Don’t Forget to Write!

Receiving mail at camp is a huge deal to the campers. Everyday, someone from our office drives to the Brevard P.O. and wheels out a shopping cart full of cards and letters addressed to the girls at RBC. Even with our “no package” policy, there are usually a couple of hundred pieces per day! Then during lunch, we sort the mail and deliver it to the campers’ mailboxes so it will be ready once they’re dismissed from lunch. It’s always so exciting to check your box and see something there. Part of this excitement, I think, has something to do with the simple (mostly) technology-free living we enjoy at camp. Being away from screens and the external stimulation they provide, camp is more immediately interactive. It emphasizes real relationships and sensuous experiences, but is also completely “here and now” and relies very little on the outside world. Receiving mail reminds us of what’s going on outside in the “real world.” It provides some reassurance that everything is fine back home and it’s OK being at camp. Mail shows us that the folks back home are just as excited we are about us having this much fun at camp. Oh, and can you see why a real, hand-written letter is vastly superior to a “quick email?” Mail can really mean a lot!

Today was a perfect summer day (warm, dry and sunny) for a perfect camp day (packed with action, plenty of giggles, and bright-eyed surprises). Clyde, Kristen and Abby took a group of Middlers out kayaking on the French Broad River. Jeff and Leslie took a big group of Juniors hiking to John Rock in the Pisgah National Forest. Thalia offered one of her very popular yoga classes to the seniors. Everyone paused for a cinnamon streusel muffin. And then it was back to weaving baskets in the creek near Curosty, working on backhands on the tennis courts, flips in gymnastics, and climbing to the top of Castle Rock. There always seems to be time to squeeze in a quick game of tetherball too. During the free swim time before dinner, the new water slide was running nonstop.

Tonight’s evening program marked the return of Auction, a special all-camp event we haven’t had in a few years. This session we went traditional and decided to make it a “Western” themed event. This meant all the girls came dressed in their best western garb… cowboy hats, boots, overalls, hair bows, bandanas and plenty of plaid. Each cabin sat together in the dining hall and was given a handful of RBC bucks to make bids on mystery prizes. Jerry, our Director Emeritus, ran the event as the auctioneer. Some of the prizes were sweet, like a cake or ice cream treat, while others were a little less exciting, like a tray of veggies or new toothbrushes. There’s plenty of suspense once a cabin won a bid, and just as much laughter and cheers when the prize was revealed. It’s funny how there were enough prizes for every cabin to win both a yummy and a silly prize…   Good fun.

Good Goofy Fun

Going around camp today, visiting the different activity areas, you could tell that the girls have really settled in and begun to make camp “a place of their own.” That’s a phrase from the Rockbrook Camp mission statement. It’s an attempt to summarize one of the real values of a camp experience for young girls, and it’s part of the magic of why campers love their camp. The ingredients are simple: really good people who are eager to make friends, broad opportunities to be creative, sporty, and adventurous, and a caring environment where everyone can relax and be themselves. Combine these with the girls making their own activity selections, having plenty of free time to enjoy the wonderful natural beauty of Rockbrook, and simply enjoying time with their friends, and we have something special, something very different from home and school (where parents and teachers call most of the shots), and something truly their own. This is their camp and they love it.

Of course, at camp a big group of girls can get pretty goofy and really let their silly side come out. Singing crazy songs outrageously loud in the dining hall, dressing up in a costumes for dinner, and making up skits with cabin mates are quite ordinarily part of the fun around here. This photo of an evening program cabin skit shows a little of that. Each cabin group is given a topic and challenged to come up with a group skit that they’ll perform for the rest of the age group in their lodge. It can involve singing, dancing, acting and audience participation, but whatever it is, the funnier it is, the better. A lot of the fun is working together to create the skit, as well as performing it for your friends.

