This archive gathers posts inspired by the natural world at Rockbrook, the woods, streams, mountains, and wildlife that surround camp. These moments reveal how living outdoor world helps campers become more attentive to nature and more comfortable in it. To learn how these experiences shape camp life, see these camp articles.
Just down the road from Rockbrook is a wonderful family farm called the Pucker Up Berry Farm, also known as the “PUB Farm.” It’s owned and cared for by our friends Wendy and Eric Manner. The farm specializes in high antioxidant fruits and berries like elderberries, blueberries and blackberries. It also grows all sorts of flowers and vegetables.
The Rockbrook Juniors take a trip to the PUB Farm during their session of camp. It’s a chance to learn about the plants and animals there and to enjoy the environment. Counselor Lauren Plowden went with a recent group and wrote this account.
“When my campers heard the announcement that we would be skipping rest hour and taking a trip off campus, screams filled the room. As a Junior Counselor at RBC, I have the privilege of taking my cabin to Pucker Up Berry Farm.
Exploring the Farm
This farm is located at the bottom of Becky Mountain and is home to lots of chickens, bunnies, exotic wildflowers, and berry orchards. It’s essential that our campers have the opportunity to explore nature in ways they maybe wouldn’t be able to at home. At the farm, campers can choose to hold the animals such as bunnies or chickens, sample some growing blueberries and enjoy the wildlife the heart of the wooded mountain has to offer.
Every child has the chance to build their own bouquet of wildflowers which we then bring back to camp and use as centerpieces in our dining hall. Bouquet making is a wonderful part of the trip and allows me and the juniors to dive into creativity, colors, and gardening.
My favorite part of the trip was exploring nature with my awesome campers in Junior 5 and seeing them try new things. Of course this trip wouldn’t be complete without a trip to Dolly’s Dairy Bar. We filled our stomachs up with yummy ice cream and sang camp songs all the way home on our hot 80 degree July day. Days at camp are never the same and you never quite know what surprises are in store for our campers!”
One inescapable fact about life at Rockbrook is its immersive outdoor quality. Around here the complex forces of nature, the rich textures and tones of natural beauty, are our daily companion. In every direction, there is something wonderful, something that can fill you with wonder, waiting to be noticed. Sparkling streams, angular rocks covered with moss, tiny insects scurrying across the ground, ancient trees towering above— we’re surrounded by the mysteries of the natural world.
The weather, too! We’re submerged in the morning fog, never far from the rain, feeling the sun and the wind as they appear. Sometimes we’re hot, other times cold and damp. We’re watching clouds blend with sunsets, marveling when a thunderstorm rolls through. This afternoon, for example, when the sun was out in one direction and a drizzle fell in the other, a cabin of girls stood in the rain happily getting wet as they cheered the sudden rainbow overhead.
Fostering an Organic Connection
We cherish this outdoor living at Rockbrook, fostering this organic feeling whenever we can. Instead of shielding ourselves from nature, we want our days to include it, hoping to celebrate every rich opportunity it might provide. That’s why at Rockbrook we don’t level every stepping stone, smooth every surface, or eradicate every insect we see. That’s why the compassionate “catch and release” of a stray spricket in the cabin is a skill admired around here. We carefully trim encroaching rhododendron bushes and build using stone and rough cut lumber when we can. We love to eat outside, sit on the ground in our crazy creek chairs, and wade through the creeks in camp. We love the “refreshing” cool water of the Rockbrook lake. How different this is from life in the “civilized” world where it’s more common for kids to suffer from a degree of “Nature Deficit Disorder,” as Richard Louv has put it. At Rockbrook, there’s no such deficit.
Connecting with Horses
Riding a horse complements this close experience with nature by introducing a relationship with a living creature. Throughout each day, girls at camp are meeting horses, touching them, talking to them, caring for them, and yes, riding them. They’re using subtle, and some not so subtle, movements to communicate how the horse should behave. With the proper coaching, this allows the riders to change the horse’s gait, more faster and over obstacles like cross rails and jumps. It’s a real thrill for the girls to build their confidence with these large animals, trusting them, and cooperating with them to enjoy moving around the riding ring together. We’re seeing a strong interest in riding this session, with many first-time equestriennes giving it a try. Our 32 horses are happily getting plenty of attention!
