The seven students, grades 8 to 12, and Scott Ellis, Thetford Outdoor Program coordinator, assisted by group leader Austin Borg and Borg’s dog, Summit, spent two days scaling the rocks in the vicinity of their campsite without incident. The site was situated near the intersection of U.S. Route 9 and state Route 73, the connection of Keene, New Russia and Elizabethtown commonly referred to by local residents as Malfunction Junction or Crazy Corners.

That night, group leaders and students Kit (Christopher) Payson, grade 10, his brother, Hardy Payson, grade 12, Asa Williams, grade 8, Maggie Mikovitz, grade 11, Willow Slayton, grade 12, Jillian Fein, grade 10, and Connor Gaine, grade 12, retired to their tents and sleeping bags. Waves of heavy rain ended around 9 p.m., but the nearby Boquet River continued to rise as they slept.

“We were just getting back from rope climbing,” Kit Payson explained, “and the rain was so loud it took me hours to get to sleep. Then my brother, Hardy, was banging on my tent, yelling ‘Scott says the water is rising!’ We had to get out.”

He described the scene as pitch black, lit only by sporadic lightning strikes that revealed the Boquet’s “massive great arcs of flowing black water — you could watch it growing.” After the group had hastily gathered their belongings, the land where the tent had been was almost underwater, he said. He couldn’t suppress “a goofy smile” thinking about what he planned to tell his parents, he recalled.

Kit Paysan, grade 10, holds up a waterlogged pillow to show how much rain members of his group were subjected to in the previous night’s downpour, while Asa Williams, grade 8, pets Summit the dog. (Provided photo — Martha Allen)

Kate Owen, the Thetford Academy school librarian, was the group’s emergency contact. One of a long line of Keene Valley residents, Owen had found and secured the campsite and made them chili as they began their stay there.

Owen also drove to the camp at about 11 that night, as the group took refuge in the school bus. She invited them back to the Berkshire Hathaway Realty Building, owned by her family for many years, where they settled in around midnight and spent the night.

The students appeared exuberant the next morning, with stories to tell.

“They’ll remember this all their lives,” Ellis said. “The outing was about leadership, and this gave us a good opportunity to practice leadership. … We were also lucky to have a place to go.”

Thetford Academy is an independent school of 312 students in Thetford, Vermont.