This afternoon we had our Wednesday “Cabin Day.” This is a special day when after a morning of regular activity time (where the girls follow their individual activity selections), each cabin group sticks together for some special group event. Today, cabin groups were hiking to Rockbrook Falls and Castle Rock, building campfires to make S’mores, playing games in the gym and on the landsports field, cooling of by playing in the creek, and even making smoothies with the help of the kitchen. The mini session senior cabins took a trip to Sliding Rock, had a picnic and capped everything off with a stop at Dolly’s for a sweet treat. Dinner was some of Rick’s homemade fried chicken and warm yeast rolls.  Good stuff.  On cabin day, there’s always a lot going on!

Oh! I forgot to mention the muffins today… White Chocolate Raspberry. They were awesome!

Everyone’s Birthday

Visiting the equestrian center these days is a real treat. It’s just alive with big action and big smiles. The girls who selected riding as one of their activities are now well settled into the daily lessons. They know how to get dressed properly (helmet, boots, etc.), in most cases, how to lead their assigned horse out to one of the riding rings, and even how to mount. The riding staff is doing a wonderful job in the mounted lessons keeping each camper engaged and excited.  As the session progresses, it’s neat to see how much everyone’s confidence and skill has improved. It’s also fun to hear the campers talk about their favorite horse at camp, someone they’ve ridden a lot and gotten comfortable with. Maybe you’ve already received a letter from your daughter and heard about one of the great horses she’s been able to ride.  Learning to communicate with a special horse, and learning to trust him or her, is one of the most rewarding parts of horseback riding, and it’s happening just about every day around here.

Also, today was a big day for whitewater rafting on the Nantahala river. We took all the middlers and seniors who wanted to go on either an overnight camping/rafting trip or on a day trip down the river. The Nantahala is famous for being rather chilly (somewhere near 50 degrees) even in the heat of the summer, so we were lucky to have bright sunny weather for both trips. Great weather like this makes it much more fun to splash and play while rafting, even at times jumping in on purpose when the guides say it’s OK. Rockbrook is the only girls camp with a permit to raft the Nantahala (we’ve had it since the 1980s), so we also can hire our own seasoned raft guides. On this trip Clyde, Sid, Billy, Leland, Michelle and and Andria guided the boats, making up a team with more than 85 years of combined whitewater experience! These folks truly are the best. Rafting trips are always very exciting for the girls, and also pretty tiring, so it was no surprise to see most everyone conk out in the bus on the ride back to camp. This kind of adventure and fun needs some rest too!

Back at camp in time for dinner, there was a big surprise waiting. Birthday Night! This is a special dinner where the dining hall is rearranged so that everyone can sit according to their birth month… twelve big tables, one for each month. It’s really fun for campers and counselors to sit together and get to know better other girls from different cabins and age groups. This time, to give it a even more Rockbrook flair, we had a theme for the dinner: Candyland. And never missing a chance to dress up, this sparked some very creative costumes from the counselors and campers. They dressed as different types of candy and characters from the Candyland board game. In addition to lollipops and gumdrops, we saw the Duke of Swirl, Mr. Mint and Gramma Nutt. Even Sarah dressed up as a Hershey’s chocolate kiss with almonds! The highlight of the night though was the cakes, the homemade cakes Alison baked for each month that she then decorated as scenes from Candyland. They were both beautiful and delicious. There were some pretty huge pieces of cake for the girls in some months. Yum!

Fun at the Rockbrook Lake

Camp has been beautiful and sunny today which made the lake a particularly fun place to be!  Girls were busy taking classes in canoeing, kayaking and swimming and enjoying the refreshing temperature of the lake!  After the morning of classes, free swim was quite popular as lots of girls came down to take a dip or hang out with friends.  Since the lake is in the center of camp it is always quite a hub of action!

This afternoon our free swim was extra fun as we had a gentle rain storm during the swim time.  It only lasted for a minute but it was a beautiful sight.  After the brief rain the girls were back to playing in inner tubes, swimming laps for the mermaid club and playing categories.  Categories is a very popular game where campers take turns calling out a category such as “favorite food” to their friends as they jump in the water.  You then are supposed to yell out an answer before you hit the water.  The campers get very creative and enjoy stumping each other with their funny categories.

