Point and Counterpoint

June 25, 2019 by

Days at High Rocks have a typical rhythm that everyone falls into and delights in: We wake up, clean up, eat breakfast, go to assembly, a morning full of activities, have some free time, then lunch time, rest time, afternoon activities, then free/choice time, supper, evening activities, snack, call to quarters and lights out. That’s a lot!! It becomes so familiar that it might seem easy to forget the syncopations that are part of almost every day.

For instance, today the hikers threw in Camo Day, which entails having campers preparing to go into the woods (in supervised groups) in darker clothes, face paint, and with a mission to find Peruvian Purple Peppers (part of a recent campfire story, with painted acorns substituting for the hot peppers). The guys are out, adventuring and searching for the full morning or afternoon, then they have a surprise encounter with civilization, in the form of ice water. It is amazing how welcome such a simple pleasure can be!

The canoers launched on a two-day paddle on the French Broad, camping on the banks of the river tonight. These guys have a rare opportunity in that today they will tackle Section 9, a challenging section even for advanced campers. Tomorrow, after a night spent sleeping with the sounds of the river nearby, they get to jump to an early start of another run of the same section. Though on the surface this could seem to be a simple repeat, it really provides a chance to push one’s skills in a whole new way. With the previous day’s run fresh in the mind, each camper will have a chance to try a different line, retry a failed move from the first day, push through perhaps some initial nervous with the increased comfort of familiarity, and just spend a good, long day maximizing a gorgeous section of whitewater river with your friends.

The last Chill Night of this session is tonight. So, by bedtime, everyone in camp will have had the chance to slide down that huge rock on the Davidson River (a few find the water a bit too cold) and stickily slurp their favorite flavor of Dolly’s. As many of you know, that’s liable to be your first stop on Friday when you leave camp, only three days from now!!

I hope you have had as fun a day and will have as restful a night as our Tuesday.

Alliteratively,

Dan

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