Leanna's Winding Path

First Descents

I just got back from one of the best vacations I’ve ever had!

It was honestly the best five consecutive days I’ve ever had.

I went to an adventure therapy camp with the group First Descents.  They offer these camps for FREE to young adult cancer survivors between the age of 19 and 39.   I just spent an entire week at a beautiful ranch outside of Vail, Colorado.  We kayaked every day except Wednesday.  But Wednesday was full of awesome times too with yoga, a hike, horseback riding, a massage, and a fun band playing at dinner time.

Every day was special.  This camp had 15 young adult cancer survivors participating.  We all had this common thread.  You  could ask questions like “What was your worst side effect from treatment?” and not feel like a heel.  There was only one other person at this camp who was a breast cancer survivor.  There were lots of testicular cancer survivors and non-hodkins lymphomas.  We ranged in age from 19 to 37.  At 31, I was actually one of the older campers.  Hard to believe.

There were new challenges everyday on the water.  We were all at different levels of skill and confidence.  Each day they took us down a stretch of water that ratcheted up the skill level required with bigger rapids and tougher challenges.  Every night, we had a campfire.  We’d reflect on our on-water experience often relating it to cancer.  Then we’d give out awards - like the swimmer’s award (trophy was a Rhino floatie) or the joker’s award (trophy - a funny hat and the Good Book of Chuck Norris that had to be read from right away).

The group was so excellently managed.  We had wonderful food available to us at all times.  The staff (including camp moms, safety boaters, outfitters, and councilors) nearly outnumbered the campers.  We had two safety boaters from Sweden!  We all got camp nicknames.  I was Floyd - for Pink Floyd.  Although a lot of the pink in my hair washed out in the high-altitude sunshine and river water.  They had special ceremonies for us too, like graduation rapid, and other very touching moments and ceremonies.

They could also be amazingly accommodating.  One of my girlfriends found herself totally freaked out on the river.  She would not have had a good time if she had to stay in a kayak by herself.  In fact, there were two campers who experienced similar feelings.  Well, the camp was prepared.  They had tandem kayaks that these ladies could paddle in with a staff member.  This allowed them to still have the experience on the water and face some challenges, but the challenges weren’t so great that they equalled straight out terror.  Apparently the camp right before ours accommodated a boy who was blind.  He participated in all of the kayaking adventures with one of the staff right beside him every step of the way guiding him with his voice.  AMAZING!

I felt personally challenged by kayaking too.  Being that I was able to get the roll down (getting upright in your boat after it has tipped without bailing or getting help from anyone) on the first day, people thought I had some special skill.  This was not the case.  I was scared and panicked most days on the water.  But I kept challenging myself to get over the fear.  So I kept doing things that seemed totally insane to my rational mind, like trying to surf the kayak and boofing over rocks.  But the last day, I broke through that panic.  It was like the panic melted away into nothingness as a launched the boat over a big rock (boofed).  Then, for the last hour on the river, all I felt was pure joy.  I felt like I could do anything.  It was wonderful!

I’m just saying I couldn’t imagine that it could have been any better.

Thanks to all the donors of this program who make this camp available.  I wish you could know how much good you’re doing.