High Rocks LEAP School Group Season Rockin’
September 15, 2011 by Don Gentle
As most of you know, we do some special programming for school groups in the spring and fall each year – we call it LEAP: Learning Experientially through Adventure Programming. There are groups from all over the southeast that come to High Rocks, ranging in grade from 6th to 12th, to play outside, work on some initiatives, and enjoy beautiful western North Carolina.
We’re in the thick of our LEAP season now, and it’s just one of the greatest times of the year. Nobody is quite ready to give up summer camp, so we just change it up a little bit. The weather is starting to get much cooler, but kids are still canoeing around the lake, going off the rope swing, and keeping the rest of camp busy too.
The kids who come up for LEAP programs get to do a wide range of activities. Some of our groups spend their whole time here (which is usually between 3 and 5 days) on backpacking trips in Pisgah National Forest. A lot of groups spend whole days out climbing – we even had a group do a multi-pitch climbing day! Other typical activities for students who stay in camp include high and low ropes course, canoeing on the French Broad River, exploring some waterfalls in DuPont, checking out some stream ecology, and practicing orienteering and geocaching skills.
Another cool thing about the fall is that there is a local corn maze that opens. It’s a really fun evening activity for the groups to experience, and this year it sounds like the labyrinth has been especially challenging to get through. The evenings during the fall are really fun – when the students aren’t doing the corn maze, they’ll often enjoy some typical High Rocks field or dodgeball games, or go on night hikes around camp, and we always finish off our programs with a traditional campfire.
We’re sad that the season will be ending soon, but it’ll give us a little time to prepare for the next season. It won’t be long before a couple KIPP schools send their 6th graders our way and we’ll be visiting with Fathers & Sons for a long weekend of fun.
Crystal Clusiau