Looking Glass Rock Climbing

One of the best rock climbing areas in the Southeast is Looking Glass Rock. Rising almost 1000 feet from the forest floor, Looking Glass is a dome-shaped mass of granite near Brevard in the Pisgah National Forest. It can easily be seen from the Blue Ridge Parkway nearby. For rock climbers it offers a fantastic variety of sport, friction, face, crack and even aid climbing routes suitable for the beginning, intermediate and advanced climber. Circling the domed rock are well-known climbing areas: the Nose, South Side, Sun Wall and North Wall. On the southeastern side of the rock, there is a popular tourist trail for hiking to the summit.

Rockbrook Camp Girl Joanna on Looking Glass Rock

Here’s a photo of a Rockbrook camper on the Nose (5.8).  Rockbrook is located only about 15 miles from Looking Glass.  After topping out our own climbs on Castle Rock, our camp rock climbing program brings girls to Looking Glass, as well as other climbing areas in this region of North Carolina.  There’s a lot of rock to climb around here, and the girls love it!

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.

Something Yummy

It might be surprising, but did you know that the littlest girls, our Juniors who are as young as six, are often some of our best rock climbers? They certainly are predictably enthusiastic and ready to try just about anything, and this easily translates into a fearlessness spirit of adventure. When we announced an optional trip to climb Castle Rock (one of the tall rock cliffs above the camp), Mallory was surrounded by little ones clamoring for the chance. They love gearing up with helmets, harnesses and those cool, sticky-rubber shoes, and hiking the trail up to the base of the rock. What makes these little ones great climbers, besides their attitude, is their flexibility and strength relative to their weight. While they might not be able to reach a high handhold on the rock, being small is an overall advantage. This is real rock climbing, and they feel pretty “big” after doing it.

Yesterday after dinner, during that period of free time we call “Twilight,” we offered a garden workshop with Pam, Rockbrook’s awesome gardener (here she is in this photo). She organized the activity by teaching the girls about Tussie-Mussies. Sometimes called “Posies” or “Nosegays,” these are small bouquets of flowers given in the Victorian-era as gifts, following the “Language of Flowers” where different blossoms had different meanings. Giving someone a Tussie-Mussie was a way to send a coded message, back when speaking directly wasn’t always socially acceptable. With Pam’s help, the girls learned a few of the meanings (e.g., a daisy means beauty), tasting some of the herbs, and then each made their own example.  What a unique experience!  Then to round out the evening, evening pitched in to make a scarecrow.  Using hay, they stuffed a shirt and overalls, and decorated a pot for the head.  See the grass hair? It’s really neat to see the girls having this much fun doing something this simple and traditional.

Throughout the day today, we took Rockbrook Middlers and Seniors whitewater rafting on the Nantahala River. Some traveled over to our Nantahala outpost, located not far from the rafting put-in, to spend the night. We arrived in time to have a taco dinner and s’mores before hitting the hay in the platform cabins. The next morning, we met our team of raft guides, and suited up for the river, enjoying the bright sunshine and 70-degree temps. In fact, it was absolutely perfect weather, warm and sunny, perfect for inspiring splash fights between rafts, and even intentionally jumping in now and then. A raft full of excited, chatting, singing girls is a lot of fun, and when you send that raft through whitewater rapids, bumping, splashing, and sometimes spinning along, it’s about as good as it gets! We all enjoyed a picnic lunch after the first morning trip, and then met another group of Rockbrook girls to run the river again in the afternoon. Altogether, we rafted more than 60 people today, a big fun day of adventure.

Back at camp in time for dinner, which was some of Rick’s homemade lasagna with bread and salad (yum!), we heard the news that tonight’s evening program would be a “Western Auction” led by Jerry. He arrived dressed in jeans, white long-sleeve shirt, sunglasses and hat, and explained how the girls could bid on mystery prizes. They would bid not knowing if the items were some kind of treat like banana boats, or some funny chore like a morning swim in the lake (“polar bear”) or gift like tooth brushes. Jerry rattled off the auction with cabins raising their paper plate insignias to bid. Each cabin had enough “Rockbrook Bucks” to win 2 items, one of which usually ended up being something yummy. After winning a bid, a hushed, worried anticipation comes over a cabin, but when Jerry announces a “good” prize, they explode with cheers, arms stretched high. In addition to the bidding, it’s finding out what you’ve won that makes this game so much fun.

