Learning LNT

Today Rockbrook welcomed Mark Ardagna and Tara McCarthy from the Leave No Trace organization. They are currently traveling around the country on an e-tour, providing educational programs for young people that use the Leave No Trace principles to promote responsible enjoyment of the outdoors. Rockbrook was very fortunate to have Mark and Tara spend the day with us and present several workshops to our campers. Leave No Trace (LNT) is a nonprofit, educational organization dedicated to “responsible enjoyment and active stewardship of the outdoors by all people.”  It advocates seven principles (not so much rules) to minimize negative impact on the environment from outdoor activity weather it be a camping trip in the woods or simply walking your dog in a city park.

Addressing these principles, Mark and Tara discussed with the campers what it means to plan and prepare for outdoor activity, the importance of traveling and camping on durable surfaces, disposing of waste properly, preserving what we find outdoors, safely minimizing campfire impacts, how to respect wildlife, and being considerate to other people when out.  They led an observation activity where the girls broke into small groups and studied a small area of the forest enclosed by a circle of string.  The girls were surprised just how many different organisms were in such a small area of the forest, and how the more they looked, the more they noticed.  Imagining the entire forest, something many, many times larger than their small circle of string, the girls really understood how following the LNT principles can have such a huge impact. Everyone really enjoyed meeting Mark and Tara and we all appreciated learning so much from them.

Hidden in the woods along a short trail behind our gym is Rockbrook’s Alpine Climbing Tower. This is a 50ft-tall high ropes course with almost 100 different climbing challenges available for the girls. They receive their first introduction to rock climbing here by learning about the safety equipment (helmet, harness, shoes, carabiners, etc.), the belay commands to make sure their belayer (the person holding the belay rope) is ready and working, and the important climbing techniques needed to make progress up the tower or rock. Girls of every age group can sign up for climbing and try the tower, from the littlest Juniors to the tallest Seniors. In addition to climbing one of the routes up the Alpine Tower or tackling one of the challenge elements like the “Cargo Net,” the girls can try and climb blindfolded.  This of course adds a degree of difficulty to the climbing, but it also tends to calm you down and slow you down, thereby allowing you to concentrate on the climbing instead of how high in the air you are.  It’s a strange wonderful feeling and a great climbing exercise.  There’s also a trick the girls often do after they climb and as their belayer lowers them on their belay rope.  They pause mid-air and flip upside down, “Spiderman” style… in true Rockbrook fashion, “just for the fun of it.”

The highlight of the evening, as you may be able to guess from these two photos, was our dance with Camp Carolina for Boys, our two dances I should say because we held two simultaneously: one here at Rockbrook for the younger set, and one over there for our older girls. We’ve found over the years that splitting the girls and boys up by age allows us to adjust the music and the feel of the dance to match the different interests of 13-year-old and an 8-year-old, for example. Some girls are happy to opt out of the dances altogether, so we always provide an easy way for them to do that, to team up for a “dance alternative” activity of some sort involving an art project and snack.

These dances are a lot of fun for the girls, even if they sometimes start out with a few jittery nerves as well. Fortunately, the counselors are there to help with this, to dress a little silly, not making a big deal about their looks, to be carefree about their dance moves (again, goofy is good!), and to encourage group dances. No pressure, just the fun of being together.

Summer Dancing

Today started out with unusually cool weather accompanied by a very slight drizzle off and on. Given the warmer, more ordinary summertime heat we’ve been experiencing lately, it was a nice change for camp. And that drizzle sure didn’t slow us down any! We were happily enjoying all of our regular activities. The drama class, which usually meets inside the Junior lodge, was playing a funny improv game called “Bus Stop.” Using just a couple of props, the girls take turns creating a bus stop scene with some crazy, unexpected character waiting for the bus. As the scene unfolds, the goal is to guess who the mystery character is in the scene. Inevitably, the game includes actors and audience members cracking up.

Down in the Lakeview Lodge, the Middler and Senior dance classes were rocking out practicing routines for the end of camp dance show. Led by the “two Lindseys” (Both dance counselors are named Lindsey this session), there are some technical moves in the choreography, making practice pretty important. The Junior classes spend more time playing games— Freeze Dance!! —and learning more basic dance moves.

Down at the riflery range the girls are really improving their skills. It seems like everyday at lunch, Leah and Molly the riflery instructors are announcing new girls who shot bullseyes. There’s been so much shooting down there, Richie had to replace the target hangers because they were completely shot up! It will be interesting to see the giant pile of shells leftover at the end of the summer.

