The River
In light of the recent events at Camp Mystic, Allison gives us insight into what her summer camp life was like along the Guadalupe River deep in the hill country of Texas
I’m sure there are many of you reading this that have a connection to Camp Mystic or someone close to you that does. Two out of the three of us have close connections. Gretchen’s sorority sister Catie married Britt Eastland and has lived at Camp Mystic year-round with her family since 2015. She was a counselor in 2003 and has been a director at Camp Mystic Cypress Lake since 2020. I was a camper and counselor at nearby Camp Waldemar and have friends who were campers at Camp Mystic and friends with children there during the flood. I also knew several people that experienced the flooding at Camp La Junta nearby and knew people lost in the flood.
This is the Guadalupe River pictured above in front of Camp Waldemar. For reference, Camp Waldemar is on the north fork of the Guadalupe River and Camp Mystic is about 10 miles away on the south fork. I traveled back to Texas last summer (June 2024) for a trip with some of my closest camp friends. I stood here on the banks of the Guadalupe just a little over a year ago and marveled at what this river meant to me and my childhood. I could never imagine that just a few miles away on this same river, Camp Mystic would be forever changed and the precious lives that would be taken.
I don’t know if I will ever be able to shake the visions in my head of everything I read about, heard about and saw photos and videos of from afar. I felt oddly guilty that my camp, Camp Waldemar, had been spared. It was too much to accept that all of the children, young people and adults had gone through such a tragedy. The stories coming out of Mystic are unimaginable. The accounts from the nearby boys camp La Junta have hit close to home as well. One of my best camp friend’s son was a counselor there. He woke up in the middle of the night to an ocean and floating trunks. He and many other brave young men who were counselors dove for their campers helping them to swim and get into the rafters, ultimately breaking a window high enough to exit and save them all.