Lightning

When my phone rings at 2am, it's never good. It's especially bad when we have a group of campers on the overnight adventure (on a separate piece of property about 20 miles away and deep in the forest).

Assistant Program Director A had gone along on this adventure to help the new staff. It was her on the phone.

"Counselor K walkie talkie-d me from the boys campsite and he sees lightning and thinks we need to evacuate."

Um...

I jump out of bed and do some frantic googling about lightning and camping. They couldn't hear thunder and with no sounds, I couldn't calcualte how far away it was from them, but I guessed that meant it was really far.

I definitely didn't want to leave them out and risk anyone beng struck, but I also wasn't thrilled with the idea of bringing them back to camp. Here's why- between the boy's site and girls, there were 18 kids (12-14 years old) all of whom we already asleep at 2am. The camp sites are a mile hike in throug the thick forest. It is hilly and uneven, muddy and even in the daylight is tough walking. The idea of waking them up, telling them to grab their sleeping bags (because we don't really have spare bedding for 18 people) and then marching them through the pitch black seemed like a really bad idea. It would be terrifying, dangerous walking and if someone got separated, it would be terrible.

If any of my staff or kids were in danger, I wouldn't hesitate to turn mother bear and go out and hunt them down in the forest and shield them from danger. But the weather radar showed clear skies and I decided that taking them out of the campsite was a bigger risk. Even if it ended up raining on them, it would be better than a long dark walk at 2 am. So I told them to stay put and go to sleep.

This morning when I woke up, I was relieved to see that it hadn't rained. I picked up a rested (well, not counselor K, but the kids at least) group that was safe, dry and I was thankful I had made a good choice.