For lunch today, Rick made us a Mediterranean feast with homemade hummus, freshly fried falafel, toasted pita bread, olives, feta cheese, tomato and cucumber salad. I heard several comments about the hummus being “really good,” probably because it had just the right amount of lemon and salt. There was some action at the peanut butter and jelly station and salad bars too, but not as much as you might think. For dinner, Rick and Alison teamed up for a special dessert: ice cream cake. They took some of the leftover, un-frosted birthday cake and layered in slabs of ice cream and even more chocolate cake. Chocolate frosting and a little icing decoration was added to make these works of art! When it was all over, not a crumb was left.

Tonight was also a dance night for the whole camp, this time with the boys up at High Rocks. It was quite an operation to get all 220 campers up the mountain (two shuttles using all of our vehicles, plus some borrowed from High Rocks), but we all made the trek to enjoy a square dance out on their 3 tennis courts. After the girls got over some initial jitters, they were soon having a surprising (to them at least!) amount of fun. It’s all very lighthearted and silly, with part of the fun being learning the moves, but also messing up by turning the wrong way or grabbing the wrong hand. After a short break for cookies and lemonade, we were back to the dancing— winding the clock, trapping a birdie in the cage, and lots of partners being swung. On the ride home several senior girls commented that they enjoyed the square dance even more than the “pop dance” we had last week. I’m not too surprised, but happy to hear another example of camp providing a new, and surprisingly enjoyable experience for our girls.

Square Dance!

A lot of climbing happens at Rockbrook. Everyday, in fact, there will be a group of girls climbing something, somewhere in camp. The most popular of these climbing activities is our Alpine Tower. It’s a unique high ropes course tower that is 50ft tall and is located in the woods behind our gym (here’s a map of camp to show you. The Tower is to the left on the map). There are dozens of ways to climb the Tower, from easy ladder-like routes to more gymnastic events that require more strength and daring. This makes it excellent for girls of all ages and something that’s always new exciting because there are plenty of new routes to tackle. When climbing, the girls are safely on belay, so they are also learning about the climbing equipment, safety rules, and belay commands. In case of rain, we can also move to the gym and hop on our climbing wall. It has several shorter routes up two faces and a corner. When the girls are ready for climbing a real rock, they can head up the trail above camp and climb our very own Castle Rock. There are six different fantastic climbs to choose from, right here in camp!

Another interesting phenomenon at camp these days is all the decoration going on. There’s evidence of creativity and imagination all over the place. For example, just about every wrist has several friendship bracelets adorning it (not to mention the “bend-a-back” bracelets girls receive as gifts for doing an unexpected good deed and the green waterslide/swimming bracelet). There are some really complicated patterns being made! In the dining hall, there are colorful painted posters from different special events and birthdays, and in the cabins, wonderful ceramics projects, baskets, drawings, and weavings are stacked up to bring home. I’m sure many will be treasured gifts for you.

Also today we had a special program available for the campers to learn about moss. A local moss expert, Annie Martin, came for the day to lead 4 “moss expeditions” where the girls hiked a bit to gather different varieties throughout the Rockbrook property. Then each camper made a miniature moss garden to demonstrate what they found. The different colors and textures of our local mosses make these gardens really cool.

After dinner, we another camp dance with a local boys camp, this time with High Rocks. Instead of modern music though, this dance was a square dance. We split the age groups again so our seniors could travel to High Rocks and their younger boys could come to Rockbrook. It took a little while for everyone to relax (seeing boys can jingle the nerves, apparently!), but once they heard the music and saw that it’s no big deal to be goofy holding hands and stomping your feet, and that it’s fine to “mess up” your do-si-do, the girls really had a good time. We took a break for cookies and lemonade, only to dance some more afterwords. And again for those girls who didn’t want to participate in the dance, we had an alternative; several counselors hung out with these campers and made friendship bracelets while listening to music. It was an exciting evening with lots of smiles and good feelings all around.

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!

Dance the 80s

What do you do when you need a camp dance idea, something to mix things up a bit and get the girls excited? This past summer, one of our favorite dance nights was when we all flashed back to the 1980s. Through music, costumes, dance steps, even pop phrases, we went back in time and held our favorite retro decade dance party. Looking the part is half the fun, with baggy t-shirts hung from one shoulder, jazzercise tights and sweat bands, Ray-Ban sunglasses, and lots, and lots of really big hair. It was so fun to see the girls really get into it. Plus, for some reason, this girls knew a lot of 80s songs— 867-5309 Jenny, Mickey, I Want Candy, Lucky Star, etc. (Hmmm, now that I think about it, maybe they’ve been watching the TV show Glee…?). They also could bust out a bunch of dance moves from the 80s, like the Thriller dance for example. By the end of the night everyone was hot and sweaty, but also really enjoying themselves.

