Summertime Sleeping Out

Backpacking and camping have been an almost nightly trip this week. Michelle our fabulous hiking guide, who is a Wilderness First Aid Responder and who has been a Rockbrook girl for thirteen years (she started at 7 years old), has been leading these trips. She’s been taking our Juniors in cabin groups, 2 at a time, out to the outpost campsite here on the camp property. After a short hike through the woods towards Rockbrook Falls, there’s a small trail that leads to a clearing below Dunn’s Rock where we have two tent platforms and a fire ring. The girls have a campfire, sing songs, tell stories, and enjoy making s’mores. All the girls from each Junior cabin plus their counselors go on these trips, and when it’s time for bed, everyone sleeps together, “slumber party style,” on the platforms. Out in the woods, armed with their flashlights against the sounds of the night and filled with nervous excitement, it can take a while for everyone to fall asleep.  But that’s part of the fun!  Michelle also took a Middler backpacking trip out into Pisgah Thursday night.  With their tents, sleeping bags and food (s’mores again!) stuffed into backpacks, they hiked about 2 miles into the forest to one of our secret campsites.  These trips are great opportunities to get to know each other.  Telling stories around the campfire and just sharing the experience overall, the whole group grows closer.

This has also been a week of tie dying in the “Hodge Podge” activity. There’s a lot of variety here as each camper twists and folds her shirt in a unique pattern and then adds different color dyes. After letting them rest over night, it’s exciting to untie the shirts and see how they turned out— vibrant spirals, bullseyes and stripes.

In the photography activity, Jane has been teaching the campers about stop motion techniques.  Working in groups of 2 or 3 campers, and using Play-Doh, the girls animated short sequences of photos which when strung together create motion videos.  This takes not only creativity, but real planning, a steady camera, and plenty of patience to accomplish.

A group of girls went rock climbing today with Maddie and were lucky to set up 3 different routes on Looking Glass Rock out in Pisgah.  Again, excellent weather, dry and clear, made the equally excellent rock even more enjoyable for everyone.  A packed lunch, complete with muffins, went along to keep up their energy, and when you check out the photo gallery, you’ll see just how well and how high these girls climbed. There are some amazing rock climbing girls around here.

Back at camp, everyone else got to dig into some of Rick’s homemade chili complete with all the fixin’s: diced tomatoes, cheese, sour cream, Frito’s corn chips, and our super stocked salad bars. There was some debate about whether the vegetarian or the meat version was better, but that was never really settled!

After dinner during the “Twilight” block of free time, a couple of counselors organized an open tetherball tournament for anyone interested in playing. It was the “triple T” (Twilight Tetherball Tournament). Should we add “terrific” in there? Paired up by age group, the girls took turns playing each other as the rest of the crowd cheered them on. Quite strategically, the counselors chose players to make sure that the brackets kept everyone involved, not so much to determine who “won,” but to see the girls enjoying the games. With the late evening sun setting across the valley, it was a beautiful summertime moment.

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.

Brevard North Carolina Ranks

Back in August, Backpacker Magazine published a list of “The best cities to raise an outdoor kid.” And guess what! Our very own Brevard, North Carolina ranked number 20 in the list. These are the best places in America to “beat Nature Deficit Disorder.” That’s not too surprising when you think about all the incredible outdoor opportunities available nearby: all the Pisgah forest trails, great rock, and nearby whitewater rivers. It’s also one explanation for why this area is so fantastic for a summer camp.

Go here and read all about it.

Steep Hiking

Here’s a picture of a hiking group at the top of Castle Rock, one of the two massive rocks on the Rockbrook Camp property (the other one being Dunn’s Rock). From up there, the view is out across the French Broad River Valley and out to the Blue Ridge Mountains. It’s an amazing spot to see Cedar Rock (another climbing destination) and on a clear enough day, Tennent Mountain (a backpacking spot up near the Shining Rock Wilderness area). Sitting at this spot on Castle Rock your elevation is almost 2,450 feet above sea level. Below you is a 150 foot rock cliff and further below is the main part of camp which has an elevation of 2,250 feet.

You knew hiking the trail from camp to Castle Rock was steep uphill; now you know how much! You’re hiking up about 200 feet in about half a mile.

Here’s a view of Castle Rock from below in camp looking up.

Summer Activities for Kids

Being at summer camp, one of the best activities for kids is hiking. In fact, even at home, taking a walk outside… maybe around the neighborhood or through the local park.. is a great way to spend part of your day. We’ve mentioned it before (and here), but playing outdoors, exploring the natural world, or simply noticing the different aspects of nature around them, is amazingly beneficial for kids.

This photo is a group of Rockbrook girls hiking in the Pisgah National Forest. The mountain in the background with the “saddle” (two peaks connected) is called “Sam Knob” (elevation 6055 ft.).