Into the Realm of Camp Christie

My family has always been adventurous. In fact, we’re so adventurous that we call ourselves “Camp Christie.” When I was younger—from middle school to high school—every summer, my family would hop into our green-and-white Roadtrek RV and drive thousands of miles across the United States and Canada (my dad did not like airplanes). As you can imagine, it provided us with some of the amazing adventures I am about to catalog. Dad always told me that when I was older, I would tell these stories to someone else, and boy... Is he right! So sit back, grab some root beer and popcorn, and let me entertain you.

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The first adventure that I remember is from 8th grade: the Grand Canyon. Those attending were my mom, dad, younger brother, and my Dad’s friend and his wife. We hiked Rim-to-Rim of the canyon—from North to South. I, being the embarrassing fifteen-year-old I was, witnessed love for the first time. His name was Ken. We met him the night before we started hiking. He was our waiter in our last fancy restaurant. He was a buff nineteen-year-old who wore an alluring white shirt and tie. I was so enthralled that my brother and dad secretly got a picture of him. To this day, I still have Ken’s picture in my room.

Anyway, enough about my teenage love life. Let’s move on to the adventure!

Stuff we did in the Grand Canyon for four days straight:

- Woke up at 3 am to beat the heat.

- Hiked all morning until we reached a campsite.

- Then did whatever the heck we wanted for the rest of the day.

- Experienced the relentless heat and also heard that somebody died while we were down there because of it.

- Witnessed a rescue after a man broke his foot.

- Yada, yada, yada.

No, I’m kidding. It was quite an interesting experience. When we reached the bottom of the canyon, Phantom Ranch, the temperature was a whopping 115 degrees. None of us got any sleep that night because a windstorm blew through. Since we were so deep in the canyon, the wind coming off the walls was hot, not cold. Mom told me that she slept on a bench. She didn’t realize a snake had slithered under it while she was trying to sleep (Mom hates snakes).

I hiked with my dad’s friends. I think it was the second day of the hike when Dad’s friend, Scott, slipped and fell down a hill. Other than a minor scrape on his back, he was fine. His backpack was just a little heavy for him.

The last day of the hike—Number Four—was miraculous. I took a break from the awful switchbacks and observed the canyon as a whole. It reminded me so much of the Great Valley in the Land Before Time movies. The Colorado River rushed through the dry rocks and green and brown grass. The only thing I thought about when I looked at it was that moment in the first Land Before Time when Littlefoot reached the Great Valley, and there was an awesome panorama of it.

“All hail the Grand Canyon!” was all I could say.

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During the summer of 9th grade, Camp Christie had another amazing adventure. It was one of my favorites. I loved it so much that I wrote a book, The Ghost of Ontario, based on it. Forgive me if I rant a little bit about this one. Is the suspense killing you? Okay, fine. Camp Christie did a six-day canoe trip at the Lady Evelyn-Smoothwater Provincial Park in Ontario, Canada. We gathered the family, and ten of us attended the trip. They were: me, my younger brother, Mom, Dad, a cousin, and a few of my uncles and aunts. They didn’t know I was about to write my next book.

Stuff we did in Lady Evelyn for ten days straight:

- Canoed for about eight hours each day.

- I fished with olives (Thank you, Cousin Ian!).

- Saw a double rainbow.

- Canoed over a small waterfall just for the heck of it.

- Got eaten alive by mosquitoes.

- Portaged into Bug Paradise.

If there is one thing that I have learned about Canada, it’s that the mosquitoes are downright awful! Mom was not a fan of the trip for that very reason. To this day, it remains her least favorite one.

I remember our first portage. It was in a small cove and was about a mile long. This was our first day on the lakes. We had to drag all our canoes and supplies to the other side of the trail and then come back to pick up everything else. If you stopped for even a second, mosquitoes hammered every part of your body. That was even with Deet, ultimate bug spray.

However! My Uncle Bart did not get chewed up by mosquitoes like my Dad and I (we are the bug magnets in Camp Christie). One day, I hung out at the end of the portage with him. We sat together on the soft grass of Canada and listened to the sounds of nature: birds and sloshing waves.

Uncle Bart, who had his hands behind his head, told me, “I put on some Deet, so the mosquitoes are leaving me alone.”

I glanced at his legs. “But they’re circling your legs.” Sure enough, a few mosquitoes swarmed around Uncle Bart’s ankles.

“Aw, come on, guys,” he complained. “I put Deet on.”

During the trip, I was known as “The Oracle.” My job was to find the campsites for each night. I’ve always had a knack for picking out the perfect “Christmas tree, campsite, etc.”

On our third day, we stopped at a miraculous island called Scout Island. My younger brother and I explored it. We found a cute watering hole at the back. I brought my notebook, so while my brother cooled off in the water, I wrote the basic outline for The Ghost of Ontario.

