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February 4, 2009July 30, 2020 • Horseback Riding • rbc

Befriend a Special Horse

It’s so easy to enjoy horseback riding at camp. Everything is right there for you: beautiful horses, wonderful instructors, excellent equipment and riding facilities, and other youth to ride with.

Part of that enjoyment comes from befriending a special horse, from being paired with a graceful powerful animal you grow to trust and who trusts you. It’s really a special relationship. With kind and gentle communication, you and your horse become more responsive to each other, and more comfortable together. There’s nothing quite like it— the feeling of power and freedom you experience when you and your camp horse willingly cooperate and ride.

It’s also a real accomplishment for a youth girl to build this kind of friendship with a horse at camp. It takes patience and a caring attitude, but with good instruction and practice, every girl can do it. Every girl can experience the joy of horseback riding.

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January 26, 2009July 30, 2020 • History • rbc

The Rockbrook Camp Bell

Here’s something that all the girls who attend Rockbrook will easily recognize— the camp bell! This is the bell we ring to signal the whole camp when it’s time to change activity periods, come to meals, and of course, wake up in the morning. It has such a clear tone and is easily heard throughout the entire camp, even up on Castle Rock.

It’s actually a very old bell (1895), well over 100 years old, and older than the camp itself by more than 20 years. For as long as anyone around here can remember it’s been perched up in the big oak tree at the front of the dining hall, ready to be rung by pulling on the rope that leads to the dining hall porch. It’s one of those very familiar parts of camp that everybody loves.

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January 18, 2009June 1, 2020 • Hiking • rbc

Steep Hiking Adventure

Here’s a picture of a hiking group at the top of Castle Rock, one of the two massive rocks on the Rockbrook Camp property (the other one being Dunn’s Rock). From up there, the view is out across the French Broad River Valley and out to the Blue Ridge Mountains. It’s an amazing spot to see Cedar Rock (another climbing destination) and on a clear enough day, Tennent Mountain (a backpacking spot up near the Shining Rock Wilderness area). Sitting at this spot on Castle Rock your elevation is almost 2,450 feet above sea level. Below you is a 150 foot rock cliff and further below is the main part of camp which has an elevation of 2,250 feet.

You knew hiking the trail from camp to Castle Rock was steep uphill; now you know how much! You’re hiking up about 200 feet in about half a mile. Sure there are switch-backs, but that trail is steep!

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January 14, 2009May 28, 2020 • Arts • rbc

Summer Pottery Program

The Rockbrook pottery program continues to be a very popular activity at camp. Both pottery studios always seem to be humming— girls sculpting, pressing or decorating something, and instructors zipping around to give pointers, prepare materials, or plan a kiln firing. All this action means that there are some pretty cool things being made too! There are multi-colored tiles, sculpted miniature animals, giant coil pots (like the one in this photo), and delicate wheel-thrown cups and bowls.

One really cool project is to take a smooth flat slab of clay and press natural forms into it so that they leave intricate textures. Little twigs, leaves, and tree bark, for example, all leave amazing patterns. You can then use the slab to make a vase or some other vessel.

It’s easy to see why the Rockbrook summer arts program is so well loved. There’s almost an endless variety of pottery projects to make, great satisfaction seeing how they turn out when glazed and fired, and the fun of being with your friends throughout.

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January 12, 2009July 21, 2020 • Horseback Riding • rbc

The Youngest Equestrian Riders

Can the youngest children at camp take horseback riding?

Absolutely, yes! The youngest girls at Rockbrook, who are 6 years old, are some of our most enthusiastic riders down at the equestrian center. Camp is a great place to develop girls’ interests in horses, even to take their very first ride. Rockbrook has several experienced, gentle ponies, perfect for these young beginning horseback riders, and our staff is well qualified to teach beginner lessons. There’s lots to learn— what to wear, safety rules, grooming, tacking up, how to mount, riding position, communicating with your horse, and so much more— but step by step, you’ll progress through it all.

Equestrian Riding is fun and rewarding: yes, even for the youngest girls!