As you can see there is never a dull moment at the lake!  Rain or shine we always have lots of fun.

Welcoming New Campers

Today we welcomed our new mini session campers to Rockbrook. These girls arrive a week after the first session campers, joining them for the remainder of the session. Since our mini sessions are a great way to sample camp life, many of these campers are either new to Rockbrook or are younger girls (or both). As they grow older and return a number of years, it’s most common to attend one the full sessions that last longer (though we certainly don’t require that).

After everyone arrived, checked in with the nurses and office folks, and got settled into the cabins, the entire camp assembled on the grassy hill in the heart of camp. We learned songs, got to meet all the directors (Sarah and Jeff, Charlotte, Mandy, Sofie and Catherine), and took several group photos. We tried to get a shot of every state’s and country’s campers, as well as a whole camp photo. Check out the RBC Photo Gallery to see those.

Lunch was another of Rick’s comfort food meals. He had a “breakfast for lunch” spread for us, with his homemade biscuits (the mound of cut butter he used to make them was amazing), scrambled eggs, bacon, veggie sausage, fresh fruit and yogurt… a good, familiar first meal for our mini session campers.

After lunch, the new campers launched right into their “swimming demonstrations” at the lake. All the lifeguards evaluated everyone’s swimming ability and assigned them a buddy tag. This process also gets the girls familiar with the lake rules and gives them a closer look at the water slide. Tours of the camp and cabin meetings took up the remainder of the rest hour.

The late afternoon event was a surprise carnival at the gym. Several of the counselors decorated with posters, streamers and balloons in a theme they called “Outer Space.” There were planets, aliens, stars and strange looking creatures all about. We also had an inflatable obstacle course and a zero-gravity velcro wall to bounce around on. Face painting, games (like the “Saturn’s Rings Toss”), music, dancing and cotton candy (space dust) added to the fun. Another brief shower got things a little muddy outside, but that just added to the thrill of it all.  This was a great event with lots of action to keep the girls busy, and a fun way to introduce our new campers to the zany side of Rockbrook.  Tomorrow all of the camp activities will be back in full swing.

Saturday Camp

Today began with all the campers following their second set of activities, with every area of camp humming along. For example, one of the arts and crafts activities is called “Painting and Drawing” and today they headed out to the hill for their activity. The project was to use water colors to paint the mountain view seen from under the big walnut tree. This photo shows a little of it— sitting in the shade of the tree, chatting with friends, and enjoying the view while painting. It’s another of those special experiences that is part of camp.

Before lunch, the equestrian staff planned a fun event for the girls that involved dressing up a few of the ponies like pop singers. I heard there was Katy Perry, Lady GaGa and Taylor Swift, for example. Dressing the ponies involved doing up their manes and tails with ribbons and braids, and to complete their “outfits” a couple also got to sport glitter and lipstick! This is a picture of Cloud Nine getting his treatment. Then for the game, the campers divided into groups to play an air band song for each artist (horse!) while then danced along and even lip synced the song (by moving the horse’s lips). It was pretty hilarious and lots of fun for the girls.

The biggest surprise of the day however came after lunch when Sofie and Frampton announced the evening’s activity— dancing with the boys of Camp Carolina. The roar in the dining hall after the announcement was virtually deafening as the girls squealed with excitement. Sarah then explained that the Juniors and Middlers would stay here at Rockbrook because the similarly aged boys from Carolina would be coming to dance in our gym. At the same time, the Senior girls would load up in the buses and drive over to Camp Carolina for their dance. It was two simultaneous dances going on. Sarah also announced that there would be a “dance alternative” for those girls who might decide the dance was “not their thing.” As the alternative, there were about 12 or so girls who joined a couple of counselors in Curosty to learn a new friendship bracelet pattern. These dances are fun for the girls because everyone takes them lightheartedly, all the counselors are right in the mix too, dressing just as goofy, and there’s virtually no pressure about boys being around. They are mostly about just being silly, jumping around with friends, and enjoying the music. Pure excitement!