The story follows a teenage girl, Kylie, who goes canoeing at Lady Evelyn-Smoothwater Provincial Park. She learns the legend of the Ghost of Ontario. Ten years ago, a little boy and his mother became involved in a horrific canoeing accident on the lakes. The boy was said to have died, but his mother survived. From that day forth, it is said that the boy’s ghost haunts the lakes. During Kylie’s adventure, she meets a mysterious boy, Ihaan, who suffers from amnesia. Could Ihaan be the Ghost of Ontario himself? Da, da, da! Thank you, Lady Evelyn-Smoothwater Provincial Park, for helping me come up with that plot.

The book’s inspiration came from our trip to Finlayson Point Provincial Park. It was the first park we visited before Lady Evelyn. We stopped by the ranger station, and I noticed a flyer for a missing man in Smoothwater. Then, while we were on the lake, we ran into stormy weather and waves. I thought to myself, Oh, yeah. Waves can mean that the Ghost of Ontario is present. So, da, da, da, again!

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The summer of 10th grade is another trip I won’t forget, because it inspired the third book of a tetralogy I’m currently working on, Claxton. However, it was originally known as Metamorphosis. Dad, Mom, my younger brother, and I toured Nova Scotia, Canada, and Prince Edward Island. Ever heard of Anne of Green Gables? We drove all the way from South Carolina to Canada. This was before COVID, so it was easy to get into the country. Since we did so much during those three weeks of touring, I don’t remember everything, but I will touch on what inspired my book. So, without further ado... Here we go!

Stuff we did in Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island for three weeks straight:

- Rode a ferry, the Nova Star, to Nova Scotia.

- Explored the Fortress of Louisburg and saw a real cannon fire!

- Went to the house on Prince Edward Island that inspired Anne of Green Gables(that was cool!).

- Learned that Nova Scotia is only a few hundred miles away from the site of the Titanic.

- I spent a whole day at a horse-racing track on Prince Edward Island with a girl I met, Nicole. The announcer literally let me visit the announcer’s tower, and he said to the whole racetrack, “Say hello to Victoria Christie! She’s visiting us all the way from South Carolina!”

- I accidentally stumbled into a bar and got kicked out because I was underage. Ha, ha!

- Eventually, I returned with my dad when he picked up his sailboat, Chinook. This was just outside Halifax, Nova Scotia’s capital.

- Wrote a whole story based on the trip!

The Fortress of Louisburg was one of my favorite places we visited. You literally felt like you were back in time. It was an 18th-century-style village. People walked around wearing old-time clothes. Every building was well preserved, making it an amazing outdoor museum. Dad took me to see a blacksmith, and then we went to an old church. We plopped down in the chapel’s chairs and smiled at one another.

“Do you think there is a tomb underneath us?” I asked as the sun’s rays warmed my back.

“Of course, there is,” Dad said. “Maybe you should write a story about this trip, Vika.”

“I think I will,” was my reply.

Before we left the fort, we joined a crowd at the front of it and watched an 18th-century-style ceremony. British soldiers marched in step, rifles on their backs, and rolled a cannon. They pointed it out into the North Atlantic Ocean and fired. Boom! The blast was so loud that I jumped and smacked my hands over my ears. I’m curious whether I still have the video stashed away somewhere. The Fortress of Louisburg is one reason I want to go into History. It was a once-in-a-lifetime experience for me.

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Camp Christie’s trips shaped who I am today. Most of the inspiration for my books comes from these incredible adventures. Mom and Dad were all about showing us kids the world outside school. If I had more time, I would share every detail, but unfortunately, I don’t.

I carefully observed everything happening around me during these trips. I listened to nature and to those British soldiers marching down Louisburg. I watched those mosquitoes chew away at my skin and camp out on the fly of my tent. I touched every single rock and artifact we stumbled upon. I tasted the delicious Canadian lemon meringue and pumpkin pie. The coldness of the North Atlantic Ocean seeped into my tongue, especially when we went whale watching. I even smelled those wonderful creatures. Whales became my favorite animal after the Nova Scotia trip. Of course, this is all thanks to my mom and dad. I am blessed to come from such an adventurous family. To this day, we still go on family trips; they’re just not as massive anymore. We visit Canada frequently, since it’s like a second home to us, and we’re even planning to return in the winter of 2021 for a ski trip.

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These adventures made me a writer. I cannot wait for the day when I can share my wonderful childhood with my audience. Hopefully, all of you out there will visit these places I mentioned. I recommend every one of them. Trust me, you will not regret it. Take your kids. Give them more opportunities to explore the world beyond school and the house. New memories will be made, memories that you will hopefully not regret. I certainly do not regret them. Even if you don’t have kids, go as friends or a couple.

I am thrilled to have shared this catalog of my three most memorable family adventures.