Barbara Lawlor, Nederland.     Six girls walked around the streets of Nederland, each of them armed with a notebook and a pen. They were on a mission to find out why boating is not allowed on Barker Reservoir.

After talking to a handful of people, they came to a consensus: that the snowpack-fed water was too cold. But they also came to another conclusion: they thought maybe they weren't getting the whole story from the people they talked to.

Sophie Hardy, Marissa D'Antonio, Isabella Nieves, Natalie Harper, Hatcher Edmondson and Eve Colton were participating in a summer writing camp led by local writer Tracy Ross. Ross is an award-winning journalist who has been published in Outside, Backpacker, Bicycling and ski magazines. She has traveled to Ecuador, Alaska, Iran, and Nepal. Her book, The Source of All Things, won the National Magazine Award in 2009.

Ross has the dream job for those who aspire to writing about adventure and exotic places. After growing up in Idaho and attending college in Alaska, she began writing for Skiing Magazine and eventually bought a house on Magnolia Road. Friends of her teenage daughter thought what she did was "so cool," and Ross got into the idea of running a summer camp for teens who were interested in writing as a career.

"I have wanted to do this for a long time," says Ross.

Last week, from July 21 to 25, Ross and her students explored the Nederland area: hiking, fishing, meeting Scott Harrison, the creator of the Carousel of Happiness, mountain biking at Mud Lake, and hanging out in the water behind the Wolftongue Mill.

The girls were asked to write about their experience, to turn what they saw and felt into words, to bring the reader to see and feel what they did.

On Friday afternoon, the last day of camp, the young writers had a chance to read what they had written to the rest of the class, to parents and friends. Their literary debut was held at Salto.

Natalie Harper, 11, wrote about a waterfall on the way to Lost Lake:

Lost Waterfall

Streaming down like a river

but way rougher

Falling like a bird

and splashing like a fish

Diving in the water

like a dolphin

leaping everywhere.

The rocks are neon green

like fish bait

but don't smell as bad

Why?

Sophie Hardy, 13, wrote about the Somewhere Else wall at the Carousel of Happiness:

Somewhere Else

She hands her cub

To someone else

Somewhere else

Reaching up

Her fur waving in the breeze

Dirtied from the journey she has taken

The ice in her home melts

and it's not safe

Not for her

Not for him

So she hands him

To someone else

Somewhere else

Hatcher Edmonson, 11, wrote about a group of mentally disabled adults riding the Carousel:

Forever Young

My body is 40

My mind is 2

I feel as though I am flying

Riding my favorite animal

Round

and

Round

I love to go

Round

and

Round

I scream

With joy

(It sounds more like a growl)

On my favorite animal

I don't care if

My body is 40

and

My mind is 2

I am riding my favorite animal

on the Carousel of Joy

The writing campers all enjoyed reading, and said they read for fun. They also enjoyed writing—and what better way to nurture that passion than to take them into the heart of nature and give them license to write about what moves them, what words leap out of their thoughts.

Ross said that not only did she enjoy teaching the class, but she also had a chance to take a whole new look at the town she lives in.