Hi, Keith.

I am replying for Spartan1, my husband, who was a counselor at Camp Easton in 1965 and again in 1967, during his college days.  It was because of his time at Camp Easton and a subsequent trip on the Namakan River that he made with a group of his counselor friends:

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that we have been going to the canoe country ever since our first trip in 1971.  That's 40 years of canoe-tripping--assuming that we make it for the planned one in 2011 when we will be 66 years old.  

We remained friends with Doug and Jean Bobo, the owners/directors of the camp when Spartan1 was there (as a cabin counselor and riflery instructor), and when we have been in Ely we have almost always stopped at their cabin on Pine Tree Trail for a visit.  Of course Doug is gone now, but we still see Jean when we can.

Spartan1 was a farm boy from Michigan's "thumb" area and he never had the opportunity to go to camp as a child.  Doug hired him at a job fair at Michigan State University--it was a summer job situation that didn't pay a lot in $$ but paid a great deal in experiences.  He came back all fired up about canoe-tripping, about the canoe country, and about taking ME there!  It is impossible for me to imagine how my own life would have been different if he hadn't had those summers at Camp Easton!

The "Camp E Song" was our son's favorite lullaby.  "By the shores of Little Long. . . ."  

We don't do Facebook, so we won't be investigating there, but perhaps Spartan1 will post later if he has some important memories to share.  His, however, would pre-date yours by about a decade.

Well, in a way, I guess you could say I had my "own" Camp Easton.  Before our first trip, Spartan1 took me to the camp, introduced me to Doug and Jean, and told me many of the stories about his time there and his first canoe trip.  We camped overnight at the "Outpost" and paddled over to Burntside.  We had breakfast at the camp.  Then he took me on a trip and passed those ideals and those camping traditions on to me.  I was a really green newbie, had very little experience in a canoe and camping, so I sort of learned to do it his way.

Forty years later, we still are a tandem pair.  No solos, as his health has never made that a comfortable situation (insulin-dependent diabetic with severe insulin reactions) but when we were younger we made some pretty neat excursions into the Q, and pretty much all over the BWCA.  

As I said before, I owe Camp Easton and Doug a great debt of gratitude.  I grew up in western lower Michigan were there were many inland lakes, so loving lakes was natural to me, but it was new to Spartan1--his home country is flat and dry.  Northern Minnesota was like a new world to him.  He came back from camp a truly changed person.  

We have tried before to get other Camp E people to respond on the website, but there don't seem to be any.  It has always surprised me.  Nice to know about you, though.

My parents never sent me to summer camp beyond Grandma's house. Once I was free of them this guy provided my introduction to Quetico. I only noticed the BW many years later because of a guy at work.

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Funny how introductions matter.

Starwatcher,
I just clicked on the link in your post and my security found spyware and viruses.  Please check and if needed remove.

Spartan1

Spartan2 wrote on Mar 28^th, 2011 at 12:14pm:


My wife's family had a cabin on Little Long.  I don't know if they sang the same tune though.  

starwatcher