Camp Sherwin Stories

As promised, here is my blog about all those Labor Day Weekends at Camp Sherwin. I have so many fond memories of going to Camp that there is no way that I could possibly list them all here. Instead, I've selected the most memorable and/or infamous Camp stories.

Where to begin? At the beginning, of course! The Camp Sherwin tradition started when my dad was a kid as a trip with his immediate family. It has since grown to include most of my extended family on my dad's side who meet at Camp every Memorial and Labor Day Weekend.

Camp Sherwin allows visitors three options about staying in the campground: tents, space for campers, or rented cabins. As far back as I can remember, my extended family has rented two or three cabins closer to the camp entrance, while my immediate family have used Cooks Cabin, on the far end of Camp. The inside of our cabin has a room on either side with bunk beds, a kitchen area in the middle, and a bathroom (having a private one is a luxury, most cabins do not include it and communal bathrooms are the only option).

One night, after finally getting to sleep despite the thin, uncomfortable mattresses and perpetual squeaking of the metal bunk beds, I woke up in extreme pain on the wooden floor. I had apparently rolled off the bed (thankfully the lower bunk) and fallen to the floor face first, hard enough to knock both of my front teeth out. Despite the long-term awkwardness of having my teeth gone, it payed off the next morning. I must have made close to $20 from my family out of sympathy for my premature tooth loss.

One of my favorite places to go at Camp Sherwin is the beach. Camp was built near Lake Erie, so the beach is a relaxing, if a bit rocky, place to spend an afternoon and a spectacular place to watch the sun set. There is also plenty of beach glass and some of the samples I found on my most recent trip are great! Unfortunately, though, Camp is built on the edge of steep cliffs with the beach at the bottom. You can get to the beach two ways, either by taking a zig-zagging staircase through the woods to the beach, or by climbing the cliffs. Common sense took the back seat when on one occasion I chose the second option. Before I knew it, I slipped maybe ten feet and was freaking out before I managed to make it to the beach on all fours. Luckily, other people were there to help or I would have been stranded.



















Camp Sherwin's beach seems to go on forever, and I haven't taken the time to explore a lot of it, instead I normally stay close to the stairs to get back up to Camp. There is a cement pier not too far from the stairs. A few years ago I remember feeling unusually adventurous and deciding to jump off the edge of the pier. The water was at the most five feet deep with sand at the bottom so the landing did not hurt. It would have been a perfectly harmless if not for the rusty but potentially dangerous metal spikes sticking out from the end of the pier. Fortunately, I didn't jump close enough to hurt myself. It was a fun experience, but not something I would ever try again.






I wish I could write more about my Camp Sherwin trips but to include them all would take up too much space. Going to Camp has become one of my favorite things to do all year. I hope that future visits will be just as fun and memorable.