What a retreat! Most of us hadn't laughed so much in ages. And it wasn't the fishing that was so amusing. Instead, it was the Saturday evening song-fest. The song-fest started out innocently enough as a marshmallow roast over the bonfire. Thanks to the addition of graham crackers and chocolate, "smores" suddenly began to appear. It must have been all the sugar, but the next thing we knew, two teams of singers had formed and were challenging each other to come up with (and then actually sing) songs with the word "love" in the lyrics. Back and forth they went taking turns entertaining the rest of us with their antics. Although the evening ended in a tie, one side's rendition of "Stop, in the name of love" clearly was the highlight of the evening. No stopping these breast cancer survivors.
When we finally went to bed, we'd already decided that a new tradition of the Alaska Casting For Recovery retreat had been born. A Saturday night song-fest competition!
The rest of the week-end was just as much fun. Fly lines tangled and flies caught in the trees, but, with the help of the volunteer instructors, these sixteen women persisted until fly lines were rolling out and flies were landing delicately on the lake. "Wow," someone remarked as several lines at once delivered the fly to rising trout, "look at that. We're flyfishing!"
At Camp LaVern Griffin, we had the usual lessons in casting, knot tying and fly tying, and we also spent time in the canoes and paddle boats enjoying Kalmbach Lake and fishing. After getting all geared up, some even gave the float tubes a try. We all knew when someone got a hit, and we even heard the announcement from down the lake that someone had actually caught a fish from the float tube!
It rained, as it seems to every year, but all that did was make us decide to hang this year's prayer flags inside where we could all read the encouraging messages from the participants. (We also decided that we'd just have the song-fest inside if it rained again next year.)
The song-fest was just part of the up-beat mood of the 2000 retreat. Laughter, support, encouragement, and the true determination to survive were the hallmarks of the week-end. And, to symbolize that determination, The Alaska Bird Treatment and Rehab Center brought a rehabilitated bald eagle to the lake and released it back into the wild to conclude the week-end. What a retreat!
All textual and graphic material on this site is protected by United States copyright law. You may not copy, use, or distribute any of these materials without prior permission from Women's Flyfishing. © 1996-2008. Fly gif courtesy Gian Padovani and DVWFFA.