Rafting Spectacular

Today was the first of our rafting trips for the session, our big adventure out on the Nantahala river. We asked all of the middlers and seniors if they would like to go and came up with a huge list of excited girls. One option was to go over on Monday night and camp at our outpost. Rockbrook owns a 40-acre outpost camp located just past the Upper Nantahala Gorge in Macon County that is set up with simple cabins, a bath house, dining hall and campfire ring. It adjoins the National forest (about 2 miles from the Appalachian trail) and is only about 15 minutes away from the rafting launch site. We took 3 buses to the outpost to enjoy a nice dinner, time around the campfire with s’mores and songs, and a good night’s sleep out in the forest. The next morning we met our guides (Clyde, Sid, Billy, Sam, Andria and Leland) and launched the rafts for a perfect sunny trip down the river, complete with plenty of splashing and screams bubbling up on the rapids. A second group of campers met us for a picnic lunch before heading up to start their rafting trip in the afternoon. We had great weather on this trip as well, happily avoiding the thunderstorm that passed by to the north of us. These whitewater trips are loads of fun and for many girls a highlight of their outdoor experience at camp.

By the way, Leland and Andria have written several books on whitewater boating, one on North Carolina rivers and another on some of the best whitewater in North America. Check them out over at Brushy Mountain Publishing. Good stuff.

Meanwhile back at camp, we were rock climbing, really climbing. Our lead climbers, Maddie, Abby and Mallory organized several groups of Juniors and Middlers for a trip up to Castle Rock. Some of the girls who signed up were brand new to climbing, so for them, just fitting the equipment— climbing shoes, harnesses, and helmets — was a part of the fun. But of course the real treat comes from making progress up the rock, from getting past a tough part, and often, from reaching the top and turning around to see the view. Even the littlest girls are great climbers. They’re so strong and agile, and generally fearless, they just zip right up the rock with very little hesitation.

Dinner tonight was a surprise event for the girls. It started with costumes, as is usually the case at Rockbrook. This time we all turned ourselves into a giant game of Clue. Like the classic board game, versions of Mrs. White, Professor Plum, Mrs. Peacock, and Mr. Green could be seen eating dinner together. Afterwords, the girls broke into their cabin groups to play a camp-wide game of Clue where, like the board game’s mystery that’s solved by following clues discovered in different rooms, the groups ran around camp to find different clues. Each station, the group had to perform a task of some sort before receiving their next clue. Quick name all the RBC activities, or make up a song about trees, or stand in a human pyramid, and so forth. The clues led every cabin group to each of the different stations and finally to the solution— where Sofie was hiding. By the end, there were prizes for everyone, but it was Junior cabin 4 who ran the fastest and performed their tasks the quickest to win overall.

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.

Camp is an Adventure

Camp is an adventure! It is because it gets girls outside for all kinds of exciting activities. Climb high up a real rock! Paddle a raft down through whitewater rapids. Sleep in the woods far from the “comforts of home.” These, and other outdoor activities, are just plain thrilling.

But why is that? What makes something a thrilling “adventure?”

The answer might be a little surprising, but it actually boils down to danger. It’s true; an adventure activity always carries a degree of risk. It’s an activity where we “take a risk in the hope of a favorable outcome” (as my dictionary puts it). So for example, rock climbing includes the risk of falling. Whitewater boating has the risk of capsizing, and when camping in the wilderness there’s always a chance of horrible weather (among other things!).

But of course adventure isn’t about getting hurt or experiencing some disaster (there’s safety training and equipment to help with that). It’s about avoiding danger despite the threat of it. Adventure is about overcoming the difficulty and conquering the fear associated with an activity.

Adventure activities are thrilling because we can actually do them despite the risk. Through our own efforts, applying specialized knowledge and skills, we succeed in the face of possible failure. Sure it might be a struggle, but it feels great. Yes, an adventure activity can be difficult, but also really exciting to face it and win!

That’s why, incidentally, adventure activities are so good for boosting kids’ confidence.

Being at Rockbrook provides so many great ways to be adventurous, opportunities to try activities that may look a little scary, but then with the right instruction, encouragement and role models, to also manage the risks and cope beautifully with the challenges involved. Very cool stuff!

