A week ago I wrote a letter to Carter. His Boy Scout troop had reservations for a week long camping trip up by the rim, near Payson. He had not left yet at the time of my letter writing, they were scheduled to leave on Saturday, but the Scoutmaster strongly suggested getting letters in the mail early, as delivery up there is notoriously slow. So I did.

The letter was mailed last Thursday. On the evening before departure, his massive hiking backpack loaded to near explosion, we received an email that his camp was canceled with the possibility of rescheduling due to a forest fire. At the time of the email, it was the air quality that was of concern and the current campers were being evacuated. We clung to the possibility of camp being rescheduled and kept our eye on the news.

In case you have not heard, Arizona is on fire.

The cancelation of the camping trip was hard on Carter, but it was an opportunity to think about the bigger picture. The firefighters, the evacuated campers and towns, the fleeing wildlife and burning vegetation. All of it awful.

Yesterday we got another email, camp is back on, having been shifted a week. The fire is still burning, but those in the know, have deemed it safe to reopen the camp. While I clearly wish the fire was not burning, I am mostly filled with and fixated on the typical worries that one has when they send their child off on a week long camping trip for the first time.

Today Carter will repack his backpack (he has been living out of it, clothing-wise for the past week) and we will keep our fingers crossed that things with the fire keep going in the right direction.

I suppose I should think about putting another letter in the mail soon in case my first one was lost. I think I have a couple more heart stickers…