Hannah Margaret in Italy

Look who traveled to Italy after camp and who proudly wore her Rockbrook T-shirt on the trip. It’s Hannah Margaret, from the 2nd July mini session. Click the photo to see a larger version.

Here she is climbing an Italian Alp nearby Lake Como (Lago di Como) in the Lombardy region of Italy.  These Rockbrook girls are on the move!

Where did you travel after camp? Send us some news!

First Round of Activities

Monday at Rockbrook brought great excitement as our July campers tried out their first set of activities. Each girl is currently enrolled in four activities of her choice. The activities range from crafty to dramatic to adventurous-something for every camper! Despite the afternoon rain shower, activities went on as scheduled and lots of fun was had.

Maggie leading our "Keeping in Touch" activity-look out for some handmade stationery to arrive at home soon!

In addition to our delicious meals in the dining hall, our camp baker Allison had warm chocolate chip muffins ready this morning and cookies and milk for us tonight at Evening Program. These always set a great mood at camp! Just wait; you’ll be hearing about the muffins at camp.

During first and second free swim campers had their first opportunity to try out the new slide at the lake. Official names have been flying in, and we will reveal the new name later this summer. The comments upon exiting the slide ranged from silly to exhilarating to slippery to just plain fun. And they keep going over and over again. You’ll have to ask how many times your daugher was able to go down while here.

Big Slide Fun!

Tomorrow will be a day of rafting for our Middlers and Seniors over at the Nantahala River. Half the girls went over to our outpost this evening for a camp-out and will get on the river bright and early in the morning. The rest of the rafters scheduled for tomorrow will leave after breakfast for a day trip. They will get on the river just after lunch. It will be an adventurous ride with all of our experienced guides leading the group down the river.

This is big, big fun.

To Hike, Ride and Dress Like a Granny

The weather was just perfect this morning, and around here that’s reason enough to find some altitude because we know the views will be spectacular. Clyde, our Adventure Director, and Catherine decided to take advantage of all this and signed up a group of Junior campers to go hiking along a section of the Art Loeb trail as it crosses the Blue Ridge Parkway. This is a wondrous place with beautiful weathered rock exposed along the grassy trail. The trail begins winding through a dense grove of balsam fir trees, but then breaks into the open where you can see for miles in several directions. The elevation is more than 6000 feet up, making these mountains some of the highest east of the Mississippi river! The group made it all the way to the top of Black Balsam Knob (6214 ft). Along the way, surprisingly, they ran into a team of folks filming a music video up there, though we didn’t catch the name of the band.

We had one of those classic camp lunches today that everyone loves— grilled cheese sandwiches and homemade tomato soup. The super stocked salad bar helped us add a little green to our plates, and to make the whole lunch just excellent. After lunch the big excitement for everyone is checking their mailbox for new mail. Finding something in your box is always a treat, so keep sending those cards and letters!

Horseback riding continues to be one of the most popular activities this session. Cara and her staff are really doing great stuff with the girls, strengthening their enthusiasm for riding (despite the bugs!) and seeing them make good progress. This is Cara’s 5th year as the Equestrian Director at Rockbrook, so it’s not too surprising she runs a top-notch program. When you see all the action down at the barn, though, it’s pretty impressive.

Tonight’s evening program was a giant all-camp game of bingo, but not just sitting around calling out numbers. Oh no, at Rockbrook that’s a perfect opportunity to dress up! Like a granny! That’s right: it was Granny Bingo night. All manner of grannies and grandpas came out to play— gray hair, glasses, nightgowns, hats, pillows stuffed strategically in clothes, walking sticks, and wrinkles drawn with eyeliner. The counselors get into it just as much, calling the numbers in their best scratchy voice, hunched over the table. Exciting RBC prizes for the winners, snacks for everyone to enjoy while playing the game, it was a grand, silly time.

Did you know it’s a long Rockbrook tradition for the girls to have a snack of milk and cookies before going off to bed?  Everyday the kitchen makes a batch of homemade cookies for this, and like with our “muffin break,” it’s great fun to be surprised by what kind of cookie we have each night. Afterwards, teeth brushing, ready pajamas, and each cabin sharing their “pows and wows” (highs and lows from the day) settle everyone down for the night. Such a nice way to finish up another fun-filled day of camp.

SC Camps in the Mountains

Looking over the listing of girls attending Rockbrook, this summer and in the past, it’s interesting to see how many campers are from South Carolina. It’s not too surprising if you realize a couple of things about RBC.

First of all, camp is located only about 8 miles from the South Carolina border. You have to go up the mountain to get here, but you can drive to Rockbrook in less than 6 hours from just about anywhere in South Carolina. Here’s a map showing camp’s location.

There is also a long tradition of Rockbrook directors being from South Carolina. For example, our former director “Jerky” (Ellen Hume Jervey) was a native of Charleston, SC.  Later, the Stevensons and the Whittles where also from SC.

Another thing to appreciate is that before air conditioning was common in the south, heading to the mountains was the best way to cool down in the summers.  South Carolina summer camps would even establish outposts in the “upstate” for this reason.  It’s hard to beat the mountains in the summer!  If you’re from Columbia or Charleston, you know what I mean.

A Summer Camp of Snow

Here’s a set of photos we took today of the amazing snow that fell at camp this past weekend. They show just how different everything looks at camp in the winter, and when it’s covered in snow!

NC Camp from the Air

Our friend Carroll Parker dug this photo out of his files and emailed it to us the other day. Carroll grew up around Rockbrook because his father helped Mr. Carrier build the camp back in 1921. This aerial view of the camp shows western North Carolina and all it offered back then— the thick forests, streams, the “ever-bearing raspberries,” the French Broad River horseback riding ring, tennis courts, chicken coop, horse barn, gardens, and an apple orchard.

It’s fascinating to see what western North Carolina and Rockbrook Camp looked like back 1920s and 30s. Stay tuned, we’ll be posting more archival photos soon.

Junior Hiking Trip

Talley and Jessi took a bunch of Junior campers on a really cool day hike this week. They packed a lunch and drove up to the Blue Ridge Parkway to hike along a section of the Art Loeb trail. They made it all the way to the top of Black Balsam Knob (6214 ft) and Tennent Mountain (6040 ft)! This is a true “above the clouds” experience, as these are some of the highest peaks east of the Mississippi river. Fortunately, the weather was awesome so the girls could see for miles.

Middlers Go to Sliding Rock

Yesterday we took the entire Middler Line to Sliding Rock, the wonderful natural water slide nearby in the Pisgah National Forest. We loaded up all 75 (5-6 grade) campers and counselors and had an exciting afternoon and evening with lots of trips down the rock to plunge into the chilly water. And since it was surprisingly uncrowded, the girls got to slide a lot. It’s such a classic summer activity here in the mountains, everyone loves it! On the way down the mountain, we just had to stop at Dolly’s for a cone of “Rockbrook Chocolate Illusion” ice cream. Yum!