After a great opening day yesterday, it was time for the first full day of camp here at Timberlake for the summer of 2024! After a good night of sleep last night, everyone woke up to the beautiful sound of the reveille bugle. We then had a fantastic breakfast of some waffle sticks and sausage to get everyone filled up for the long day ahead. After breakfast, everyone headed off to chapel and cabin clean-up to get settled back into the rhythm of camp.

Today we even had a few trips going out! At Timberlake we almost always take 3 trips out a day, and today was no exception. We had an awesome group of whitewater rafters going out to the French Broad for the day, a group of hikers that went out to Huskins Branch for a sublime waterfall hike, and a great group of some young anglers hitting the streams down at South Mountain state park.

The rafters had a great time on Section 9 of the French Broad, with Sam Chamberlain, Duke Arthur, Alex Baroody, Cade Davis, Nathaniel Harris, Tucker Lyman, Ashton Medford, Erik Dille, Andrew Kjellin, and Case Mitchell all crushing it through the rapids!

Taking the trek up to Tom’s Creek Falls were: Luke Tuck, William Frazier, Adam Hill, Dylan Hudson, Parker Jones, Reid Chaiken, Luke Hathorn, Camp Murino, Rhodes Rojas, Daniel George, Sam Stewart, and David Dampf.

I helped take the fly fishing trip out to South Mountain, and the fishing was great, almost everyone out on the trip, including: Mason Broach, Alston Mconnell, Nathen Wroten, Pace Waldron, Andrew Thomas, and Sam Stewart caught a fish! There were plenty of native rainbow trout for all, and the cold water felt amazing as the summer had started to heat up down in Marion.

Meanwhile back in camp, all of our wonderful activities began. From climbing to riflery, everyone has been getting into the groove for their daily activities. Dakota M. in particular crushed it in beach volleyball today, expertly digging and spiking the ball right on the beach outside of our beautiful lake. Andrew I. looked like he was out at Wimbleton today on the tennis courts. Crushing the drills for warm up, and playing superbly in the doubles games towards the end of the class.

After the morning classes, everyone headed back for a quick lunch, and a much needed rest time before having some refreshing trading posts and free time. Hugh W. had an awesome game of disk golf, and even managed to get an eagle on a hole! There was also a great game of 9-square down on the beach, with Danny W. dominating the squares, and with many other games of volleyball and gaga ball going until the next activity!

Once free time was all finished, everyone headed back out to activities until our camp photo before dinner. We got a bit of rain, but after it had passed everyone was out enjoying the June sun until it was time for a hearty dinner of kung pao chicken and some delicious egg rolls.

From there we went out into senior camp for a competitive game of search and destroy. It was a competitive game, but time will tell who the winner will be tomorrow at lunch. And now, it is time for all camp to take some time with their cabins, settle down, and get ready for another awesome day at camp!

Take Care!

Will Petty

CIT Director

Climbing Connoisseur