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January 5, 2009July 21, 2020 • Drama • rbc

Summer Camp Musical

Last year our summer camp musical was Into the Woods. Each summer we select a musical for the girls to produce, practice and perform at the end of the main sessions, and in 2008 it was this wonderful play by Stephen Sondheim. If you haven’t seen it, it’s a story that integrates aspect of Little Red Riding Hood, Cinderella, Jack and the Bean Stalk, and Rapunzel. With so many characters involved, it’s a great summer camp drama production because so many campers can have a part, even a singing part. Then the girls are also designing and making costumes, painting scenery, and pulling together all the details of the play. It’s always a treat to see the wide range of talents the Rockbrook campers can show off.

In the next few weeks we’ll be considering different plays for this summer’s camp sessions. If you have any suggestions, let us know in the comments.

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December 19, 2008June 1, 2020 • Horseback Riding • rbc

Let’s Canter!

After you feel comfortable controlling your horse in a walk, and learning to post while trotting your horse, the next step is to learn how to canter. The canter is a 3-beat riding movement of a horse that is faster than a trot but slower than a gallop. It’s a very natural gait where the first beat you hear is either the left or right hind leg. The second beat is the opposite hind leg and its opposite fore leg together, and the final beat is the fore leg opposite the first beat. Riding the canter involves the hips moving forward and backward slightly while keeping the rider in the saddle. It’s kind of a back and forth sweeping motion rather than an up and down motion like when you post. One important tip is to not pull on the reins for balance; this makes it more difficult for your horse to more forward as he needs. There are lots of types of canter to learn as well (“working,” “collected,” and “extended” for example), but in any case its great fun to learn this technique as you develop your horse riding skills at camp.

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December 17, 2008March 24, 2023 • History • rbc

Vintage Postcards of Camp

Here are two more vintage postcards showing the historic character of our North Carolina camp. Like the others we’ve posted, the Albertype Company produced these postcards in the 1930s. The first is a view of Vesper Rock looking out across the camp lake, and in the background you can see the Lakeview Lodge. The second card is even cooler because it shows what the Carrier’s (Rockbrook’s original owners) waterwheel looked like. It was dismantled many years ago leaving only the stone foundation which you can just barely spot down in the woods below the lake. Wouldn’t it be cool to rebuild it? Maybe someday we will!

P.S. Want to see more historic photos of camp, including another view of the waterwheel? Check out these.

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December 15, 2008June 1, 2020 • Rock Climbing • rbc

Rockbrook Camp’s Ropes Course

Youth girls climbing adventure ropes course

“Does Rockbrook have a ropes course?”

Yes, we have an Alpine Tower. This is a special challenge course camp structure that combines both low ropes course elements and really cool high ropes course events. If you haven’t seen one of these, they are amazing. From this photo you can see a little that they are made of huge telephone poles bolted and lashed together in the shape of two inverted pyramids. This allows the youth girls to climb up three different sides, swing on ropes, balance on logs, scramble up cargo nets, and pull up on all sorts of climbing holds. There’s the “corporate ladder,” the “missing link,” the “swinging logs,” and the “bump out” to name just a few of the ropes course climbing elements on the Tower. You can imagine how popular climbing is at camp, and with all these different ways to climb, girls can come back all the time and have something new to try.

P.S. Did you know Rockbrook’s Alpine Tower is unique among youth camps because it is the only one with a roof?!

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December 12, 2008March 25, 2023 • Children • rbc

Kids Gotta Love S’mores!

Let’s talk s’mores… Don’t you just love ’em? You know how to make them. Take two graham crackers and a piece of plain milk chocolate, roast a marshmallow on a stick over a fire, and make a chocolate marshmallow sandwich with the graham crackers. Some people like their marshmallow golden brown and gooey, while others are fine burning the marshmallow a little bit to make a charred skin. Either way, they are an excellent sweet treat out around the campfire and one of every kid’s favorite outdoor activities.

Did you know that nobody knows for sure who invented s’mores? The first recorded recipe appears in a Girl Scout book called Tramping and Trailing published in 1927, but s’mores were certainly around before that. For example, Moon Pies, which are also made of a cracker, marshmallow and chocolate, were first produced in 1917. It’s a bit of a mystery, but it’s fun to think that making s’mores has been an outdoor activity kids have enjoyed at Rockbrook since the very beginning.

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