What a first week! Thanks to everybody who came and braved the wind and cold! This week, campers got a little taste of good old Southern Appalachian rain! We did our Monday hike up in the upper elevations of the blue ridge. Unlike other places, it can be just as beautiful up there on a blue-bird day with no clouds in the sky as it can when it is totally socked in by fog and rain. There is just something mysteriously awesome about the Black Balsam Ridge when you can't see around the corner and conifers that are only a few feet in front of you look like obscure silhouettes. When the sun does break through the clouds on days like this, it causes the wide open views to contrast with the remaining clouds in a breathtaking way. The abundance of bear poop was a constant reminder that we weren't totally alone out there and it gave us a chance to talk about the proper wilderness bear-etiquette with the kids. Not to concentrate too much on bear-business, but one thing that we noted was the almost ubiquitous presence of trash and food wrappers in the bear poo. Bears are beginning to become dependent upon the leavings of campers and hikers that come through the area. That gave us a chance to talk about how to be responsible users of the wilderness.
Mountain biking on day two was awesome as usual. It's my favourite day but it's also the most stressful day as the trip leader. Disassembling and loading the bikes onto the trailer, unloading and reassembling the bikes, re-disassembling and reloading the bikes, re-unloading and re-reassembling the bikes at the end of the day will wear you out. Watching 10 kids at the bottom of an awesome downhill trail buzzing with excitement is priceless. Over the winter, I tested out some new trails to add to our current repertoire of routes at the Dupont State Forest and I found a gem! It includes a really flowy loop that ends up at a waterfall with an awesome sliding rock dumping into a beautiful pool of water at the bottom. It was, and I quote from one of our campers, "better than the real Sliding Rock!" It's hard to get to, which makes it nice because all the tourists don't know about it! Riding in the rain was the real fun though! It poured on us pretty much the whole time. Nothing like charging mud puddles at full speed in the rain.
Wednedsay was our second hiking day up in Pisgah. Again, rain for most of the day. No problem- all part of the experience! We actually were sitting ontop of a big mountain overlook as we watched the rain shield approach. That was pretty incredible. It was on this hike that one of our campers took the "ant eater challenge". I found a great big black ant and challenged the boys to eat it. Everybody pondered the glory that it would bring, but backed away when they thought about the idea of something crawling around and squirming in their mouth. It didn't take Chuck long to think about it though- he reached down, pick it up, and popped it in his mouth like a piece of candy. Mad props to you, Chuck!
Finally, rafting day on the Nantahala River. As always, this was a crowd favourite. We had lots of fun and everybody got to swim. Everybody loved jumping off the big rock, Jack successfully jumped out of his boat and into the other one and pushed everybody in, and they all ate tons of candy and drove the camp staff crazy on the 2.5 hour van trip back home. Good times. Thanks again to all the kids who came and to all the parents who let their kids come this week!
Matt Griffin
What a first week! Thanks to everybody who came and braved the wind and cold! This week, campers got a little taste of good old Southern Appalachian rain! We did our Monday hike up in the upper elevations of the blue ridge. Unlike other places, it can be just as beautiful up there on a blue-bird day with no clouds in the sky as it can when it is totally socked in by fog and rain. There is just something mysteriously awesome about the Black Balsam Ridge when you can't see around the corner and conifers that are only a few feet in front of you look like obscure silhouettes. When the sun does break through the clouds on days like this, it causes the wide open views to contrast with the remaining clouds in a breathtaking way. The abundance of bear poop was a constant reminder that we weren't totally alone out there and it gave us a chance to talk about the proper wilderness bear-etiquette with the kids. Not to concentrate too much on bear-business, but one thing that we noted was the almost ubiquitous presence of trash and food wrappers in the bear poo. Bears are beginning to become dependent upon the leavings of campers and hikers that come through the area. That gave us a chance to talk about how to be responsible users of the wilderness.
Mountain biking on day two was awesome as usual. It's my favourite day but it's also the most stressful day as the trip leader. Disassembling and loading the bikes onto the trailer, unloading and reassembling the bikes, re-disassembling and reloading the bikes, re-unloading and re-reassembling the bikes at the end of the day will wear you out. Watching 10 kids at the bottom of an awesome downhill trail buzzing with excitement is priceless. Over the winter, I tested out some new trails to add to our current repertoire of routes at the Dupont State Forest and I found a gem! It includes a really flowy loop that ends up at a waterfall with an awesome sliding rock dumping into a beautiful pool of water at the bottom. It was, and I quote from one of our campers, "better than the real Sliding Rock!" It's hard to get to, which makes it nice because all the tourists don't know about it! Riding in the rain was the real fun though! It poured on us pretty much the whole time. Nothing like charging mud puddles at full speed in the rain.
Wednedsay was our second hiking day up in Pisgah. Again, rain for most of the day. No problem- all part of the experience! We actually were sitting ontop of a big mountain overlook as we watched the rain shield approach. That was pretty incredible. It was on this hike that one of our campers took the "ant eater challenge". I found a great big black ant and challenged the boys to eat it. Everybody pondered the glory that it would bring, but backed away when they thought about the idea of something crawling around and squirming in their mouth. It didn't take Chuck long to think about it though- he reached down, pick it up, and popped it in his mouth like a piece of candy. Mad props to you, Chuck! 
Finally, rafting day on the Nantahala River. As always, this was a crowd favourite. We had lots of fun and everybody got to swim. Everybody loved jumping off the big rock, Jack successfully jumped out of his boat and into the other one and pushed everybody in, and they all ate tons of candy and drove the camp staff crazy on the 2.5 hour van trip back home. Good times. Thanks again to all the kids who came and to all the parents who let their kids come this week!
