Thursday: Let’s talk camp!
Keeping It Campy
Today we started our day to the sound of the national anthem blaring across the dining area. Red, blue, and white streamers swayed in the morning breeze, the American flag is hanging proudly, HAPPY 4TH OF JULY!
Some of us started our day earlier than others, the lakeside Trackers (and everyone who lives at the waterfront) were awake at 6:30am this morning packing up from their overnight! I’m sure you (along with everyone who was camping at Northwind last night) will hear about all the “GIGANTIC BUGS”, and all the high pitched screaming that followed said bug’s appearance at the overnight.
This morning was a breakfast everyone goes a little wild over… we are feeling so lucky, for the abundance of lucky charms! So are the squirrels and chipmunks because half of them ended up on the floor. Some of the Blazers had the most colorful plates filled with marshmallows they hand picked out of the cereal bowl. The tunes were, of course, American themed this morning for the fourth! Party in the USA, surfin’ U.S.A, born in the USA, you get the gist!
For cabin activities this morning Rainier and Hood are at the ropes course, defeating that rock wall, and running up the reverse zipline. Do you know the best time of year to buy new water trampolines? Well, Denali are hanging out there now and they said spring time. Granite and Sequoia also told me if you haven’t tried archery blindfolded, then you don’t know what you’re missing (disclaimer: they are at archery but they are not blindfolded!). Olympus and Tam are at courts sports playing games and listening to music. Pyramid and Diablo are making s’mortillas at outdoor cooking, somehow they still have space in their tummies after 5 bowls of lucky charms this morning. Fuji and Tallac are at LARPing. Tahoe are at sand sports. Everest said what’SUP to Teton at the SUP/kayak area as they both headed out for a morning paddle. Whitney, Sierra, Redwood, and the CITs also said “SUP” to them, however they said whilst flying past them on a tube attached to one of our power boats. Cedar are hosting a pontoon party, they have the slip and slide set up off the side of the boat and the tunes blasting. Pondy and Aspen are back at arts and crafts making their 10th friendship bracelet of the session, it seems like a lot of friendship bracelets but it doesn’t even compare to the number of friendships they have formed over the session.
On the menu for lunch today was hot dogs, with chili, pickle relish, mustard, ketchup, and cheese.
So I keep talking about all these activities that campers can sign up for but I thought maybe now I would explain them a little more in depth for you all.
At the lake campers can sign up for numerous activities. If they chose to sign up for ski/wake/knee they head out on the powerboats for the whole activity period to hang out and give the activity a go! If they chose to sign up for sailing they either head out with a counselor who will either teach them how to sail if they wish, or they can just hang out on the boat, lay on the bananas (hulls), swim off the boat, whatever they choose we always need helpers on the jib so they get a basic understanding of the wind! For SUP or kayak each camper takes out their own vessel, or if they wish to take a double kayak they can go with a friend! Initially they were paddling to jump rock a lot but as we know the water level halfway through the session dropped below our cut off point so now they are playing tag on the water and learning how to raft up whilst exploring the lake! We also offer fishing from the pontoon boat, often we head down to the creek and try our best to catch a rainbow trout which the kitchen will cook for our cabin for dinner (unfortunately this year we haven’t had as many bites but that doesn’t stop us from trying!). We also offer windsurfing for the Trackers, Alpiners, and the CITs, this is one of our most challenging activities, we have had some repeat sign ups from campers who can know navigate their way across the lake on their own completing perfect tacks and jibes (upwind and downwind turns). The last activity up for offer is dock activities, this is a popular signup because campers can choose to hang out in the swim area using any of the equipment up for offer. We have the water tramp, the dock, the mega sups and lily pads, and the surfboards. Alternatively they can choose to sit in the shade of the tree at the deck and read, or play spike ball, connect four.. any of the outdoor games around the place at the waterfront.
