| Helmets on and paddles up, Alex (third from left) and his raftmates pull together through the white water at the 2026 ursa Summer Study Camp.
by Alex Slauenwhite
On our second night at Mosquito Creek in the Canadian Rockies, our camp director, Joe Smith, gathered everyone who wanted to join in the common area of the hostel. He was going to do some magic and card tricks. For one of them, Joe would leave the room while everyone chose a colour and focused on it. Then he would come back in, think hard about what the colour might be, and say whatever came into his mind. Somehow, he got it right every time. Even the other staff members were surprised.
I enjoyed the evening, but the thing I remember is what happened after the show was over. Some people stayed in the common area and talked, some played board games or cards, and others went off and did their own thing. I mostly stayed around talking to whoever was around, including some of the staff, who were great to talk to.
There was no mobile phone service at Mosquito Creek, and that made it easier for all of us to interact with each other. Some of us sat around the fire and chatted. Some played games, and some went to play in the woods. Without phones, we spent more time together. That was one of the reasons Mosquito Creek was probably the biggest highlight of the entire camp for me.
| Dinner around the fire pit on the Mosquito Creek trip, where there was no cell signal and nobody seemed to miss it.
It was also a very different place from Calgary. You could hear the creek or river going in the background, there were forests pretty much all around us, and everywhere you looked there were mountains in the distance. We went hiking in the area, including a hike around a lake in the mountains. It was an amazing spot, about two hours away from Calgary and totally unlike where I would normally find myself in the summer.
Staying at Mosquito Creek also meant taking on more of the everyday work. The campers helped cook the meals and clean up afterwards. We made pasta with spaghetti sauce, tacos and different breakfasts. I volunteered for all the cooking shifts and ended up helping with a bit of everything. For the tacos, I cut the vegetables and kept a close eye on the meat to make sure it was properly seasoned, cooked through and not burnt. I had done that kind of cooking before, while some of the other campers hadn’t, so I tried to help make sure everything turned out okay.
| Campers wind down the trail toward a turquoise river, with the Rockies rising on every side.
Mosquito Creek was just two nights of the two-week camp. The rest of the time, we stayed in the University of Calgary dormitories, which was a new experience many of us had never had before. The rooms got hot sometimes but it was fun having that taste of university life. Everyone shared a dorm room with another person, and it was amazing to always have some other campers around to hang out with. There were fun activities on campus, including board games and scavenger hunts, but I also liked that we had some freedom. Sometimes a few of us would just walk around campus and head over to Mac Hall, the main student centre and social hub, which made it feel like actually living on a university campus.
I also appreciated that not every minute of our day was scheduled and preplanned. There would usually be group activities happening if you wanted to join in, but if you were really tired, had a headache, or just needed some time away from everyone, you could talk to the staff and take a break. You didn’t have to be with the group all the time.
Then there were the days when we headed out for bigger adventures around Alberta. One of my favourites was white-water rafting. I had canoed and kayaked before and so I had some experience with paddling, but I had never been rafting with nine or ten other people in the same raft. It was a real rush. The drops in the water were not huge, but there were enough of them to make it exciting and everyone had to help paddle together. The cold water also felt good on the summer day. Near the end, there was even a place where we could get out of the raft and swim around.
| Campers play 18 holes of mini golf at WinSport, a key venue of the 1988 Calgary Winter Olympics, on an outing that also included downhill karting on a ride found in only two places in North America.
Sylvan Lake stood out for a different reason. It isn’t the ocean, obviously, but it is a very big lake with a beach you can walk along. I grew up in the Canadian Maritimes and have always liked walking along beaches, and being there reminded me a little of that.
That mix of experiences continued throughout the camp, with days spent exploring Calgary and others taking us farther across the province. We visited places like Heritage Park, a recreated historical village, and WinSport, the city’s Olympic sports centre, along with swimming, bowling and other outings. There wasn’t really a day when there wasn’t something to do.
Before camp started, I was a little nervous about the whole thing. There was the build-up of knowing I was going to be away from home and travelling to all these different places. Once I was actually there, though, that nervousness went away. The staff were friendly and easygoing and I always felt there was someone I could go to if I needed help. I also met campers I hadn’t known before and I’m still in touch with some of them. One time I bumped into one getting off the bus and we instantly reconnected, walking around and talking. I played basketball with another camper recently.
| Campers meet a cast of Dunkleosteus, a 360-million-year-old armoured fish, at the Royal Tyrrell Museum in the Canadian Badlands, home to some of the world’s richest dinosaur fossil beds.
Beyond the fun of the activities, a lot of my best memories are from the smaller moments: cooking together at Mosquito Creek, talking with people when there was no cell service, walking around the university campus, playing games in the common area, or just spending time with other campers and even the staff.
I feel more confident now about going into new experiences, even when I’m not completely sure what to expect. There were always things happening and people around at this camp, but I could also take some time to myself when I needed it.
One tip for anyone staying in a university dorm: bring a fan. Consider it your first piece of university equipment.
| The group gathers among the tipis at the 2026 Tsuut’ina Nation Annual Celebrations, which drew dancers, singers and drum groups from across North America and marked the 50th anniversary of the Nation’s rodeo.
Alex Slauenwhite is a Grade 10 student at Third Academy, ursa’s sister school within Third Schools.