if I should return in my dreams to that site I could navigate through it - blindfolded. With the replaying of memories the footsteps are retraced like a pencil tracing on waxpaper.

The Midnight Trail comes to mind as do other names that sound familiar to the Old Order - The trail was hardly the Northwest Passsage or the AT but it in its own way it linked up the campsites on the Other Side of the Road and on this night in 1985 was the final stretch. Sneaking out at camp was never encouraged in fact memory serves me that a pair of comrades were kicked out of Senior High in 1987 for being caught out after lights out - there names witheld until the book version comes out.

But before that in 1985 - the hormones kicking at 14 years young - I borrow Will Hunting's line - "I gotta see about a girl"  Stuck in campsite Mary on the mainside of the road - Ken Weissner and I had sweethearts in Luke I on the other side of the road. If you recall - Camp Chanco had 8 campsites - 3 on the mainside Mary Revelations and Thomas - all sharing a bath house. Then Mathew, Mark, Luke I Luke II and John on the otherside of the road.

The bathhouses were shared by boys and girls. In most cases if you wanted to meet up with the opposite sex a rendevous to the bathouse was easy cover - nature is calling and so forth. But if your supposed interests were across the road - those late night visits were difficult to manage - or were they?

Now I am a film buff and long before 1985 I had seen a movie that I hope most of you guys have seen by now - POW flick - William Holden - Stalag 17. Impressionable me - thought I could be JJ Sefton - manuever in the cloak of darkness without capture.

Ken and I had said our goodnights to a one Dede Folck and Kristen Millar at the Friendship Circle but some where on the walk back we decided to make a run for a midnight surprise - I honestly can't recall if we told them we were coming or not - perhaps they had tempted us - at 14 - not much tempting is necessary.

I don't remember what planning went into the excursion - whether we mapped out a route or just rolled with it - but following our adirondeck meeting we discovered that our counselors were going to the D.H. to lounge and do whatever. Our adopted sweetheart and camp sitter for the boys of Mary was none other than Mary Garrett Watkins.

Weissner and I both agreed a good chance to make a break -

Below is a crude MAP OF CHANCO circa late 80's - this was not used on that night.

Ken and I decided to avoid the path past campsite Thomas - T since there was a counseler adirondeck right next to the path. I don't recall the summer being dry but leaves and sticks that got stepped on tended to amplify in the night air.

So we had to somehow get past Mary Garrett I remember passing the Barn which had a hanging light above the doors which provided us with a guide - we took a flashlight I think but I am not certain we used it except for quick flashes - when we made it to the Barn we knew that scampering across the compound might be risky.

After all - there was the Trailer (business mgr) the Hilton the non Con bunkhouses and the PD shack right next to the road.

So we decided to hit the road next to the barn - using the path that campsite John - J used to get across the road most days.

At some point we heard the voices and acoustic shadows of movement which alerted us to stop cold - we'd not been out after dark at camp in 5 years - did not know - who was on foot patrol.

Traditionally the PD and Camp Director - would make the rounds but honestly - the use of BIG F - (flashlight) was such a give away.

Apologies to the great Camp Director Dave Davenport - but with that lit sucker - we could see him coming a county away.

Now with noise coming from the Dining Hall - late night staff showers from non-cons - the fan blowing from the AC in the trailer. We new that distractions abounded - and for the most part no one expected 2 campers to be out past midnight.

We hit the ditch that ran parallel to the road - we scampered down the road towards the crossing - but twice - cars came roaring by and if you recall - when cars came round that bend - it was like that scene in Close Encounters of the 3rd Kind when the saucers zipped by Richard Dreyfuss - we hit the ditch buried in vegetation as the cars zoomed by. When we got to the crossing - the PD shack was wide open lights on - door open - fan on - the light splashed over the road on the cross walk - our only point to jump over to the other side.

We must have waited a few minutes - wondering if this was as far as we could go - surely the lit road and shadow would give our movement away.

The other thing you have to realize is that when you travel in the dark no one can see you - but you can't see anyone in return - so running blindly into a patch of blackness - not too good and that is what awaited us on the road to the other side of camp

We also knew that once up the road on the opposite side - there were 3 campsite paths converging - so anyone like a counseler going to the DH or someone going to the bathhouse might spot us and chances were greater there than anywhere.

We also knew our feet would crunch on the rocks.

But we did it anyone - a quick burst from the ditch up the road and somewhere we paused probably near the old bathing trough - I believe Brian Mathison has a good story about those facilities - long since dated.

We had planned on going down the path to Luke I and Luke II because the bathouse could be our safety point - regrouping in the boys room but somehow that didn't pan out it was then that we discovered the PD and Camp Director were making there rounds with Big F and coming our way - we hit the woods - down low - heavy breathing - panic beats of the heart.

The good thing was we could see them - they could not see us - unless Big F had panned into the woods - I tell you that flashlight was the brightest flashlight I ever recall - I think it took about 12 D batteries and I am certain that on various evenings - entire shipping barges up the James changed course when they saw that thing beaming from the Bluffs.

Once the panic subsided we decided to jump on the Midnight Trail in between Mark and Luke I - now Mark was all girls since it was nestled next to Luke I so manuevering between the tents was sketchy.

The night air was hardly silent - you could here chatter in tents and the occassionally movement at the bathhouses. We stepped on the Trail short as it was - it would link us right to Luke I and our sweethearts.

Somehow we knew which tent they were in and we entered from the backside where the picnic table was just before the Ropes Course begins.

I honestly can't recall their reaction - surprise - elation - shock - I don't think they screamed which leads me to recall that we probably bragged to them that we were coming but they did not expect us to make it.

We made small talk but before we got settled - noise alerted us that their counseler was making a tent check - and she came in the tent opened the flap only to find - Kristen and Dede sitting on their cots

Ken and I waited and again breathed heavy - oh boy - all this way for nothing.

We decided to bail and make a run for it while the counselor was still inside - the return trip to Mary was probably three times as quick as the trip to Luke I - we dashed through the woods not paying much attention to noise.

I honestly don't recall the return that well - I do know that when we made it to our campsite Mary - we were busted. Cold.

I don't know if we attempted to make our cots slept in - don't know if they interrogated our tentmates - but poor Mary Garrett panicked when it was discovered that the campsite of 12 was just 10.

When we woke the next morning we knew that punishment would follow - I think we were told to go to bed and our fate would arrive with breakfast. It did - in the form of a stern talk and litter patrol - yeah we picked up trash around the campsite - lucky for us - there really wasn't any - it was easy pickings - Mary Garrett was cool about it - so were the counselers - perhaps they were impressed by the midnight manuever. That night ended the first run on the Midnight Trail but I will say it was a beginning of sorts - I think from 1985 on through 1992 - every session every retreat - Lights out - meant time to move out - and so I did.