I have a bruise on my right arm. Technically, it should be on my left arm as I am right-eye dominant, but we were short on right-handed bows at archery during open sports, and I thought I would try shooting left-handed. In any case, that’s not what this article is really about. On an unusually cool Tuesday morning, I found myself at the field house with the campers and a good representation of the pyc staff ready to leave campus for the okc Boathouse District.

We soon discovered that our shiny blue wristbands gave us access to many activities. As I wandered toward the high ropes, I came to an amusement area already buzzing with activity. On my left, about two dozen male campers were bounding around on the Cloud Bounce—a giant inflatable pillow. To my right, I came across a couple of counselors competing on the neos 360 Interactive Play Station. I had never seen anything like this before: a series of buttons arranged in a circle, which flashed either red or green. Two people would then dash around each other in the circle, frantically searching for and hitting their color as they appeared randomly around the circle. It was a frenzy of yelling as people pointed out the colors as they appeared. “It’s kind of like a Rubik’s cube,” Montana of 2G said.

I then moved toward the river. High above me, campers soared over the river on a 700-foot zip line. Even from down on the ground, I could see the exhilaration on their faces. Other campers around the park cheered them on as they whizzed through the sky.

I have always enjoyed anything involving water, so my next stop was the water’s edge. Here campers donned life-jackets and took to the water on either kayaks or paddleboards.

Not far from us, campers took turns at rock climbing and jumping on bungee trampolines—this was interesting to watch as people jumped higher and higher doing a variety of flips with the security of bungee cords.

“I liked the satisfaction of getting to the top of the difficult side of the climbing wall and hitting the buzzer at the top,” said 5B’s Jay. “I just kept hitting it!”

Meanwhile, up on the ropes course, dorms worked their way through the different obstacles. Everyone was secured into harnesses, which were attached to a track that ran around the course. A set of stairs connected six levels, each with obstacles including rope bridges, balance beams and stepping-stones. For a number of the campers—and some of the workers too—these things were a challenge. Reese Zoellner, the counselor of 5B, was impressed at how his campers were “encouraging each other as they overcame their fears.”

There are two ways down from the top of the course: a 72-foot slide or the Rumble Drop. The Rumble Drop is sort of similar to bungee jumping. Once your harness is connected, all that is left to do is step off the edge. After free falling for a moment, a mechanism kicks in and stops your descent just before you hit the ground. “I took a big breath before I stepped off the edge because I thought I was going to scream,” said incoming freshman Julia Hayes, “but it was over before I knew it.”

The slide wasn’t a tame way of getting your feet back on the ground either. Seated on a mat, you had to be careful not to touch the edge or you would burn yourself as I did while I speedily spiraled down to the ground. Thus I returned to campus with 144 campers—and a burn mark to match my bruise from the day before.