Fridays on the Mountain

This third (or first!) Friday of the session was a sunny one for our crew. Camp was off to the races not long after the bell, with some of our intrepid explorers heading out even before.

Climbers actually met at the bell in time to be part of the ringing and quickly fell on a quiet breakfast before the dining hall filled with its typical noise. They were up and out of camp for a day spent climbing at Melrose. The clear skies continued throughout the day and made for perfect climbing weather on the rock. The paddlers were just minutes behind them, heading for a full day trip down Section 9 of the French Broad river. With more regular rain recently, the river was at a good level for the kind of route setting and exploration that particular section is really suited for. 

In camp, things were moving along in that comfortable and efficient way camp runs once everyone is fully settled in. Our hikers had two events running. One was an afternoon Rich Mountain hike for some of our younger hikers which is the perfect half-day distance that requires no vehicle. The other was Big Weird Dog Day, which has groups of hikers joined by a horse who does the hike with them. I’m not entirely sure what the horse thinks about the whole affair, but the guys love the entourage. 

In swimming, our boys were fully embracing “Freedom Friday” which allowed them to choose what kind of swimming they wanted to do. With music requests being relayed to one young DJ on the dock, campers were floating in tubes, doing surface dives for handfuls of the lake bottom, and jumping off of floating docks for scores. The backdrop to this was composed of sailors ripping back and forth across the lake while newly minted kayakers practiced their wet exits. 

Down at the range it was “Challenge Day” where each camper gets to pick a counselor to have a shoot-off. There is much strategizing about against whom and with what implement. Campers are quite good at playing every factor to their advantage, which is necessary as our counselors are very proficient and are tough marks to take on. Not many campers emerged victorious, but all had fun in the attempt with much talk about how they will perform next go-round.