Today all of the Middlers and Seniors who have not already gone took a trip over to the Nantahala River for whitewater rafting. It’s now a strong tradition for Rockbrook girls to raft this popular river, one that started back in the 1980s. With our own guides operating our own equipment, Rockbrook is fortunate to have a permit allowing it to run trips without outside help.
Rafting the Nantahala is always a blast, even for those who have done it is the past. Wearing the gear, riding in the boat with your friends, the “freezing” cold water, bumping and bouncing over the rapids, and goofing around for the camera— all add to the excitement and fun. We were lucky to have great weather all day today, making the trips altogether excellent. Heart pumping outdoor excitement with friends!
Sunday mornings begin at a more relaxed pace compared to the rest of the week. We all sleep in an extra few minutes and then arrive for breakfast in pajamas… no worries about being dressed with cabin chores done beforehand. Also on Sunday, it’s been a long standing treat to serve fresh donuts along with our breakfast, having a little taste of the outside world. Then there’s cabin time for changing into our uniforms (white with a red tie) before assembling on the hill for flag raising. The Hi-Ups do the honors of presenting and raising the flag. Immediately afterwards, everyone walks down the lower line of cabins to the wooded amphitheater where we hold our Chapel program.
Chapel Program on Nature
Today the Middler campers and some of their counselors presented a program on “Nature.” Like all of our chapel programs, this gathering was not a religious ceremony, but instead an opportunity to identify and reflect upon a core value or experience we all share at camp. In the past, we’ve held chapel programs on friendship, kindness, gratitude, community, and compassion for example. This morning we took time to consider our relationship with the natural world.
We sang “Tell me Why,” a slightly modified lyric to “Country Roads,” (“Almost Heaven, Rockbrook Camp..”) and “What a Wonderful World,” accompanied by Tunde on guitar and Isa playing ukulele. We heard short readings on Nature selected by campers Sidney, E.A., Amelia, and Elizabeth.
Camper K.P. read a short reflection she wrote about her feelings in Nature and its importance to all of us. She said,
Nature is all around us. It is a big part of Rockbrook and it has a role in almost everything we do here. Rafting the Nantahala, hiking to Castle Rock, even dinner on the hill: Nature is a way of life around Rockbrook and we all live it.
Sometimes it is calming to just sit on the Hillside Lodge porch and look down at the garden, watch campers play in the creek, and see the girls splashing around in the lake. The serene setting of Rockbrook on a North Carolina mountain surrounded by trees and species of plants is the nicest place I know.
Sarah echoed this sentiment by reading the illustrated children’s book, “You Are Never Alone” by Elin Kelsey. This is a wonderful reminder of how nature touches almost every aspect of our lives, that “this beautiful planet showers [us] with gifts” in so many ways. The book illustrates how nature supports and at times heals us, how it stimulates our emotions, sense of wonder and imagination. Quite literally, Nature helps us be human. Much like what we enjoy at Rockbrook, it is a “warm, supportive, community that is always there for [us].” Sarah added how lucky we are at camp to experience the plants and animals of the forest (yes, even the “sprickets”) so intimately, feeling the joys of Nature without a care in the world. This message really resonated with the girls, many of them nodding their heads in agreement as she read the book. Good stuff!
Lunch was another incredible meal prepared by Rick and his kitchen crew— roasted, dry-rubbed chicken breasts, fingerling potatoes, and honey-glazed, oven-roasted Brussel sprouts, with fresh blackberries and whipped cream for dessert. Amazing! The food at Rockbrook always gets high marks, and with meals like this, you can easily see why!
Food-Themed Carnival Afternoon
Our all-camp afternoon activity was a wild carnival of events down at the landsports field. With fun music pumping, and different snacks to keep us going, the girls enjoyed group games and challenges related to the theme of “food.” For example, one event challenged the girls to eat a doughnut dangling from the end of a string without using their hands. Similarly, another challenge required the girls to peel a banana (first cut in half) using only their feet. We used actual pieces of corn on the cob to play games of corn hole. The girls took turns making “pies” of whipped cream to toss at their counselors. There was a “grit pit,” a literal pool of warm grits, to experience. There were cookies to decorate, and beaded composting “worms” to make. One game was particularly fun, a challenge to use only rubber bands to break open a watermelon. They girls worked together stretching two or three rubber bands at a time over each watermelon, gradually adding to the band’s total pressure. There was only a small crack forming to warn them before the melon exploded to bits leaving a ball of sticky rubber bands behind. It was very exciting, and the kind of big crazy fun, we love at camp.
