We are all still smiling from opening day yesterday – now time for our jam-packed activity schedules! It all starts at 7:30am with the wake up bell, where campers begin their morning chores of keeping their cabin tidy, getting dressed appropriately for activities and packing everything they need in their backpacks. It was not long till 8:15am rolled around – time for breakfast! Campers ate warm, fluffy pancakes, sausages, home fries, scrambled eggs and fresh fruit – all kindly prepared by our fabulous kitchen staff. Everyone is very grateful for the work they do all summer, feeding around 400 campers and staff each day.
Now heading down to ‘Lakeside’ – the opportunity for cabins to get together and get pumped for the day ahead, with plenty of singing, dancing and fun games for everyone at camp – including staff. To start off lakeside we make sure all cabins are present by allowing them to come up with a creative roll call that incorporates their cabin’s name. The creativity of our campers never fails to amaze us and our judges Rick the Stick and Fig the Twig choose their favorite roll call to then spend the day with them. Our winner today was Fontana – Congratulations to them!
After Lakeside, our cohort of squirrels packed their lunches for their day hikes and hopped in their vans. Thanks to our well-trained trip leaders, they spent time swimming and hiking in Pisgah, capped off by ice cream at the world-famous Dolly’s Ice Cream and Dairy Bar. We love the fact that day hikes get our younger cohorts adventuring out into beautiful Western North Carolina and give them the opportunity to connect intentionally with nature in ways they might not typically have the chance to do. Coupled with their overnights coming up, these campers will be backcountry pros in no time!
Meanwhile, the rest of our campers enjoyed their activity rotations back at camp. For some campers who are returning, they can be very familiar with our activities such as archery, swimming, pickleball and kayaking – however for our new campers it is a lovely opportunity for them to try something new and reach outside of their comfort zones. We appreciate all types of skill levels for our activities and with 2026 bringing a brand new climbing wall to tackle and fresh mountain bikes for the trails – everyone gets a chance to embrace activities to their fullest potential.
After a busy morning, for lunch we had grilled cheese sandwiches, tomato soup, tater tots and a fresh selection of salad. This set us up nicely for more activities in the afternoon. However – to allow our campers a chance to rest, we had an hour of downtime in our cabins to charge ourselves back up.
Right after more activity periods and before dinner, we also allow our campers to have ‘gym and swim’, where activities on the waterfront and around the gym area are open to all cabins, an opportunity to mingle with old and new friends from around camp.
As squirrels arrived back from their day hikes, dinner was CP’s famous cookout with hotdogs, burgers, mac and cheese, beans, watermelon slices and salad. Chilling out on the lawn for cookout in the sunshine is one of our favourite things to do, especially with our new cabinmates and with four different flavours of ice cream to choose from, this sure added to the summer vibes. This led us nicely into tonight’s EP of Opening Camp Fire. The entire camp gathers around our council ring which has held our camp fires for nearly 100 years. Skits from our counselors were performed, songs sung by the famous Lakeside crew, stories for Program Director Riley all helped us get into the camp spirit.
Tonight our camp spirit shined bright and we are sure of a great summer ahead!
