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

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!!

Ryan with a nice sized trout

I took a day off last week to catch up with staff member Ryan Donovan.  Ryan has been running our mountain biking program for four years and will return for his fifth (backpack summer)season this summer.   We decided that a morning on a mountain trout stream would be a good way to hang out.  Ryan has been an avid fisherman since childhood, so I took him up on the chance to learn a few tricks about fly fishing for trout in North Carolina.

The Davidson River is probably the most noteworthy trout stream in our area.  Trout Unlimited rates the Davidson River as one of the top 100 wild trout streams in the United States.  Ryan first asked me if I wanted to fish for smart trout or dumb trout.  I didn’t really care.  Then he said, “Do you want to fish or catch trout.”  “Well, catching trout would probably be a whole lot more fun,” I said.  Given that information, we headed out to the East Fork of the French Broad River, which is a hatchery supported stream in North Carolina.  The Davidson is a great river, but the trout in the Wild designated areas see a lot of fishermen, and they are quite smart. 

Even though the weather was a little rainy from time to time, we had a great day!  I learned a lot about various presentation and drifting techniques.  Ryan and I took turns on different hot spots as we waded upstream together.  In the end we each caught a few trout and had a lot of fun taking in the mountain scenery.  We even witnessed a few stonefly and March Brown (Mayfly) hatches, as the first days of spring were approaching.

Don's trout. Not so big but good looking, right?

We are very fortunate to have great staff like Ryan.  In his “real life,” Ryan is the operations director for the Wilderness Leadership and Experiential Education program at Brevard College.  I would say he’s a rock climber by choice, but he actually possesses a mastery of skills in a number of disciplines.  He says he really enjoys the shift to mountain biking during the summer, since he does spend a lot of time teaching rock climbing, and keeping up with the day to day operations of such a busy program during the school year.  The summer presents new challenges for him, and a welcomed change.  He enjoys the mentoring of staff, and teaching campers about such a great sport.

Along with his fishing, climbing, and mountain biking leadership, Ryan is also a Leave No Trace Master Educator.  He teaches outdoor leaders how to train participants the principles of LNT in the field.  Leave No Trace is an educational non-profit organization dedicated to the responsible enjoyment and stewardship of the outdoors.  Check out http://www.lnt.org/ for more information.  

It sure is great to have such wonderful natural resources so close to camp.  Maybe we’ll get the chance to take a few of the guys out to the East Fork this summer in our fishing program.  I am getting so excited about the summer and the camp season!  See you all very soon.

Don Gentle