Even in the driest weather, like that of the last few days, there are two creeks that flow through the center of Rockbrook. One is known around here as “Rockbrook Creek,” despite not having an official USGS name. It forms far above the camp, and as it descends the mountain, forms a 50-foot waterfall (“Stick Biscuit Falls”) just a short distance up the trail behind the new office building. It continues down under the dining hall, past the front of the Goodwill cabin, behind the back porch of the Curosty cabin, eventually making it into the French Broad River below. The other, much larger, creek is named “Dunns Creek” after the very large rock outcropping on the camp property called “Dunns Rock.” It too forms several impressive waterfalls on the property as it cascades down into the river valley. “Quentin Falls” and “Rockbrook Falls” are two of these waterfalls that are hiking destinations for the campers. We divert water from Dunns Creek, passing it along an aqueduct, to the Rockbrook lake, keeping it constantly supplied with clean, clear mountain stream water.
Discovering Water Creatures
All this water, splashing down over and around the rocks of Rockbrook, which are really boulders strewn below Castle Rock and Dunns Rock, makes it a snap to discover amazing water creatures like, small fish, tadpoles, crawfish, worms, and salamanders, not to mention an array of bugs. That’s why during periods of free time around camp you can count on seeing girls stomping through the water, paper cup in hand, turning over rocks and staring intently into swirling pools. During activity periods, the “Nature” counselors will hand out small nets before heading out to explore one of the streams. There are wondrous discoveries all around us at Rockbrook.
Immersed in the Natural World
Just the opposite of “Nature Deficit Disorder,” Rockbrook girls experience firsthand a superabundance of the Natural World. There are the impressive rocks and teeming creeks of camp, but there are also old growth trees, dense ferns and other forest plants, fauna, fungi and insects to encounter everyday. Spiders in the shower, crickets somewhere in your cabin, an owl or a bullfrog calling out at midnight: life at Rockbrook is immersed in Nature. The organic feeling of camp enriches our experience, calling the girls (sometimes literally) to dive in and ultimately providing the simply joy of loving the outdoors.
Mini Session Closing Campfire
Tonight we held the closing campfire for our mini session girls. Like for all of the camp sessions at Rockbrook, we gathered everyone around the fire pit near the lake to reflect on our time together, and recognize what we’ve enjoyed, accomplished and learned at camp. The campers and counselors dressed in their red and white uniforms, and following a traditional program, sang songs and took turns speaking about what this session of camp has meant to them. One by one, from the youngest girls up to and including a few staff members, we heard sweet stories about how camp helped conquer fears, and allowed hidden talents to emerge. Mostly, the speakers recognized all the people, young and old, they now consider friends, and how they love the feeling of being at Rockbrook. Sarah spoke at the end reminding everyone that even during the school year, we can enliven some of these camp feelings…by being kind and generous, maybe a little silly and courageous at the same time. She reminded us that being outside with friends, away from our favorite flickering technology, is something we can do at home. We closed the program by lighting a white candle and sharing that flame with everyone, each camper and counselor holding their own small candle. Singing softly, the girls and their counselors spread out facing the lake, illuminating everything with golden candlelight. “Day is done; gone the sun…” It was a calm beautiful scene, and a perfect ending to a wonderful session.
Glancing through our online photo gallery today, you may have noticed that the girls are all wearing long sleeves. It might be a t-shirt or a sweatshirt, or likely a Rockbrook fleece, but all morning long we needed to bundle up a bit because it didn’t feel much like summer around here. It was more like the fall with the low temperature of 54 degrees when we woke up at 8am this morning. While odd for us in late July, this kind of cool, low humidity weather makes everything sparkle at camp. Waking up under warm covers in our open-air cabins, adding a layer of fleece while clicking the floor loom in Curosty, and biting into the fresh mint chocolate chip muffin, all felt especially good this morning. Up above was the deepest blue sky, not a single cloud anywhere, and the sun felt instantly warm when you stepped out of the shade, even as it warmed to about 75 degrees in the afternoon. Summer in the mountains can bring the most surprising and wonderful weather.