We Love Muffins

Let’s talk muffins. It’s been a long tradition at Rockbrook to take a break between the first and second activity periods, around 10:45am, and have a little snack. It’s not just any snack; it’s a fresh-baked, homemade muffin. It’s “Muffin Break!” Alison, the camp baker, is always surprising us with new, fun muffin flavors. In addition to familiar standards like Lemon Poppy Seed and Blueberry, she’s devised amazing one-of-a-kind varieties like the French Toast Muffins we had yesterday. Baked with real maple syrup, with powdered sugar on top, they were delicious. You should see the stampede of children when the camp bells rings for muffin break. The Hi-Ups open a window of the dining hall to hand out a muffin to everyone who files by on the porch. We all love our morning muffin at Rockbrook.

This morning a group of Middlers came back from an overnight backpacking trip with Michelle, our hiking guide. They had loaded up Thursday afternoon, with tents, sleeping bags, water bottles, cooking equipment, and food, all stuffed into backpacks. A short drive later into the Pisgah National Forest, they were off on a short, 2-mile winding trail to one of Rockbrook’s secret camping spots. For a while, things got exciting as a brief rain storm moved through, “pretty much soaking us,” as Michelle put it. You can see several things drying in this photo. The girls were in excellent spirits, albeit still a little damp, when they got back to camp.

Also this morning, Clyde took a group of Seniors on an introductory kayaking trip on the French Broad River. There’s a perfect little teaching section of the river right near camp. It has just enough current to create several nice eddies, places to practice ferrying, and a wonderful sandy beach to take out.

Clyde started the trip with a refresher about using the paddle, strokes and how to stay together on the river. Working their way down the river, the whole group stopped at different features to work on specific skills. Mallory the kayaking instructor, for example, would first demonstrate how to peel out of an eddy, and then each camper would take turns trying it, with Clyde right there coaching and providing tips.  Overall, a great trip… warm, sunny weather, improved kayaking skills and confidence on the water, and lots of fun with friends at camp.

Digging into Camp

We’ve often remarked that camp really helps girls grow in several important ways in so many important ways. Being away from home in a camp environment, campers benefit from the variety of new activities offered, the positive role models they see, and the new relationships they form with other girls and staff members. This has been particularly clear this week at camp. With the first few day’s jitters now gone, the roar of singing in the dining hall has gotten louder, the confidence riding horses, climbing rocks and hitting tennis serves. Likewise, as skills have been improving the activities are becoming more impressive— bullseyes in archery and riflery, line-straight kayaking, and super complicated crafts. Everyone seems to be really digging into camp.

Down at the lake, the canoeing and kayaking instructors have been working with the girls to prepare them for the upcoming river trips planned. This involves getting geared up, and learning the different strokes to maneuver the boats, as well as knowing a few strategies to follow if your boat were to capsize. For kayakers, this means being able to “wet exit,” pulling the grab loop on your neoprene skirt and sliding out of the boat (while upside down!). It’s challenging at first, of course, but fun for the campers to learn these basic skills, and really exciting when they begin to become second nature.

The Hi-Ups, rising 11th graders, took a trip with Jeff up to Dupont Forest for a waterfall hike. They started at the bottom of Triple Falls and climbed each face of the rocks until they made it almost to the top. It took a little bushwhacking to pull through the last bit, but they enjoyed the high view on the easy trail back down. After talking about it, we decided this was “real adventure,” something that required extra concentration and strength from us. It was amazingly beautiful, but also powerful and just a little bit scary. We had a great time!

Don’t forget to stay in touch as the session continues. You can always give us a call at camp, but please add your comments to these posts and share them with your friends. We always love hearing what you all have to say!