A longtime High Rocks camper/counselor was married in a beautiful ceremony on May 14th in Savannah, GA.  Chris Bankoff (89-95, 01-04) wed Ananda Reavis in front of a crowd that was packed full of High Rocks campers, staff, alumni, and even a founder!  The event was held at the Ships of the Sea Museum and Gardens in downtown Savannah and went off without a single hitch. The groom was his handsome southern self and the bride was stunning! The happy couple met in Los Angeles where they both live and work in Santa Monica. The honeymoon is to include a return to New Zealand where Chris’s proposal took place in sea kayaks as befits his outdoor roots. Congratulations to you both!!

Two weekends ago, I found myself in Charlotte in support of our county’s travelling volleyball club as they battled it out in the Regional Tournament. Whilst in town, I caught up with old High Rockers Strickland Parks, Ben Little, and Crystal Clusiau. In a weekend built around watching sporting events be it volleyball or March Madness, Ben had the brainwave to participate in something more active. He, his father Gray (another old High Rocks camper) and I all signed up for Duke Energy’s Race to the Top held at the Duke Energy Center building downtown that Saturday morning. The basic premise is that racers are released one at a time, every 15 seconds, and proceed to run to the top as fast as possible. Mind you, the “top” is the 50^th story. 1, 194 steps stood in between the start and finish! Funnily enough, the first 10 stories or so were actually the hardest as you tried to find a rhythm to carry you through the ordeal. We all began with perhaps too much gusto as we took the stairs two at a time in our excitement to get going. While Ben was able to mix that strategy with some single-step stories, I quickly downshifted to a one step at a time jog which I was able to continue to the top, much to my surprise. By the top half, your mind began to play tricks with you and stairs, or whole stories, would go by in a blur. Upon completion though, the sense of satisfaction (and relief!) was huge as was being in the nearly unfinished peak of such a massive building. Luckily, they had arranged for elevators to take participants back down, otherwise I might still be up there.

 The event was put on to raise money for the Levine Children’s Hospital. Local businesses had pitched in to supply all kinds of race refreshments, full Italian meals, fresh fruit, and some sweet quick dry shirts. One street had been blocked off for the contestants and spectators to enjoy music and watch the huge TV screen put up on the opposing building. They had not told us (or I had not realized) that TV cameras would be at the start, the 10^th, 26^th, and 50^th stories so everyone outside could watch you struggle up the stairs in real time. It made for hilarious footage but I am glad I didn’t have to watch myself go up. This was our first ever tower run and I think we all enjoyed it enough to do it again in the future. There is a host of tower runs around the US and the world. Here is a link if you are interested in learning more about races near you: www.towerrunning.com

September 14-16, 2012

Come enjoy a weekend of friends, activities, square dancing, and a campfire! We are celebrating fifty-five years of High Rocks on September 14-16, 2012. Spread the word to fellow High Rockers. Housing, activities, and meals are provided by camp for all adult alumni.

Attendees are welcome to begin arriving throughout Friday afternoon for check-in and casual entertainment. The festivities will officially start with dinner on Friday at 6:00pm and run through Sunday breakfast at which point guests can stick around or begin their trek home.

Due to the large number of attendees expected, housing will be offered for adults only and grouped by gender. We will attempt to house people with peers and please feel free to make cabin requests. If you would prefer independent accomodations, there are a number of hotels and B&B’s in the area. Even though it is after Labor Day, we recommend booking early as weddings and special events keep September a busy time in Brevard.

To register, please go to:

www.highrocks.com/pdf/2012RegistrationInformation.pdf

After completing the Krispy Kreme Challenge at NC State the last thing we wanted to do was hop back in the car for a 4 hour drive. What better way to burn off 12 donuts consumed in less than 10 minutes than track down our High Rocks staff in Chapel Hill and impose on them for a Saturday afternoon. Although the weather was gray and rainy, these guys were the consummate hosts in showing us mountain folk around their hometown. As always happens with High Rocks, the longer we stayed, the more past and present staff began appearing to say hi until we had quite the reunion going. We look forward to seeing nearly everyone back this summer and thanks again for a great weekend!!

The holidays are upon us and that meant it was time for the annual Reindeer Run in Brevard this past Saturday. To kick off a day of small town festivities, almost two hundred people ran the 5K race on a chilly mountain morning. There were tons of costumes, pre-race pictures, and lots of youth entrants sporting reindeer antlers. After a mass singing of Jingle Bells in place of a starter pistol, we were off, taking care not to be crushed by the tiny reindeer herd sprinting for the front.

John Carpenter, Morgan Williams, Hank Birdsong, and Woody Noland represented High Rocks in the race and everyone felt good about their runs. While we did not repeat our costumed performance from the Halloween 5K, it was nice to feel aerodynamic again and everyone’s final time dropped significantly without dragging a fat suit around the course. Hank and Morgan did especially well with Hank finishing first in his age group and Morgan second in hers. Congratulations to all the runners and go Team High Rocks!