Yesterday, Bentley wrote about how camp has helped her daughters (and herself) gain social confidence when meeting new people or encountering unfamiliar social settings. She saw attending a sleepaway summer camp a perfect setting to develop that skill because, after all, it’s inevitable you’ll be doing unfamiliar things and meeting new people at camp— the girls in your cabin, in your wheel-thrown ceramics class, or in your whitewater raft on the Nantahala River. Everyday, there’s someone new to meet and something new to do and experience. (“Did you try that pineapple salsa at lunch today?”) From this angle, camp life means immersing kids in the unfamiliar— experiencing first-hand strange food like homemade ginger coleslaw, odd weather like this morning, quirky people like that counselor from out west, challenging activities like aiming a real gun, alien creatures like those HUGE wolf spiders occasionally found in the shower, and so forth. While camp is providing girls new experiences and offering a range of fun activities to try, it’s more importantly pushing them beyond what they know, confronting them with the exotic. Camp life happily leaps right out of every “comfort zone,” and in this way, is intentionally un-comfortable.
Why Discomfort Is the Point
And that’s a good thing! Obviously, we don’t want camp to imitate the comforts of home. Many of the benefits of camp life spring from those differences— unplugging from technology, being active outdoors, and managing everyday decisions, for example. Personal growth, learning of the most profound kind, requires a little shaking up and a surprise now and then. We want our kids to have these novel experiences because they are unfamiliar and because they challenge them to grow more competent. For this reason it would be a mistake to insist we make everything “easy” at camp, for example to make sure the lake isn’t too cold or that she already know everyone in her cabin. As parents, we often spend our time helping our children be comfortable, keeping them happy, and providing everything we can to smooth their path, but that’s the paradox of camp. It’s both uncomfortable and fun. It makes our girls happy while safely challenging them. Camp is as joyful as it is unfamiliar.
Community Makes the Paradox Possible
What makes this paradox possible at Rockbrook is our camp culture. It’s our emphasis on community, and the values that support it like kindness, caring and generosity. We all know that everyone here (counselors and campers alike) will be quick to support our efforts and is more inclined to cooperate than compete. Enthusiasm and encouragement bubble up everywhere at Rockbrook strengthening our courage to let our true selves blossom. We celebrate silliness, creativity, and costumes! We love singing, dancing, playing, and doing almost everything together. In this kind of community, what’s unfamiliar becomes part of the fun, and what’s at first a challenge becomes another opportunity to experience something new regardless of the outcome. What makes camp “fun” is another whole topic to consider, but I think the Rockbrook camp community is a big part of it.
For about half of the camp, almost all of the Middlers and Seniors, today included a whitewater rafting trip down the Nantahala River. We ran 2 large trips, using our own equipment and guides: one in the morning and a second in the afternoon. Perfect sunny weather added to the excitement of rapids like “Delbar’s Rock,” “Whirlpool,” “The Bump,” and of course the “Nantahala Falls.” These are high-pitched trips, partly from the rapids but equally from the icy cold water splashing about. It was a great afternoon of whitewater adventure.
When we all arrived back at camp, a special jungle/animal themed dinner called “A Night at the Zoo” was ready to begin. We had just enough time to race back to the cabin to throw together an animal costume. Maybe that meant simply wearing a squid hat, or painting a few whiskers on your cheeks, but there was also a giraffe and several tigers in the dining hall too. Jungle-themed decorations and posters on the walls helped set the mood, while the girls had a great time singing animal songs (e.g., “The Lion Sleeps Tonight”) and dancing to a few related pop songs (like “Roar” for example). We gobbled up pizza and salad, and finished with chocolate chip cookie dough for dessert, making the whole dinner a special event.