At the lodge the campers also have plenty of options. We offer sand sports, which is hosted at the volleyball court, the games often played include volleyball, badminton, and name drop. We also offer court sports, hosted at the basketball courts, and of course basketball is often played. However we also play dodgeball, around the world, and knock out whilst listening to tunes. Speaking of tunes we also offer guitar, which is available to all levels of experience! Whether you are already a pro and just wanna hang out and play some tunes, or you are a beginner who wants to learn some chords, there is a place for everyone. Following along the lines of tunes, we also offer dance/yoga, some days we have a full on dance battle whilst blasting sing-a-longs and other days we play some more mellow music and stretch! For Blazers only we offer forts, which you have possibly seen on instagram already. The Blazers make the coolest shady structures to hang out in using resources they can find in the forest. Another activity we offer is stage and news, during this activity the campers collate information gathered from camp, including the future menu (which is always highly sought after information) and interviews/polls with campers and staff to create a newspaper that is hung at the lodge for all to see. Mountain biking has been a popular activity this session too! For the first half of the session bikers often rode to jump rock, swinging past the waterfront on the way to get a life jacket. However, as jumping was called off, this second half of the session has been spent exploring our mountain biking trail, which I can personally say, is super challenging, but that doesn’t deter the determined mountain bikers. Video has been another hit sign up this session, during this time campers can choreograph movies with our video cameras. Last but most certainly not least we have arts and crafts, we have been getting super creative this session so I thought I could quickly list off some of the things we have done thus far. Of course we have made friendship bracelets and lanyards; painted canvases and rocks; made stone bead bracelets, arrowhead/crystal necklaces, and hemp survival style bracelets; created door hangers, dream catchers, driftwood hangers, bookmarks, and wooden magnets; and tie dyed our very own Mountain Camp shirts!
At the outdoors there are MORE OPTIONS! One of the most popular signups is the ropes course. We offer high and low ropes, as a signup is two days the campers alternate between the two. At the low ropes course we have the vertical playpen, the rock climbing wall, the perch (trapeze), the reverse zipline, rope net course, and slacklines! The high ropes course is fully up in the trees, the campers are harnessed in and make their way through numerous obstacles such as tightropes, swings, and many more, before zipping back to the ground on our zipline! We also offer outdoor cooking, which again, is very popular! Some days we make our own ice-cream, other days we make s’mortillas, orange brownies, pizza pockets, we even had a masterchef day where campers could make whatever they wanted from the provided ingredients which were then judged by the counselors. Some campers want to learn more about living in the forest and off the land, survival is the perfect signup for them! They learn to build structures and fires, how to tie knots, and make survival bracelets! Everyone loves LARPing! LARPing is an acronym for live action role play for those who don’t know, this is a time for campers to use their imagination. They can take themselves back in time to knights fighting in royals, or place themselves into the area for hunger games. Of course the swords are foam, the battles are harmless, and many rules are in place but as I said, everyone loves it! Up the hill at Kimble field we offer Archery, we have multiple ranges with targets far and wide so everyone can challenge themself how they see fit. At science this session they have been making oobleck, slime, volcanos, and other fun things! We also offer rockets for the Blazers, they make and launch rockets into space, the next generation of engineers.
For dinner tonight the kitchen served beef brisket, with gratin potatoes, broccoli, and dinner rolls! For dessert we are having chilled strawberry shortcake!
For evening program tonight it’s the FOURTH OF JULY BEACH PARTY! The whole camp will be heading on down to the waterfront for all kinds of fun beach games! For example we have a cookie walk (think musical chairs with cookies!), spikeball, kuub, and a super fun game where you can try to knock your counselor off of a SUP and into the water using a mega tennis ball slingshot! We end the night by singing songs around the campfire while the sun sets across the glassy evening lake.
The Tracker hillside campers are hanging down at the waterfront after the rest of us head back up to main camp because tonight is their OVERNIGHT!
We can’t believe tomorrow is the last full day on the mountain this session, time flies when you are having fun.
Chat again tomorrow, The Mountain Blogger.
