Pictures from July 17, 2010 (password required)

Adventures on the New River in West Virginia

The last Saturday of the session!  Of course next Saturday is parents’ day, but that is quite a different day.  It’s hard to believe we only have a week to go!  I know many of you are excited while some of you are just starting to enjoy the peace a quite.  However you feel, we hope that you realize that these four weeks during the summer is not only fun, but part of your son’s education.  We have saturated these boys with knowledge, physical endurance, creativity, socialization, and many skills.  We pair that with a whole lot of self reliance, teamwork, perseverance, friendship, and fun to complete an experience matched nowhere else but High Rocks!

In about ten days I will ask all of you to take part in a very important study; one that not only affects High Rocks, but many of the amazing camps here in the mountains of North Carolina.  The study is designed to show the economic impact of summer camps in our mountain communities.  You may not know it, but summer camps in our area are getting hit from all sides including permitting, building codes, school calendars, and even the DOT.  As a founding board member of the North Carolina Youth Camp Association (NCYCA) I have committed to helping North Carolina camps in many ways.  One particular way the NCYCA is currently helping is this Economic Impact Study.  Help us give camp a say with legislatures by showing your support of this study and the importance of summer camp!  Be on the lookout for the e-mail a week from Tuesday.

So, back to camp!   I woke up this morning to once again continue a long tradition of camp directors here at High Rocks making pancakes for the whole crew on Saturday morning.  Dan Noland did the bulk of the work, but I was definitely a strong second.  We made more cakes then the boys could eat!  

I stepped out of the kitchen and into assembly to get these still-sleepy boys ready for the day.  I enjoyed leading the morning motion song and the excitement of getting them jazzed up for the day!  The morning continued with a group of boys heading off to a wonderful horse show, pirate day down at the climbing tower, a treasure hunt in sailing, and other cool games in paddling and archery.  The boys of hiking made some sort of Mexican crepe all morning.  A wonderful sort of pancake smothered in butter, toasted in a pan, then covered with cinnamon and sugar.  It was a great time in activities today.

This afternoon around 5pm the boys headed back to the cabin for a much needed shower and a change into clean clothes.  We then enjoyed a nice dinner on the lawn and wrapped up the night hosting the girls of Keystone Camp to a square dance!  What a great day!

There are some great shots from the three day whitewater trip on the New River in West Virginia.  A great trip for a group of our most experienced paddlers.  Have a great night!

Don Gentle

Pictures from July 15, 2010 (password required)

Tonight I asked one of our newest counselors, Alex Gregor, to write the blog.  Alex is a graduate of Davidson University where he earned his degree in Anthropology.  Since his graduation he has worked at Davidson in their Outdoor Program and as an employee of their IT Department. In the upcoming days we will have more of our outstanding counselors contribute to the blog as well. –Hank Birdsong

Fun on the waterslide!!

You might have marked yesterday as Bastille Day. At High Rocks, we didn’t follow up on our July 4th fireworks display with another, but there was plenty of other excitement at camp.

Extended trips are in full-swing at this point. As soon as one group of campers returns to camp, another one is headed out the door. While climbers returned from three days at the Obed, a popular climbing area in Tennessee, a group of advanced paddlers prepared to depart for West Virginia’s New River Gorge. At the same time, another group got ready to head out for an overnight trip Worley’s Cave. The trip leaders, Ben Little and Elizabeth Thompson, had their participants take a look at a pair of coat hangers before they set out. The US Geological Survey says that if an underground passageway is as big as the space within a coat hanger, then it’s big enough to squeeze through. I was ready to take their word for it but several of the campers, who returned to camp today after spending the night underground, confirmed that a coat-hanger-sized tunnel is plenty big to crawl inside.

