Camp Blog

Right after lunch, the cast list for Annie Jr. went up outside the dining hall, and for a few minutes there was no other news in camp. Everyone who auditioned found her name attached to a part. And there are a lot of parts to this show. Think of the orphans! Everyone seemed happy with their parts, smiling and chattering all the way to rest hour.

By afternoon, the news of the day had moved on to Cabin Day, our Wednesday afternoon break from camp’s usual rhythm. Most days, campers build their own schedule out of dozens of activities, choosing four and following whatever interests them most. On Cabin Day, that scatter comes back together as each cabin group makes a plan together for the whole afternoon.

Down on the Farm

Four Junior cabins started their Cabin Day with a sweet stop at Dolly’s before heading out to Further Up Farm, where the Manner family was waiting with a flock of chickens, a couple of ducks, and a turkey named Albuquerque who seemed to know he was the main attraction. Campers waded into the creek to mine for treasure, gathered wildflowers for arrangements bound for the dining hall tables, and spent a long, unhurried stretch getting to know the farm’s animals up close.

Soda Dives at the Lake

Back at camp, a handful of cabins gathered at the lake for soda dives, a Cabin Day classic that never gets old. Someone tosses a few cans to the bottom, and cabinmates take turns diving down after them. Whoever comes up with a soda in hand gets to relax and enjoy it, cold and fizzy, while the rest of the cabin explores the water further. Yes, at the end of the summer when we drain the lake (something we do each year), we always find a few elusive cans at the bottom.

Treasure Around Camp

Other cabin groups spent the afternoon on a pirate-themed scavenger hunt, dreamed up by their counselors. Clues were scattered across camp, and campers collected gold coins along the way before landing in the dining hall for a well-earned bowl of cabin-made Puppy Chow.

Sprinklers and Sunshine

Down at the land sports field, sprinklers ran and water balloons flew, a good defense against the heat of the day. A spray of water, whether from a sprinkler or a well-aimed balloon, feels great on a beautifully clear afternoon.

Hot Dogs and Sliding Rock

Dinner brought the whole camp back together for an American classic, hot dog night! We’re starting to get into the spirit of the 4th of July around here. The HUPs had a great time thinking of a few “American” songs to sing in the dining hall. S’mores bars closed out the meal, and not long after, the Middler cabins climbed onto buses bound for an evening at Sliding Rock, which is always a blast.

It’s easy to look at a day like this and think it’s a little crazy— chickens and gold coins, fizzy sodas and flower arrangements, and a turkey with an extra large name. I suppose in a way it is, but it’s also girls feeling right at home in the middle of it, finding a place for themselves no matter what’s happening next.

This week the thermometer at camp has been bumping a little past 90 by the afternoon, building the kind of bright, humid heat that brings to mind places deeper in the south. Overnight is another story. That’s when our altitude provides a welcome break and the mercury drops back just below 70. Even during so-called “heat waves,” our fresh mountain air makes for genuinely wonderful sleeping. But daytime is daytime, and by early afternoon there’s really one main thing that comes to mind: getting in the water. Fortunately at Rockbrook, that’s never hard to do. Clear and chilly mountain streams tumble down and through camp, filling our lake. And a short drive away is the notoriously cold Nantahala River where we take our campers whitewater rafting.

Today it was our oldest girls, the Seniors, who spent the day rafting on the Nantahala River. Whitewater rafting has been a Rockbrook tradition since the early 1980s, when we became the only girls camp in the area to hold our own Forest Service permit, which lets us schedule and guide our own trips with our own equipment. The river runs a fast, toe-numbing 50 degrees or so, cold enough to make each splash arch your back with a wide-eyed scream. Every boat spends the two-hour trip alternating between calm floating stretches and bursts of whitewater, girls paddling, singing, posing for photos with their paddles held up like victory flags. When someone tips backward into the raft after a big wave, or gets bounced into the river, the boat erupts into the kind of laughter that only happens among great camp friends. By the time they hit the Nantahala Falls— the trip’s big, churning finale— everyone is soaked through, and today, happily chilled in the warm sunshine.

Meanwhile, back at camp, the Middlers and Juniors gravitated toward our own swimming lake, which draws its water from Dunns Creek. The shady waterfalls of the creek never really warm up no matter how hot the air gets above it. During the two free swim periods today, before lunch and again before dinner, girls filled the water with kayaks and canoes, a few Corcls spinning in slow circles, and the kind of inflatable tube that seems to exist purely for the relaxing joy of floating. Others lined up for tricks off the diving board— cannonballs, spins, and the occasional attempt at a real dive. The waterslide ran more or less non-stop, girls scrambling back up the ladder and racing back around for another slide. The lake is the place to be on a day like this!