Oh, I forgot to mention that there weren’t any boys at the dance. This was an all Rockbrook, all girls dance, and probably even more fun because of it!

To Build a Fire and Stack Apples

Do you know how to build a fire? Well if your camper signed up for the activity we call “WHOA,” which stands for “Wilderness Hiking Outdoor Adventure,” there’s a good chance she’ll have learned to here at camp. The counselors talk about the importance of heat, fuel and oxygen. They demonstrate the importance of dry wood (having it pass the “snap test”), and they give plenty of examples of how to stack the wood to insure the smallest twigs light first and the heat generated will rise up and ignite the larger sticks. The girls pick up on it pretty quickly, and when there’s the prospect of roasting a marshmallow, they are surprisingly motivated.

It has been such amazing weather these past few days! Cool in the mornings with a little fog early, and then warm but not too hot in the afternoon. We had one of those welcome afternoon thunder showers today, making everything moist and cool. With the creeks up again, Jessi decided to take a group of girls on a hike to Rockbrook Falls before lunch. This is the largest waterfall on the Rockbrook property, and is formed as Dunn’s Creek cascades down below Dunn’s Rock. You can see it on the camp map. The girls first hike the trail to the creek, but then make their way upstream by hopping from rock to rock, back and forth across the falling water. The falls are a good ways up and really beautiful to see.

OK, if not fire building, what about stacking 4 apples in a column? Juggling feathers? Eating an oreo cookie without using your hands, and that happens to be placed on your forehead (!)? These are just some of the games we all played after lunch in our all-camp “Minute to Win It” game. Starting with each age group in their lodge, each cabin dressed as a team and competed in several different crazy relay races. Ordinary items like golf balls and boxes of tissues became props for physical challenges. It was wonderful to see how much fun we could have, how hard we could laugh, trying to do these tasks. Even those of us watching, get a kick, for example, out of seeing someone being wrapped up in toilet paper! It was good camp fun, being with friends and enjoying silly games you wouldn’t likely do at home.

After dinner was a highlight of the session for many of the girls, for the senior girls in particular— the dance with Camp Carolina. We held two simultaneous dances with our Seniors going to Camp Carolina and their Middler and Junior boys coming to Rockbrook. Splitting like this made the dances less crowded and allowed us to tailor the music for each age group. The showers at camp got a real workout before the dance, and all 200 hair brushes got used as well. It’s quite a phenomenon! Overall, the whole affair was lighthearted and fun. Tonight the counselors dressed up like traffic crossing guards, and we saw more camp tie dye t-shirts than anything else. Group dancing is mostly the name of the game so everyone can be included.  As you might guess, the girls stick together— safety in numbers!

It was a little late for us, but what a night to wrap up another great day in the “heart of a wooded mountain.”

Camp Dance

Today, Saturday, was a regular day of activities in the morning and an all-camp activity in the afternoon called “Counselor Hunt.” There’s a long tradition of this event where once a session the whole camp essentially plays hide and seek, with the counselors hiding and the campers seeking. The game happens within the core part of the camp (not within the entire 215 acres!), but still there are loads of hiding places. And, of course, this is another oppo0rtunity to dress up. Today we had the cabin groups dressing alike (one transformed themselves into Ninjas!) and the counselors wearing their best camouflage. Each counselor is worth a certain number of points, 100 for each year they’ve been to camp. This makes some counselors worth a lot when they are found; Christine carried 1600 points, for example. It’s fun to see the cabin groups dashing about the camp, and to hear the shouts when they bag a counselor. I think a saw a couple of cakes for the top few winning cabin groups.

After dinner, we had our first camp dance of the summer. We loaded all of our girls up in buses and vans to make the short (6 mile) drive to High Rocks Camp for Boys. This was a square dance held outdoors on the tennis courts. When they first heard about this plan, some of the older girls didn’t quite know what to think since square dancing isn’t exactly “cool” these days, but once we got there, heard the music and saw that everyone, even the boys, was participating, they really had a good time. Being such a group phenomenon, there really isn’t much girl/boy pressure, and everyone swings a partner, holds a hand in the circle, and learns to do-si-do. It’s surprisingly fun to learn the moves, try them out together, and laugh when you mess up. We took a break part way through for cookies and lemonade, with a couple of dances to close out the evening. Oh, and by the way, for those girls who didn’t want to participate in the dance, we had an alternative; a couple of counselors hung out with them and made friendship bracelets while listening to the music.  It was an exciting evening with lots of smiles and good feelings all around.