If anyone feels like joining the High Rocks squad, there is a special race coming up in a few months. The Krispy Kreme Challenge (www.krispykremechallenge.com) is held on Feb. 4, 2012 and presents a unique twist to a 5 mile run. Participants run 2.5 miles, eat a dozen glazed donuts, and run 2.5 miles back. It takes place on the N.C. State campus and has quickly grown to more than 7500 runners supporting the N.C. Children’s Hospital. Not only have Hank, Don, Mark, John, Zach, and Woody all signed up already, but there are alumni (Scott Collins and Strickland Parks) committing as well. All CHR people within a reasonable area, come join in the ridiculousness!!

Pictures from August 6, 2011  (password required)

As I walked through camp today, watching activities and getting to know some of the boys, I couldn’t help but notice what a great staff we have here at camp! Our young men and women at High Rocks work so hard to help these guys have a great camp experience.  Today was no exception!  I saw so many awesome camp experiences today; it was amazing!

We work hard to find the best staff for your sons, but we work even harder to keep them coming back year after year.  We have over 30 staff that have been working here for five or more years! Once we find the right ones we do whatever it takes to keep them here. Not only are they great at the skills they teach, but they are great at working with kids, and they love it!

What an awesome day today!  Lots of warm weather and a perfectly timed thunderstorm right at the beginning of rest hour.  The afternoon was filled with the sights of “Waterworld” down in canoeing where the staff did a little scenario referencing the infamous movie, then floating around the lake on a ship made of canoes –complete with a water slide, of course.  The climbers tried their skills on the tower with a themed “adventure day.”  Some guys were even making it up the tower blindfolded.  Horseback riding did gymkhana, or games on horseback.  Finally, hiking had their own little piece of Americana going on with a “car camping” theme complete with pie irons, hot dog skewers, a nice big fire, a pickup truck (of course), rock and roll music,  and even Jiffy Pop popcorn!

The fun never ends here at High Rocks.  I hope you enjoy the pictures. 

Have a great night, we sure are!!!

Don Gentle

 Pictures from August 1, 2011  (password required)

Pictures from June 27, 2011  (password required)

The Three-Day Hike heads out to High Pisgah!

Even though we are starting to hit the countdown, there is a lot of awesome stuff happening in camp this week.  Many activities are sending out some advance trips.  The boys have been working hard on their skills and are now seeing the fruits of their labor in great two-day climbs, three-day backpack trips, more advanced whitewater, and even awesome pottery that is finally ready to be glazed.  We are still full speed ahead with six trips out of camp today. 

It is one of my favorite times of the session to see the guys stuff come out of the kiln at pottery and ceramics.  They were getting ready to glaze several things and send them back in the kiln for one last fire in the next couple days!

Tomorrow hosts equal excitement with another full-load of trips out.  The arts and crafts guys are working on the finishing touches of their projects, and I even saw some guys working hard at the gates course this morning for a possible solo boat test.

We sure are having the time of our lives!  Looking forward to seeing all of you on parents’ day!

Don Gentle

Nothin' sweeter than the waterslide on a HOT day!

It’s hard to believe we are almost halfway through the session.  Tomorrow is “bed switch” day so everybody that didn’t get a coveted top bunk on opening day will get their chance.  Tonight at dinner more than half the camp was away on some sort of event.  Pinnacle, Halfway, Lookout and Holiday Inn are all at Sliding Rock followed by Dolly’s Ice Cream.  About 25 campers are on an evening horseback ride that ends with a cookout at Townsend’s mom’s house (one of the camp founders- Jane Williams) and 10 campers are still out on a 3-day hike.  Tomorrow will be another active day with six trips out of camp.

My day has been a constant stream of campers and staff asking “How’s your eye”?  Yesterday I spent rest hour and the afternoon clearing a section of the lake between the cabin field and the bridge.  The area has been overgrown for years & I wanted to clear it out for hikes and fishing.  The area was covered in poison ivy, so I was prepared with gloves, long sleeves, and jeans.  Everything was going along well & I made good progress until I was on the mower going back & forth over a weedy area.  I felt a sting on my face then saw hornets all over me.  I took off across the pasture, threw off my sunglasses, and wiped hornets off as best I could until I was a safe distance away.  The total damage was minor.  I got two stings to my collarbone area, two on my arm, and one on the white of my eye.  The eye was quite the curiosity as I went around camp & said “want to see something cool?” Lots of oohs & ahhs & does it hurt??   Fortunately, there was minimal swelling & I’m back to normal now (mostly) -never a dull moment at camp.

I was planning on heading out to work on another trail project today, but I sent out my crew with Dan Noland instead so that my eye had another day to heal.  Trails are a constant process on 1100-acres of property.  We are opening an old section midway down the road that will be very helpful to horseback riders, hikers, and mountain bikers.  I’ll keep you posted on the progress.

We continue to have wonderful weather with an occasional afternoon shower.  Our one big storm earlier in the session hit us with a lot of wind & some hail.  No major damage here but I just found out that a nearby camp had softball size hailstones during the same storm!!

Enjoy today’s pictures and keep the cards and letters coming- the campers love to find something in the mailbox!!

Hank Birdsong
hank@highrocks.com