It’s adventure race day here at Camp Timberlake! What’s the adventure race you ask? Well, it’s a unique challenge course that only happens once a session for our older campers. I’ll give some more details below, but for now, let’s get to the rest of the day. 

Things started out strong with a delicious breakfast of french toast and maple sausage, supplemented by cereal, milk, granola, yogurt, fresh blueberries and strawberries, and a hot grits bar. 

After jamming out in the chapel, the boys headed to clean those cabins. The competition for the Golden plunger is tightening up as Hawksbill secured another win today, taking the crown with a score of a 9.5 out of 10.

We had a few fun trips head out of camp this morning for a day of adventure in the water. First, Davis A, Matt R, Justin F, Alex F, and Holden B headed left for Upper Creek Falls, a beautiful hike with a really fun swimming hole at the end. These guys weren’t the only water-bound men today, however, as CJ R, Lawson M, Luke F, Lewis J, Grayson W, and James B all got to go kayaking today on the Tuckasegee river. 

Not to be outdone by our campers taking trips, daily activities here on property went off with a bang as well. Speaking of bangs, EJ L launched a terrifically tall rocket to an astounding altitude today in Rocketry class. Case E also nailed his roll in kayaking and Will B and Gus C both caught beautiful bass in fishing. Charlie M was also a master angler today as he reeled in 5 different fish. 

At lunchtime, we scarfed down a scrumptious meal of cheese quesadillas, cobb salad, chicken tortilla soup and peaches. We waited with great anticipation to find out who won last night’s game of lower cabin soccer. And the winner was…The Black Bears! Chest bumps and high fives were exchanged all around. But, we also had to find out who claimed victory in the senior camp basketball game, and it was…the Golden Eagles. With the banner race coming right down the the wire it’s sure to be an exciting week of evening activities. On our way to the best time, REST TIME, each cabin walked through the important covenant of clothing. Our intrepid counselors in training gathered up all the lost and found that hadn’t been claimed yet and laid it out in two big sections. Campers walked through and looked at each item to see if, just maybe, it belonged to them. While it likely won’t make the highlight reel for any of our campers, seeing lost items picked up and returned to their owners makes a director’s heart smile. Now if we can just keep them from getting lost again before Friday…

During rest time, the adventure race began. Our four teams were, Jack D, H-P, Charles T, and Will A; Richard B, William B, Garret S and Lucas O; Barrett C, Case E, Greg S, and Jack D; and finally Sam H, Jerry D, Fischer R, and Bosten P. Giving a full description of the race would take longer than we have time for here, but the basic layout is four teams of four traveling to 5 different locations all around camp and completing different challenges to win puzzle pieces. Once a team has completed all the challenges and retrieved all the puzzle pieces, they can return to the chapel where they must assemble and solve a 3D puzzle to win the game. To give you a sense of what these challenges are like, one involved the teams climbing 5 different routes at our climbing tower. Another had the teams build a raft from scrap materials at the lake and paddle across the lake in the raft to our dive tower. From there they had to do a “leap of faith” off the tower to retrieve a hidden key which they could then take to the fire dock to unlock the treasure chest and retrieve a puzzle piece inside. The teams had three and a half hours to complete the very challenging course. 

In afternoon activities, Peter K, Sam S, David F, Reed P, Gus C, and Charlie F got their bronze bar in canoeing. David F received his archery bronze and Drew S and Hayden B got their bronzes in Rocketry. Over in disc golf, Eli F and HP earned their bronze, and Barrett G made great progress towards his silver, including launching an 83 yard drive. At fitness class, Will E and Will F got their bronze, and Charlie A got his in fitness, completing a Half Murph in less than 17 minutes. And finally, over in pottery, Graham P worked on an excellent vase he plans to give to his sister when he returns home from Timberlake. 

After a yummy dinner of pulled pork and mac and cheese, we donned our tribal tees and played Search and Destroy. It was a tight game so we’ll have to wait until tomorrow to see who came out with the “W”. Usually after evening activity campers wind down and head to bed, but tonight there was even more fun in store for the boys as they got to watch the legendary Camp Timberlake Fireworks Show! As soon as darkness fell, we gathered above the lake to watch and enjoy. After the rockets finished flashing and banging, the boys closed things out with a raucous rendition of “I’m proud to be an American” and then tromped off to the cabins for some well deserved rest. 

What else is there to say? It was another amazing day at Camp Timberlake, and we’re so glad each of your boys was here to share it with us. Until next time!

John

Director, Camp Timberlake

Licenced North Carolina Pyrotechnics Operator

Adventure Race Enthusiast

Proud Golden Eagle