Learning to Climb at Camp

When girls first begin to learn rock climbing at Rockbrook, they start on our high ropes course climbing tower. It’s an “Alpine Tower” and you may have seen photos of it before here. It’s really the perfect place to learn how to climb because it makes so many different elements of “real rock climbing” so accessible. The girls can quickly learn important safety principles like the belay commands. They can begin to feel comfortable using the basic rock climbing gear like the harness, helmet, carabiner and rope. And, they can actually climb! A lot! The Alpine Climbing Tower provides close to 100 different ways to climb to the top; there are poles, nets, ropes, cables, climbing holds and rock walls to allow a whole range of difficulties and challenges. Girls can sign up for climbing instruction every week at camp and climb a couple of different routes every time they come!

But what do you learn when you first start out rock climbing? The importance of stretching and warming up is a good start. Everyone does better if they are flexible and a little stronger after warming up. After that the first lesson emphasizes the importance of balance, of being able to hold still balancing on one foot, for example, and moving the other leg or arms to reach a certain spot. Next, the girls learn footwork is central to rock climbing. It’s not mainly about finding grips for your hands, but rather about learning to use your feet and legs to move up the rock. Your hands and arms mainly help with balance, and your legs keep you moving. The other beginning rock climbing lesson to learn is more mental than physical. It’s learning to stay calm and focused. Rock climbing is a series of puzzles that requires concentration, and a calm, clear attention to details the rock presents. If you aren’t relaxed on the rock and get in a hurry, you might miss a hold or skip right over the perfect foothold making your route more strenuous and less enjoyable.

All of these lessons can take some practice to master, but there’s so much rock climbing going on at Rockbrook, the girls easily learn them. It’s really not hard to learn how to rock climb at camp, and the girls love it!

Summer Living

Breakfast this morning made everyone happy. Rick served us his signature french toast, bacon, syrup, and cut fruit (cantaloupe, blueberries and blackberries). Like all the food he prepares for us at camp, this wasn’t something pre-made and frozen in a factory. He hand dipped each piece of bread, and grilled them all with a little sprinkle of sugar and cinnamon. No wonder everyone was so stuffed during morning assembly! But then after the first period of activities was done, there were plenty of girls interested in the chocolate chip muffins Liz baked for us. Not too surprising!

The rest of the morning was packed with our regular camp activities. With their new schedules, the girls were eager to climb the alpine tower, meet and ride a new horse, and learn the proper techniques of archery. Crafts are just about everywhere at camp, as well. Walk around and you are sure to spot all manner of media in the mix—fibers, string, clay, dyes, papers, paint, leather, fabrics, thread, yarns, markers, and all kinds of natural products. There’s creativity percolating in just about every corner.

While camp is definitely action packed, we also make sure to provide plenty of time when the girls can do what they want— time before lunch, right before dinner and right after dinner —freedom for swimming, hanging out in their cabin with friends, playing games on the hill, exploring the creek by “Curosty,” chatting with their counselor, preparing a skit for evening program, or just reading a book. It’s long been part of Rockbrook’s philosophy to make camp a welcome relief from the overly scheduled routine of life back at home and school. We believe kids need a special place, a haven, where they can set their own pace, follow their own interests and thereby allow their own sense of fun to flourish. It’s really what summer vacation was meant to be.

Lunch was an impromptu picnic on the hill with hot dogs, all the fixins’, chips, and watermelon. It was a wonderfully sunny afternoon, with a light breeze now and then. We sat in our crazy creek chairs, listened to music and just soaked up the scene on the grassy hill.

Jeff took the Hi-Ups on a really cool waterfall hike in Dupont Forest after lunch. They went straight to High Falls so they could enjoy a little swimming in the pool at the bottom of the huge waterfall. There’s even a short sloping section of the falls that can be a “sliding rock” of sorts. We did spot a couple of northern watersnakes hiding amid the rocks, and while quick to get out the way, still got our hearts pumping a bit! One was very small, a baby snake, and did get at least one comment about being “cute.”

Dinner tonight was also a special event: Harry Pottery Restaurant Night! The girls were encouraged to dress up like their favorite Harry Potter character, adopt a European accent of some sort, or just come prepared to “add to the magic.” Ellen became Professor Trelawney, the divination professor. Several campers became students at Hogwarts, complete with capes and brooms, and even Sarah dressed up as Narcissa Malfoy. After dinner, keeping the theme, we had a wand making workshop for the girls. With ribbons, glitter, and colorful tape, they decorated wooden sticks to make really cool looking magic wands.

Keep those comments coming!  We really appreciate it!