During another tour this week, I was struck how the setting at Rockbook is in many ways extreme. It’s so drastically different from the straight lines, smooth surfaces and pure tones of the outside, “civilized” world. Around here, the complex forces of nature, the curls and swirls of natural beauty, shape us and provide so many wonderful— wonder-filled —experiences… slabs of grey granite jutting from the ground at odd angles, clear streams sparkling in the sunshine, ancient trees too large to hug, tiny insects busy scavenging the ground, shaded by fractal-shaped ferns. Rockbrook has this organic feeling, and it’s something we cherish and foster. Rather than level every stepping stone, trim back each encroaching rhododendron branch, or eradicate all of the spiders that might wander into the showers, we want life at Rockbrook to include the natural world (at least a healthy, regular dose). It’s a priority that informs a great deal of what we do.
Outdoor Living Means Getting Grubby
Camp is simply outdoor living. It’s a life immersed in, rather than shielded completely from, the weather. It’s a daily encounter with unfamiliar (and happy, given all the rain we’ve been having this summer!) plants. Tiny critters cross our path all the time. It’s a life that weaves mysterious forest sounds with the constant rush of water coming down the mountain. Camp means having a flashlight ready when it starts to get dark, belting a wide-eyed scream after jumping in our very unheated lake, and ultimately getting a little grubby most days… Perhaps I should say “extremely grubby,” in many cases. After all, these are enthusiastic children playing outside, and they’re not holding back. If you can imagine your girls living outside for this many days, probably not caring too much about how wet and grimy their clothes become, you might be extra cautious when you open their trunks back home! Fighting “Nature Deficit Disorder” like this, is just bound to be messy.
Hmmm… Maybe by insisting that our kids always be perfectly clean and starched, we are contributing to this deficit, compounding the negative effects associated with it.
The equestrian staff has been celebrating the recent stretch of dry weather we’ve all been enjoying. It’s been an extraordinarily wet summer this year, and that has been frustrating our riding program because when our fields are wet and muddy, they become too slippery to ride safely. Now, we are finally teaching mounted lessons all day long, helping girls learn the basics of horsemanship, and progressing to more advanced skills when they are ready. I think everyone —staff members, campers and horses alike— are happy to be busy riding.
Adventures in the Pisgah National Forest
Christina, one of our fantastic Adventure Trip Leaders, led a group of girls backpacking and camping at a spot known by some as the “Enchanted Forest.” This truly is a magical place to camp. Tucked a couple of miles into the Pisgah National Forest, a large stand of White Pine trees lines both side of the trail as it follows a small stream. Decades worth of brown pine needles cover the ground with ferns and other clubmosses providing green accents. After packing in their tents, food and water, the girls spent a wonderful night in the forest— roasting marshmallows around their campfire, goofing around and chatting late into the night, and feeling a morning chill the next day.
All of the mini session Middlers and Seniors who wanted to go whitewater rafting took their trip today. With a few remaining full sessions girls joining them, this turned out to be 55 campers. About half of those elected to spend the night beforehand at our Nantahala outpost property in Swain County. This is another chance to be outside and enjoy a campfire, complete with s’mores of course, before bed. The girls had a grand time singing songs, taking turns telling jokes, all while staring hypnotically at the flickering fire. Around 9am we met our veteran rafting guides and all of the RBC gear at the river’s put-in, and after suiting up and hearing the guides’ safety instructions, the rafting hit the water under glorious, bright sunshine. For the next two hours, it was a wild ride filled with laughing and squeals of delight with every crashing wave of the rapids. This last photo was taken at the final big rapid called the “Nantahala Falls” and as you can see, it’s a great one. After a good sized hole at the top, all of the river channels in a Class III drop producing this kind of splash. It never fails to get everyone’s heart pumping, and once safely at the bottom, a smile on their faces.
One of the ways we often describe Rockbrook is to call it a “forest camp,” a summer camp in the woods, immersed in nature. It has an organic, rustic feeling with lots of big rocks, ancient trees, rushing water, and a healthy population of small plants and animals ripe for discovery by the girls who live here. Instead of crisp landscaped lines, we are happy to allow tree roots to grow across our path, or moss to cover rocks near the lake. We want our experience at camp to include, not be too sheltered from, the textures and patterns of the natural world. Part of our mission is to bring our campers closer to nature, to learn about its complexity, and experience its beauty and wonder. This is a photo of our “Nature Nook,” a small outdoor forest classroom located just down the path to Rockbrook Falls, the largest of the waterfalls on the property. It is home to the activity we simply call “Nature.” For campers who choose it as one their activity periods, counselors lead them on explorations of different trees, leaf collections, creek walks, insect identification, salamander hunts and bird watching. There’s so much to explore too! The 214 acres of Rockbrook are home to incredible natural features, like the cliffs of Castle Rock and Dunn’s Rock for example, but also a few very rare species, like the endangered green salamander.
