This second Tuesday of the session began with a nice morning coolness and some wisps of fog laying low in the valleys of camp. It is one of my favorite ways to begin a day with all the potential of camp waiting for that bell to kick into gear. The quiet in the early morning is also striking, especially compared to the happy ruckus that permeates most other aspects of camp life!
Homemade biscuits, ham, eggs, cream of wheat, delicious berries, and a wide variety of cereals laid a solid foundation for a day that promised to be busy. Assembly was rocking down in the gym. At this point songs are known and sung loudly/confidently, particularly certain choruses and lines that hold crowd appeal.
As the music was cranking, trips were quickly heading out of camp to take advantage of the good weather. Our climbers made a beeline for Pilot Rock in Pisgah National Forest, well known for making some huge views as our guys top out on their routes. A mountain biking crew made for Dupont and did a loop ride to Wintergreen Falls, stopping to admire the water at the halfway point and to consume some well-deserved snacks while doing so. The paddlers steered towards the Tuckaseegee River and the next step up from the Green. They reported good hot weather on the water and a number of other boating programs as well. Luckily our guys put their heads down and got some spacing out in front of the rest to enjoy the run mostly to themselves all the way down the river.
Speaking of enjoying a place to themselves, our hiking overnight returned from Panthertown late this afternoon. It was a younger group of guys that went and it sounds like they had a fantastic experience. Much was said of swimming at the bottom of two different waterfalls and summiting two separate peaks, with plenty of good-natured grumbling about sore feet and heavy packs. Last night, after a tasty dinner, the group was playing a rowdy game of Mafia when a thunderstorm put an end to the event. Rather than have that be a damper on the evening, the group was staying in a shelter and so were even more excited to hunker down and enjoy the storm feeling invulnerably dry the whole night.
In camp, things were going on all day. In pottery, ocarinas are the new project so expect a variety of noisemaking devices heading home in a couple of weeks! I saw several turtles taking shape in addition to a hugely rotund and mustached walrus. On the courts, lessons were rolling and the session-long camper/counselor tennis tournament is underway and entering the second rounds. Mountain bikers were working hard in the morning with just about everyone hitting trails consistently now. Our older afternoon riders even had a drone, flown by one of our full-time staff Benjamin Birdsong, follow them through some single track trail and down some fun descents. It should make great video and get the guys super-pumped to see themselves in action.
In crafts campers were building the paper mache base for masks. As you can imagine, it was a riot of paper strips, balloons, and gooey paper mache water!
This evening, Age Group 4 (Sprucepine and Outpost) were on their Chill Night. They loved getting an early dinner and were quite confidently throwing out the number of times they would slide down the rock into some freezing cold water. I look forward to hearing how many times they actually followed through on! Age Group 1 played some fierce games of dodgeball in the gym, except for Connestee I who had won an evening on the High Ropes Course and Zipline.
Age Group 2 played Mcallie Ball and Ultimate Frisbee on the activity field. Age Group 3 had a rowdy session of Canoe Fill-ups with the appropriate counselor lake monster presence to get everyone drenched. Age 5 was sweating on the tennis courts and Age 6 were loving life with a game of kickball!
As a treat tonight we have a video highlight from last week. Please also enjoy the evening pictures and may you all sleep like these young guys are about to! We will see you back here tomorrow evening for some more camp fun.
Woody Noland
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