While it is hard to believe that we are heading into our first weekend already, our first Friday it was! And yet another gorgeous day in the mountains to boot.
The morning routine was smooth with the guys knowing what to do and things becoming more muscle memory now. Which is good as they looked a bit more tired to start the day! As soon as the breakfast bell was rung though, the energy began to pick up as oatmeal, sausages, cinnamon toast, fruit, and cereals were made to disappear in short order.
As we were wrapping up the meal, the morning trips were already heading out to their various destinations. Our canoers headed over to the Green river for a day working through some technical rapids, practicing their ferries, and dodging copious numbers of tubers also enjoying a day on the water. The tubing groups offer an increased challenge of moving obstacles for the guys, and also teaches the river etiquette practiced on all of our river runs.
Our climbers spent time on Cedar Rock and had a great day. Counselors reported lots of energy in the group, which was well-focused onto the various routes that challenged the guys. Mountain bikers cruised to Dupont for a morning ride on Jim Branch and Ridgeline trails. They came back rather proud of themselves for some good climbs and exciting downhills. They also looked a little bit peaked from pushing themselves through some challenging sections, and just the overall exertion of the trip.
A hiking trip left camp aimed for the Blue Ridge Parkway. On a day like today, their mission was one of bright sun that feels a bit closer than usual, with some huge views of the surrounding mountains and vistas extending many miles away. The guys looked like they had done some solid hiking after topping out on Black Balsam and Sam Knob. Some of them immediately signed up for a hiking overnight trip leaving this coming Monday to Panthertown and were pumped they could double down like that.
In camp, there were some neat nature moments that kept popping up throughout the day. I was lucky enough to spend some morning time in a canoeing class or two. During our warmup endurance lap around the lake, we saw a family of geese with goslings, ducks, turtles, plenty of fish, and an attention-getting (non-venomous) water snake sunning itself on a rock. Needless to say, the focus of the endurance lap shifted from quality strokes and efficiency of motion to lots of observation and conversation about the lake ecosystem. A hiking class had similar stories after returning from a portion of stream ecology where they assessed the health of a stream on camp property by collecting specimens of macro-invertebrates. Basically, the more critters found, the healthier the water source. Lucky for us, they found plenty! The capstone of their finds were two huge crayfish, measuring 6 inches long, which apparently caused quite the stir amongst our camper seekers.
One of the special things about living in a place like High Rocks is how close nature is to our daily life. The boys’ ability to witness cool moments like this happens on the daily. For many of our campers that just feeds their curiosity and excitement. For some, it is a constant opportunity to be exposed to nature and become comfortable with it. Questions fly furiously and shouts ring out to get others’ attention when an opportunity presents itself.
As you peruse the pictures this evening, we have also pushed up all of the cabin pictures for you to check out. They are in the June Session Album named Cabin Pictures. Enjoy all of the pictures from today and remember, if you don’t see your son in this batch, there were a lot of campers out of camp today!
Have a good night and we will see you back here tomorrow evening.
Woody Noland
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