After 5 fun filled days of rafting, hiking, swimming and spending way too much time squeezed into cars, the group of Campus Lifers are back with millions of stories about bug bites, sunburns, bruises, cuts, and feeling the most dirty we have ever felt in our lives… and it felt great.

This trip was not only a great chance to get away for awhile; it was also an opportunity to have an experience of a lifetime in which we all pushed ourselves to our very limits. We plunged into pools of water from high cliffs, climbed up vertical rock slopes with only our helmets as protection, and rafted down waterfalls sideways. By pulling together as a group, we overcame many of these obstacles together. While by day we were exerting ourselves physically, by night we were exerting ourselves mentally through small group discussions and speakers who asked us to look at things in a deeper light and to explore our own values and beliefs.

We developed new or stronger relationships with each other and also with God. This was not all that we did at night, however, we also learned how to pop-lock- and –drop it as well as new games like Buck Buck (a favorite among the campers), watched the sunset reflecting off of Lake Superior, wrestled in the sand, star gazed, found out slightly disturbing facts about each other, ate really good food, attempted to clean ourselves in the river, and made innumerable memories.

Whether we came home with bug bites, sunburns, huge bruises, or cuts, we all definitely came home with a smile and tons of memories.

—Melanie/DGS '08