Ahwahnee Memories

Ahwahnee Memories

Noel Laflin

June, 2018

I count myself fortunate to have first seen Camp Ahwahnee through the eyes of a child.  The memories are distant, as I was only seven years old at the time, but visions of tall pines, crystal clear blue skies, fresh mountain air, dusty dirt roads, tents on platforms, and older boys, including my brother, in green Scout uniforms and colorful neckerchiefs lugging large backpacks up steep trails will always remain.  Old family black and white photos noting the occasion are dated August, 1959.

Nine summers later I would find myself trudging up a steep trail with my own backpack, and soon claiming my own tent platform as home for the week.

The experiences of those first days in camp, despite the initial wave of homesickness, were enough to keep me coming back for the remainder of my teenage years and well into my early twenties.  I found myself hopelessly enchanted with the mountain and all of its mysteries.

I idolized older staff members and marveled at their ability to entertain two hundred others with a rousing song, a hilarious skit, or a really good campfire story. I so wanted to be like them.

My mentors included the likes of Greg Richards, Fred LaVelle, Bruce Moore, Alan Adler, Bill Herzberg, Jeff Sherwood, Jim Hirsch, Jack Moulton, the Trent brothers, and many others.

In time, Gene Bergner found his way to camp and inspired both young and old alike with a seemingly boundless source of energy and commitment to Scouting ideals.  His trust and friendship would become a cornerstone of my life.

Other friendships formed during my nine years on the Ahwahnee staff have proven to be the ties that bind.  Many of us are still in touch forty and fifty years later.  Our ranks may now be composed of retired teachers, ministers, firemen, career military, law enforcement, tradesmen, labor organizers, writers, landscape designers, salesmen, etc., but the spirit of young men from half a century ago is never far away.

 

And although the pay was lousy and the days long, there was no other place we longed to be each summer.

In my opinion, we were beautifully isolated from the world beneath, bathed in sunshine, crisp mountain air and the fragrant aroma of pine and fir.  We were more than a mile above our boring lives 'down below,' as we came to call anywhere but here.

  

Whether one stayed for the day, week or summer, Ahwahnee could enchant one’s soul.  It drew me back, year after year for a decade of summers and many winter weekends, when a snowy carpet transformed the landscape.  It still haunts my dreams these many years later.  Why do you think I need to write these words now, if not for its continued spiritual pull?  There are many a day and night when my entire being craves to return to this special place, the land of my youth, where star-filled heavens seemed to touch a boy’s outstretched hand and the water which flowed from deep within our mountain tasted sweeter than any wine on earth.