This summer, a number of our staff members have been enjoying reading “The Boys in the Boat”, a true story of the American olympic rowing team that took gold in the 1936 Olympics. Besides being a fabulous book that I would highly recommend to anybody looking for a great summer read, I have found countless comparisons and parallels from the descriptions of life as a part of the 8 man rowing team and life here at camp.

 

One that has stuck out is the team’s pursuit of ‘swing’. For a rowing team, swing is described as ” A magical feeling in the boat when the rowers are driving and moving the boat as one unit. What all rowers strive for”. The best way I could describe this final Monday of first session is to say that campers have found their swing. Our four week campers are entering week four of a full session of fun and even our two week campers are now coming into day 9 here at Timberlake and you can feel the whole community begin to settle into a comfortable and confident rhythm of life here at camp. As a director I have to say it is just beautiful to see. Seeing camp moving together today also reminded me why we are so passionate about the two week minimum session length for campers, there is just so shortcut to finding ‘swing’. You have to get there together and it takes time, but once you do it is simply magical.

 

But enough waxing poetic from the ‘old man’ at camp. Let’s hear about the day!

 

We started things off with a delicious breakfast of donut holes, scrambled eggs, sausage and hash browns. After the morning yell we went to chapel and heard from cabin area director Matt as he shared a story of grace from his own life. We had several trips head out for off camp adventures today. The first was a whitewater rafting trip. Sam J, Ben L, Peter K, Emmett M, Griffin W, Fitch W, William F, Robbie G, Adams H, Pace W, Will S and Carter M had a great day out on the French Broad riding the rapids and enjoying the river.

 

We also had not one, but TWO historic trips happen today. The first was our first ever RIVER SNORKELING TRIP. Yes you read that right, river snorkeling. Assistant director of adventure Caleb led a group of adventures to the Linville River for a day of snorkeling and exploring. Tucker C, Stephen J, Wills W, Henry L, Landon F, Nat H, Noah J, Phillip H and Ben H hiked down into the gorge and had fantastic day exploring some aquatic natural river life.

 

And secondly our kayakers returned from the first ever Ocoee overnight kayaking trip. The Ocoee is a really famous southeastern river that our boys have been itching to paddle for years. This year we had the group with the skills to take on this famous run and Henry O, Banks P, Ryker R, Kenny C and Mason S absolutely ‘styled it’. They left camp yesterday, paddled the Tuckaseegee, camped out and hit the Ocoee early this morning. What a day!

 

After a delicous lunch of ham and cheese croissant sandwiches, grapes, mexican street corn soup and soft pretzel bites we found out that Stomper’s knob was the cleanest cabin of the day with a perfect 10! We also announced the winner of last night’s game of counselor hunt…The Golden Eagles! I think it’s fair to say the race for the banner couldn’t be any tighter with just four days to go.

 

In the afternoon activities were bumping here at camp. Logan D and Quay B got their first rolls in kayaking. Edward S got his silver in cricket. Matthew D got his gold in Airsoft. Sam S got his bronze in airsoft. Tucker C and Nat H were announced as the winners of yesterday’s riflery tournament. Penn S and Hays T got their bronze in Mountain biking and Lewis J earned his gold in mountain biking!

 

Dinner was a personal favorite: pork carnitas complete with all the fixings. After dinner the sultan of fun emerged to announce tonight’s tribal competition: Avengers’s Infinity war! A huge cheer greeted the announcement followed by gasps of shock and amazement as Iron Man, Thor, Loki, Spiderman, The Hulk, War Machine and Thanos all entered the dining hall to get the boys fired up for the game.

 

As the sun sets over the mountains the guys are settling into cabins and winding down for the evening. Having found our swing the only negative news to report is that we only have a few days left with these amazing first session campers. But I know we are going 0t make the most of them!

 

Until next time,

John

Director, Camp Timberlake

Summer Reading convert

Proud Golden Eagle

Thanos extraordinaire