2020-2021 Youth Writing Contest Special Recognition – Junior Category – Maine (Grades 6–8)
Adventures in Kayaking
Zack Torberg, 8th grade, Massabesic Middle School
It was a feel-good morning during 4-H Camp. We woke up at the crack of dawn, having barely slept all night. We were ready to go in the blink of an eye. We had breakfast in the mess hall, did our morning meeting with the whole camp, and had a vote. Little did I know this vote would be the vote of a lifetime. The camp counselor put up three options – fishing, kayaking, or starting-a-fire lesson. The majority of us said kayaking, so we got the kayaks ready to go, and went.
When we had been kayaking for a little while, we all asked where we were going. He answered, “Look ahead and you’ll see.” We looked, and there right in front of us was an abandoned island, and we were about to explore it!
When we got to the island, we all ran in different directions exploring the island. I found a really big centipede and a mouse. After a little while of exploring the island, the counselor called us back to the kayaks. He said we had some more fun things to do before we went back to camp. Then he explained that we were going to do a kayak race. We all got really excited, jumping around exclaiming that we were excited to go kayak racing.
We lined up, and the counselor and counted down, “3, 2, 1, GO!” Then everyone started paddling excessively fast, bumping into each other. My friend and I moved ahead in a tie for first. Then I asked him, “Whatever happens, we’ll still be friends?” He said “Yah.” Then he turned on the nitro in his blood and paddled as fast as possible, so I did, too.
It was a long way back to camp, and in about three minutes the rest of the campers were so far we couldn’t see them. We were still neck-and-neck by the time we could see a camp, but things were different – the dock was metal, not wood. When we got there, we realized we were at someone else’s camp, not ours. Then we got back in the kayaks and raced in the opposite direction, thinking camp was that way. Little did we know it wasn’t.
When we had been gone for a little longer and still didn’t know where the camp was, we turned, and we saw it – Camp! Then we raced back toward camp.
When we were almost, there we bumped kayaks, flipped them and fell into the water – both of us. When I finally got back in the kayak, which took me like five minutes to do. I paddled back to camp, when he got back we looked all over camp for the rest of our group, but they were nowhere to be found.
That’s when we saw them on the lake, just getting back. The counselor looked at us and asked, “What happened to you?” to which we both replied, “We went on a little adventure.”
