It was a rip roaring Wednesday here at Timberlake! As we move through our second week of camp here on the mountain, it is really fun as a director to watch how comfortable and settled in all our campers are at this point in the session. There are lots of positives that come from this settled feeling, easy conversations with friends, no longer having to ask about how the schedule works or the flow of the day, knowing all the best shortcuts and trails around property are just a few. But by far my favorite part as the director is seeing how campers’ willingness to try new things and step out of their comfort zones has grown exponentially since day one. A prime example is our trips. Today we sent out three trips in three different disciplines, all full of adventure. First we had an intrepid group of kayakers hit the Tuckasegee River. The Tuck, as we call it, is actually my favorite river we go to. It’s mellow enough for a beginner to paddle but nuanced enough that there are places for even our most advanced kayakers to test themselves, practice new skills and improve. Our kayakers today were: Kenny C, Quinn B, Alexander S, William F and Noah P. They all did great and Noah P in particular did an amazing job leading the group on a few of the rapids.

On a totally different type of water, the rock climbers were getting in some adventure as well. We had a group of junior and intermediate campers who nailed the upper creek waterfall rappel. In case you’re wondering, yes, this does mean lowering themselves over the edge and down the middle of a big waterfall. This is a huge adventure for anybody and to see some of our younger guys take it on was incredible. Our rapellers were: Gus S, Eli M, Warren L, Andrew C, Elliot A, Hayes W and James H. 

And finally we had some mountain bikers hit the trails for one of the top trips of the summer, the backpacking/mountain biking combo overnight adventure! Dakota M, Hugh W, Sanders H, Harrison C, Henry O, Mason S and Miles A left today for a full day of riding at Rocky Knob and are currently setting up camp at beautiful Price Lake. Tomorrow they’ll ride again before returning to camp tomorrow afternoon. We can’t wait to hear all the epic tales from this trip. Not to be outdone, we also had a number of campers working hard on bars here on property. Robbie G and Edward T made strong progress towards their gold in Fitness. Barrett C did great work towards silver in Archery and Gus T earned his gold bar in field sports!

For those keeping track of the race for the golden plunger at home, today was a red letter day for Finch’s Landing. That’s right, those young guys took on all comers and finished with the high score of the day, 9.75! Way to go! With just a few days of 1A left, the golden plunger is still very much up for grabs. 

On the tribal side of things, the Black Bears celebrated at lunch when it was announced that they won yesterday’s game of battleball. With a couple wins in a row in their pockets, the Black Bears were feeling confident heading into tonight’s game of El Presidente. Always a camper favorite, the Golden Eagles will be looking to wrestle momentum back to their side in the arena tonight. 

And how could I forget? We ate and ate heartily all day long to be fueled up for adventure. We started our day with the world famous Geometry breakfast. We call it that because it’s a meal full of shapes (circle biscuits, square slices of cheese, circle egg patties and sausage patties, and oval hash browns). In my humble opinion, it’s the best breakfast at camp. Lunch was ham and cheese croissant sandwiches, cubed honeydew and waffle fries. And for dinner we enjoyed roast beef, mashed potatoes, green beans and dinner rolls. And to top it all off…brownies! 

It was an amazing day here at Timberlake and who knows what tomorrow will hold. I’m here to bet Thursday will come in with a bang and go out with a blast. Tune in tomorrow to get the full scoop!

Signing off,

John

Director, Camp Timberlake

Former Greybeard Counselor

Former Archery Instructor extraordinaire

Sultan of Fun Emeritus

Certified Pyrotechnics display operator