Camp Zoe Memories
Horseback Riding & Canoeing
At Camp Zoe campers have the freedom to individualize their program within the limits of safety. They may choose from a wide variety of activities which are designed to sharpen old skills, develop new skills, and instill self-confidence in their ability as potential leaders, so they may be of service to mankind. These activities vary according to age and sex, providing each with an integrated program that will give them a truly meaningful outdoor experience.
Camp Zoe Yearbook, 1975
Zoe was a horseback riding camp and canoeing was the number two activity. Nature crafts was also very popular. Other activities included BB and .22 gauge marksmanship, archery, tennis, weight-lifting, gymnastics, arts & crafts, field and farm, and swimming. The first full day of camp was dedicated to orientation. Our cabin toured the camp grounds and heard a sales pitch from the counselor in charge of each activity. The swimming and horsemanship classification also took place that day.
The first couple of years I was there, I failed the swimming test and took swimming as an activity. None of my buddies took swimming and I wished I was doing something else. I finally passed the test my third year there.
I wasn't a very good rider either. The first year I went to camp I don't think I had been on a horse before (outside of the pony rides at the carnival). Horse riders were classified in three general categories. "A" riders were beginners. "B" riders were intermediate riders. "C" riders were expert riders. Of course, I was saddled with the "A" rank my first year. My friend Stu earned a "C" classification his first time out of the chute. He impressed all the women in the barn with his riding skills. I saw the "C" class riders romping down one of the logging roads that year. They rode at a full gallop with an extra horse saddled up in the middle minus a rider. The head counselor directed her students to change horses as they sped down the path. Stu jumped from horse to horse like a trick rider. That's impressive for a ten year old. Stu earned the Arabian award for horseback riding before his camp years ended.
Canoeing was my forte. I canoed every summer after I experienced my first float trip in 1976. I preferred Zoe's metal canoes over the faster fiberglass models. The Current River had so many submerged rocks that a fiberglass model cracked in half when it hit one. Tent cabin completed the Pull-Tite to Sinking junction float in 1979 when two guys (not from Zoe) in a Sears fiberglass canoe hit a rootwad in white water near our campsite. It split down the middle and sent the kaboodle downstream. Their gear floated toward us and the counselors and a few of us went in after it. We saved the seat cushions and the styrofoam cooler. I'll never forget the sight of counselor Jeff Wright swimming upstream in the Current River with a pipe clenched between his teeth.
Of course everybody swamps, even a mohican canoer (i.e. yours truly at the 2004 Zoe alumni float). The Current River was so clear in those days that if you put on a diving mask and floated down in an innertube, you saw everything along the river bottom. In tourist season, novice canoers by the truck load floated down the Class one rapids and tipped. Or perhaps someone violated the number one canoeing rule and stood up. That sent you into the drink too.
One summer a boy from Spring Hill, Kansas named Toby Heinz lost his digital wrist-watch during a canoe float. Our canoeing group returned to the Current the following week for another float in the same stretch. We shared the water with other canoers and floaters led by former camp owner John Hambacker. They combed the river bottom with snorkel gear as they went. About three hours into the float we passed by them when one of the girls shot out of the water and exclaimed, "I've found a watch."
"Is it a silver Timex digital with a stretch band and a long scratch down the left side of the crystal?" asked Toby. Indeed it was. She handed it over, dumbfounded that the owner of her most valuable prize paddled by when she made the haul.