One of the things I appreciate the most at High Rocks as a counselor is the variety that each day offers. In my role as one of camp’s photographers, I spent most of my morning chasing the campers with the craziest hairdos, trying to get some photos worthy of sending home. I spent some time on the tennis courts, the archery and riflery range, and one of our pastures while horseback riders trotted past. Just a few days before, I was taking photos from an eddy on the Green River. Not long after that, I was hanging off our climbing tower from a rope, taking photos as guys screamed down the zipline. For a photographer who loves the outdoors, working at High Rocks is a dream job. I take photos all morning and then teach mountain biking all afternoon. It’s a great community of people to spend time with and I think one of the camp t-shirts pretty much sums it up: “If it’s awesome, we do it at High Rocks.”

When I got to camp for staff training earlier this summer, I was really impressed to learn that fellow counselor David Kirby loves to compete in ultra marathons, ridiculously long races that have him running up and down mountain trails for 50, 75, or 100km at a time. David organized High Rocks’ first triathlon, which took place yesterday afternoon. We decided to drop the “ultra” part and keep things short. A group of campers and counselors jumped into the lake for an aptly named “tri swim” (The name’s older than our triathlon but we’ll take it. And if campers do 10 of these in a summer, they get a free trip to Dolly’s…). After swimming out to a couple of buoys and back, we took off on mountain bikes for Chainbreaker Hill, a formidable climb that leads up to a grassy pasture and the top of Jaybreaker Hill, a rolling, grassy descent to camp below. Still dripping from our swim, we blasted down Jaybreaker but slammed on the brakes before we got to the bottom. A herd of horses was having dinner right in the middle of our trail. With a quick detour by foot, we were back on track, riding into camp to start our run around the Lake Loop Trail. About a mile and a half later, we were greeted with cheers and high-fives back at the dock.

We weren’t keeping time at all during the triathlon. All of us who participated stuck together for the entire event, starting and finishing as a group. Another group did the same today, mostly following the same route but doing an abbreviated mountain bike ride. It was a blast for all the guys who participated. One camper who cheered us on said tonight, “I want all of you who did the triathlon to talk to me after dinner. I want to make you shirts, which I’ll give you next summer.”

The whole event showcased the camaraderie, goofiness, and fun that I love about High Rocks. It was a great way to celebrate my 24th birthday, which was yesterday. I’m hard pressed to think of one I enjoyed more.

–Alex Gregor

(ps from Hank- Before the caving trip left yesterday, several of us tested out the “coathanger test” by going through a coathanger from head to toe.  Smaller campers had no trouble at all.  I was able to do it, but there was some grunting involved!!)

This summer, we have something new for our June Session paddlers.  High Rocks will be one of many camps participating in the 1^st Annual “Green River Games,” June 23^rd, hosted by Green River Adventures in Saluda, NC.  The best part is that the event is almost at the end of the session, which allows our campers who sign up for whitewater paddling to get fully in shape for the fun day on the river. 

As many of you know, our paddling program has its roots in tandem whitewater canoe.  As boys progress, they can then take a choice of kayak, C-1 (decked canoeing:  basically paddling a kayak on your knees with a canoe paddle), or OC-1 (Solo open boat canoe).  The program is designed to challenge you every summer you come back.   Each year the boys learn more and more skills on the lake as well as on many of the rivers in our area.  The guys start out on easy moving flatwater and then progress on to more difficult rivers as their skills allows.  Many of our most advanced paddlers (sometimes after several summers) paddle class III+ rivers during the summer.  Last summer we even introduced C-2 into the program.  Our C-2’s (tandem decked canoeing) are world class slalom boats and are the same boats paddled by Olympians in the whitewater slalom competition.  The boys will have plenty of time to get up to speed before the big event, including several trips down the Green River before the event even happens this summer.

The Green River Games will be an all day event on the Lower Green River near Saluda, North Carolina.  Sponsors, including Green River Adventures, will be providing mini clinics, professional athletes, extra boats to try out, and live web coverage.  We will wrap up the day with some fine Hubba Hubba BBQ, and a little entertainment.  Parents, we will send you information about the web coverage when we get closer to the event.  What fun to see your son on the river!  It’s going to be a great day on the water!