Submitted photo Here I am pictured in Camden State Park's electric truck. I had just gotten over a tachycardia episode, but still wanted to help at the hike.

The Friends of Camden have been on my radar for quite a few years. I figured that since Ross and I have probably been on every trail the park has to offer, why not be part of an organization that supports different projects and events? So last year when I saw a Facebook post about the Friends’ upcoming annual meeting at the YMCA, I finally decided to join.

But it would be almost a year before I would help out at an event at Camden. Every winter, several of the state parks have some sort of candlelight hike/ski/snowshoe event. Ross and I have been to a few of these. The first one we attended was at Lac qui Parle State Park. It was the second weekend of February and as we were driving on North U.S. Highway 59, it started to rain. It wasn’t a downpour, but it was enough to make the trail a little icy. From what I recall, there were actual candles in the luminaries that lit up the path. Because of the rain, some of them got snuffed out. I think a couple may have caught on fire and were a little scorched. But I remember it was an enjoyable experience, and I wanted to go on more candlelight hikes.

Last November, I had gotten an email about how Camden staff was in the planning stages for a candlelight hike that would take place at the end of January. It was mentioned that they were working with Blue Mounds State Park staff to put the event together. Plus Blue Mounds staff was going to help out the day of the hike. When I saw that email, I was stoked. It had been quite a few years since Camden has hosted a candlelight event of any kind. And I wanted to be a part of making things happen, even in a small way.

So I expressed my interest in helping with setting up and whatever else needed to be done. On the day of the hike, I got to Camden around 2 p.m. Eventually I found some of the Blue Mounds staff members who were helping out with the organization of the hike. I set off with a couple of them to set up luminaries along the trail. That went fine for most part as we dropped the luminaries on both sides. The next job was to fill them with tea lights, but that would be later.

After they were set up, I went to sit down to take a load off. That’s when my heart decided to have a tachycardia episode. Yay…. I tried to do some calming breaths, but it wasn’t helping. One of the vagal maneuvers to slow the heart rate is dunking your face in ice cold water. I thought, “well, I have snow around,” so I grabbed a handful and smushed some on my face. I felt a little awkward doing that around people, so I explained what was going on to staff. I went with a couple of them to the lodge at Camden to get some water. Hannah, who used to work at Camden, but now works at Blue Mounds, had cheeseburger soup warming in a Crock Pot. She was also getting water ready for the hot chocolate to be served later in the evening. I eventually got better as my heart slowed down (even tried a child’s pose in one of the bedrooms at the lodge).

We all went back to one of the buildings, and there were almost a dozen volunteers ready to put out the tea lights. I mainly helped with getting cookies and bars out to set up at the picnic shelter. As it was getting closer to when the hike was supposed to start, I basically sat by one of the bonfires on the side of the trail. My job was to keep the fire going. Now I have a weird fear of fire. Mainly about getting burned in some way. So if the fire got low, I’d chuck a log at it. I think I maintained it all right. People would stop along the trail to warm up. I had mentioned to Ross that the hike was going on, and he eventually came there. I took a break from fire-watching and set out to hike a portion of the trail. There was a hazy full moon out and the glow of the luminaries on the snow was cool to see. I was glad to at least get the chance to hit the trail. And bonus! I didn’t have another tachycardia episode that day. I figured that the reason I had one earlier that day was that I was getting over a sinus infection was was taking antibiotics. At least that’s what I hope happened.

The candlelight hike drew about 300 people, which is pretty good for an event at Camden. The plan is to host a hike every other year with Blue Mounds. It would be great if Camden could have one every year, but it’s nice to check out other parks’ candlelight events.