There’s something almost essential about cold water at camp, as if it was built into the place on purpose. On a hot day, jumping in the lake provides a full-body kind of relief, the sort you dream of when getting back from a rock climb on Castle Rock or from a riding lesson down at the barn. We might even say the mountains have installed a kind of natural air conditioner as the water from Stick Biscuit Falls and Rockbrook Falls streams through camp. Take a seat near the creek and enjoy a cool breeze flowing by. Put your feet in the creek and you’ve got just what you need on a summer day. Do it with a good friend, and there’s nothing else to ask for.

By the way, if you’re curious about the weather at Rockbrook, our weather station at camp— KNCBREVA27 on Weather Underground— keeps a running record of the temperature, humidity and everything else.

None of this is something we engineered. The mountains simply gave us cold water, and all we had to do was let the girls loose in it. Watching them come up from a dive gasping and grinning, or climb back into a raft still laughing about who fell in, proves that the mountains had this figured out long before we did.

When the cars slowly came up the gravel driveway, windows down, the first thing you saw when you crested the Rockbrook hill was a mob of counselors who seemed to have completely lost their minds. They were jumping. They were waving both arms over their heads. They were clapping and whooping and calling out names. They were hauling trunks, stacking sleeping bags, and smiling wide-eyed in every direction. To a camper leaning out of the window after a long ride, it must have looked like the whole hillside was alive with enthusiasm and energy. Opening day at Rockbrook is a day of cheering, almost from the first minute to the last.

There’s something surprising here. You might think the excitement on opening day belongs to the campers. After all, they’re the ones arriving at the place they’ve been dreaming about for months. But the counselors up on that hill had been doing their own kind of dreaming. They’d made wood-chip name tags by hand. They’d sat with the directors learning who was coming, the shy ones, the dramatic ones, and the girls who might need a little something extra. They’d gone over health notes with the nurses. They’d studied the photos in each camper’s profile, learning names and faces. So by the time the cars started rolling in, the scene on that hill had been building for days. Finally, their anticipation and enthusiasm had somewhere to go. Watching it unfold, you’d be hard-pressed to say who was more excited, the girls arriving or the counselors who’d been waiting for them.

And once it started, the cheering kept on coming. It followed the day from one corner of camp to the next. At the assembly on the hill, each age group sang and clapped along to its line song. Down at the lake, where campers took turns swimming out and treading water for the “swim demos,” every leap off the dock got its own roar from the crowd on the shore. Later in the gym, the activity skits were basically cheering with costumes, whether a climbing demo, a weaving transformation, or a Wild West dance battle with hobby horses. As each activity presented its skit, it was one blast of cheering after another. Yay archery! Yay hiking! And so on. Even our dinner of po-boy sandwiches and cool watermelon ended up woven with cheers, peppered by songs with hand motions like “Yogi Bear,” and driven by calls from table to table. The sound of people being glad about each other, a kind of mutual excitement, marked each moment of the day.

Encountering this much cheering is odd compared to ordinary life outside of camp, but it’s something that makes me smile. It probably made you smile too. If all that jumping and shouting seemed like a bit much, it really wasn’t. It was our way of saying “welcome,” our way of letting you know, “we’re glad you’re here.” This is going to be fun. Let’s get started!

When “Beauty and a Beat” came on, the whole floor went up at once. At the top of the dining hall, the checkerboard panel still hung in shreds where Edie had just burst through it to win the race, and below it the room was a sea of people on their feet— campers, counselors, the youngest Juniors who’d been a little wide-eyed an hour before, every last one of them dancing with glorious abandon. Everyone jumping, spinning, waving, no matter what their moves. This was a Rockbrook banquet.

A blow-out party, what we call a “banquet,” has been the grand finale of Rockbrook sessions for longer than most of us have been alive. The whole thing is dreamed up and built by our CA campers, the ninth graders, who pick a secret theme early in the session and then spend weeks quietly scheming — painting panels, plotting skits, choreographing dances, talking the kitchen into special food. The rest of camp knows only that it’s coming. The dining hall windows go dark behind hung sheets for a full day while the CAs work, and the not-knowing is half the fun.

Racing Through Rockbrook

When the bell rings signaling its start and the doors finally open, you don’t so much walk in as emerge into something. The CAs and their counselors form a tunnel in costume, streamers of pink and purple and white overhead, and you come out the other side into a place that was an ordinary dining hall this morning and now is something fantastic. For this banquet it was a racetrack, and they called it, “Racing Through Rockbrook.” Painted panels turned the walls into packed stadiums and roaring crowds, race cars, trophies, and a few sponsor banners like ExxonMobil, Red Bull, and Wonder Bread. Every table was scattered with checkered flags, little cars, souvenir cups, a custom banquet sticker, glow sticks, and racing tattoos waiting to be slapped onto an arm.

