Second Session is officially off and running! As the sun rose over the North Carolina mountains this morning, all two hundred acres of Camp Timberlake seemed to be holding its breath as we anticipated the arrival of our second session campers. The gates were flung open wide at 9:00 and the cars came streaming in, ready to get the fun started. 

This morning Catherine and I got to see old friends reunite and many more new friendships begin to take shape. After checking in and enjoying a picnic lunch with their cabin, the boys got to swim in Lake Newcomb this afternoon for their swim check and then headed off to tribal initiation. Here at camp we have two tribes, the mighty Black Bears and the powerful Golden Eagles.  Once a young man joins a tribe, he is a part of it for life. Everybody who has ever been a part of camp is part of a tribe, and it is just one of the great ways we get to plug into community here at Timberlake. This afternoon we happily welcomed many new members to the camp family. 

Our new Black Bears are: Hyder B, Pim BR, Ruben C, Aaron D, Archer E, Alex E, Ethan E, Dowell, F, Stafford M, Luca P, Aiden R, Liam R, Landon V, Larry W, and Eli J

Our new Golden Eagles are: Logan B, Wynn A, Crosby H, Jonathan B, Liam T, and Ayrton P

After initiation and some spirited tribal chants, we headed down to the dining hall to enjoy a delicious dinner of spaghetti and meatballs, roasted broccoli and breadsticks. We also had a full salad bar, a rice and bean bar and fruit to go with it. After devouring our cookie ice cream sandwich desserts and listening to the rules of camp explained by yours truly, we announced our first tribal competition of the session: Sock War!

If you’ve never played sock war before, just picture a giant, capture the flag style game where campers throw balled up socks at each other to tag their opponents out and you can kind of get the idea. As I type this I can hear the raucous cheers coming from the sock war arena and I am confident that the race for this session’s banner is going to be tightly contested and highly competitive. Best of luck to both tribes!

Be sure to check back in each day to read the nightly blog post and catch up on all the adventures happening here at Timberlake. We hope that the daily articles and pictures are an effective way of giving our camp families a window into the world their boys are experiencing here at Timberlake. We’re so thankful that everybody is here this session and we can’t wait for all the adventures ahead! 

Until next time, 

John

Proud Golden Eagle

Friendly neighborhood camp director

Sultan of fun emeritus 

Former Big piney, big slaty, and greybeard counselor