Blue Ghost Fireflies
Another example of an unusual creature found here at camp is the “Blue Ghost” firefly (Phausis reticulata). It’s a small brown beetle, that like other fireflies emits a bioluminescent glow, but unlike the blinking of other species, this firefly lives in the forest and emits a steady greenish light. A few campers have noticed these magical dots of light in the dark woods around camp. They are like shy fairies who glow when undisturbed, but stop quickly when approached. All around us, the natural setting of Rockbrook proves how our “heart of a wooded mountain” is also a magical “fairyland of beauty.”
Weaving Baskets in the Creek
Today the weavers of Curosty turned their attention to reed, and gathered at the creek to weave baskets. Soaking the reeds in water is an important first step to soften them enough so they can be gently bent and woven. In addition to the standard “under and over” pattern made by the “spokes” (upright strands) and “weavers” (horizontal strands), there are patterns with twists, double strands, and alternating weaves to make more unusual designs. Like many of the other craft activities at camp, weaving baskets is a social event as well as a creative endeavor. It’s a chance to sit with friends and talk while working on a project. In this case, basketry is also an opportunity to soak your feet in a cool mountain stream.
Just before lunch today, the drama instructors held their first rehearsal for this session’s musical, the play the campers perform at the end of the session. The cast is still evolving, and will certainly grow when our mini session campers arrive on Sunday, but we already have plenty of enthusiastic singers, dancers and actors ready to become African animals because the play is “The Jungle Book.” Throughout the session the cast will be learning the songs, practicing the choreography, and memorizing their lines for the show which will be presented on Wednesday afternoon before the closing day of the session. Parents are welcome to attend the show, and we will contact you if your daughter will be performing.
Finally, I wanted to mention the amazing dinner Rick and his team prepared for our “International Day” dinner tonight. He made a Jamaican meal of Jerk Chicken/Tempeh, Samosas (remember that a cabin of juniors helped assemble these!), rice, tomato chutney, pineapple and fried plantains. For dessert he had coconut lime bread with a key lime glaze. Wow! So good!
As we walk the paths and trails of Rockbrook we are always excited to find unusual species of plants and flowers. On a recent walk, Rockbrook alumnae Barrie B. and Maggie K. spotted this orchid, known as the The Showy Orchid. The Latin name is Galearis Spectabilis. While they are not rare in NC, they are on the endangered list in SC and several other states. The Showy Orchid grows in deciduous forests and can typically be found growing on rocks. It flowers in the spring, the bloom lasting 2-3 months. When the campers arrive in a few short weeks, the orchids will still be putting on a beautiful show. Thanks you Maggie for sharing this photograph with us!
If you missed our last wildflower report, check out this recent blog post on the Trout Lilies that grow at RBC.
Probably the most common arachnid (the class that includes spiders) you see around Rockbrook is this little guy. You probably recognize him as a “Daddy Long legs Spider.” And you’ve also probably heard that they are the “most poisonous spider in the world,” but (luckily!) they are not dangerous because their “fangs are too small and short to bite through people’s skin.” With that kind of reputation, this is definitely a little scary no matter what.
The Truth About Daddy Long Legs
The problem is; it’s not true. Also known as Harvestmen, these little guys do not in fact have fangs or any venom at all. It is true their mouth parts are quite small, so they can’t bite you. Overall, they’re totally harmless. They also don’t spin webs because they lack silk producing glands. It fact, technically speaking they aren’t even spiders! They do have eight legs and are in the same biological class as spiders, but are in a different order. It’s just a big misconception that seems to be repeated every summer at camp.
There are more than 100 species of Harvestmen in North America, and they are particularly common in rich deciduous forests (like Rockbrook!) where there are lots of other small insects, fungi, and plant matter they like to eat. If you’ve been at Rockbrook in the past, you’ll recognize them. And when you’re at camp this summer, keep an eye out for these fascinating, and harmless, forest critters.