The main event lined up six drivers: Mario in full costume with his kart, Athena in a toga riding a hobby horse, Race Car Barbie in head-to-toe pink, Lily as Lightning McQueen, Elena in an F1 jumpsuit, and Edie, the Rockbrook driver, in a red jumpsuit. Greta announced the whole thing in a sport coat, tie, and an elaborate mustache, while Winslow, playing a bald-capped Mr. Clean, advertised Magic Erasers. There were dances for the sponsors, the drivers, and the pit crew of counselors. For the grand finish, Edie tore through that checkerboard panel, taking first place and winning the Redbird Cup.

The food matched the night with classic favorites: chicken tenders, mozzarella sticks, tater tots, and fresh Rockbrookies, the kind of party spread that goes perfectly with skits and dancing. The music was pure pop— Natasha Bedingfield’s “Unwritten” and the rest— bright and loud and impossible for these girls to sit through.

My Favorite Part

Everyone loved the theme, wild, colorful and unique. My favorite part of every banquet is what happens when a roomful of really good friends celebrate like this together. After this much shared experience, and after growing this close, it’s an event that pulls everyone in. Nobody waits around to be cool first. Nobody needs an introduction or even a warm up. It’s a blast from the very first moment. Instant fun, for everyone— the shy ones, the show-offs, the grown-ups too— all of us completely immersed, smiling and happy. The CAs helped build that feeling for us tonight. “It’ll be a hard act to follow,” people said afterward, and they’re right. More than that though, this was a roomful of girls who already love each other, dancing like nothing matters more than being together right here and now. Banquet themes change every summer, and so do the costumes and the music. But that feeling never does.

Looking around this Wednesday afternoon, you would have had a hard time understanding what was happening. A cabin of Juniors in their finest Granny outfits was hosting a tea party, complete with bingo. Down by the barn, another Junior cabin had gone looking for fairies, with a stop at the fairy salon along the way. Past the lake you’d find mermaids getting their hair styled, pirates racing corcls and hunting tadpoles, and a cabin of grannies chasing escaped chickens. It was, in other words, a normal Cabin Day.

We’ve written about this Wednesday tradition plenty of times before, the way the camp sets aside its regular schedule for an afternoon, the bonding that happens when a whole cabin sticks together, and the surprises the counselors dream up and keep secret until the last minute. During the week the girls scatter to their own activities, following their own interests, but on Cabin Day they come back together and do one thing as a cabin group. What that one thing turns out to be is a fun surprise, and a nice change of pace during the week.

Juniors in Make-Believe

Among the Juniors, the themes ran toward make-believe. One cabin switched to full Granny mode— dressing up, sipping tea, and settling in for a round of “Granny Bingo” on the dining hall porch. Another went on a fairy scavenger hunt and built tiny fairy houses in the forest. Two Junior cabins loaded up and headed to the Further Up Farm to pick flowers and meet a few chickens, with a stop at Dolly’s capping the outing.

Middlers in Motion

The Middlers scattered in every direction at once. One cabin made a day at the beach right here in the mountains, with beach games and an octopus sprinkler and picture frames decorated in shells and pearl beads. Another spent the afternoon as mermaids at the lake. There were pirates decorating eye patches between corcl races, a party in the Middler Lodge with felt sleep masks and freshly painted nails, a hike up to Castle Rock that ended with a snack of Puppy Chow, and a tetherball tournament that started with a quick swim.

A Senior Sorting

The Senior Line went bigger, turning the whole afternoon into a camp-wide game of Harry Potter. Dumbledore and the Sorting Hat divided the seniors into Rockbrook houses— White Squirrel, Chocolate Chip, Owala, Tetris Tots, and the Cardinals— and sent them off on a counselor hunt. The houses searched and received a nice reward of Coke floats and an hour of lake-side fun.

Sliding Rock After Dinner

After dinner, we gathered all the Middler cabins together and took them to Sliding Rock. There’s nothing quite like the shriek of girls hitting that cold mountain water at the bottom of the slide, and then climbing right back up to do it again. We followed our sliding, naturally, with a stop at Dolly’s, everyone’s favorite spot for a sweet treat. It’s a classic camp combination: busloads of damp, happy Middlers working through their heaping cones of ice cream, chatting and eventually singing with more force than seems possible.

It might seem random and scattered all over camp… a tea party and tadpoles, grannies and Puppy Chow, an octopus sprinkler and a sorting hat, numerous chickens and plenty of rushing cold water. But Cabin Day is joyfully creative, the kind of silly Wednesday we love at Rockbrook.