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| goofing around in a flooded creek at our low ropes course |
Storms and nasty mud EVERYWHERE aside, the week was absolutely amazing! The 6 campers were really fun and extremely mature for their age. And the counselors (including an awesome volunteer counselor from Ohio Christian University I didn't even know I'd have) did a great job!
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| Andrew (the WA counselor for July 7-12) instructing kayaking |
Two of the highlights of the week were our trips offsite: we went kayaking on Lake Logan (the Hocking River was too high/fast/flooded) and rock climbing/repelling/caving! The sky was beautiful somewhat clear and blue (finally!) for the kayaking trip and we had a good, relaxing time paddling and swimming. The rock climbing trip was just plain epic! We started off climbing at an area I've been to a lot. Then we got lowered into a cave! I was so excited! I even got to use some of the knowledge I gained at the caving camp from a few weeks ago. And of course it was fun doing my cave lizard impression again. One of the boys also did a really good Gollum impression. Haha! After exploring/hanging out in the cool cave for a little while, we went repelling down a 150 foot cliff in an area called Big Springs! This cliff was beside a gorgeous waterfall by the way.
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| with Jeremiah, the awesome volunteer counselor, at the bottom of the repelling site |
It was one of those weeks that I felt sadness instead of relief when the kids left. They were such an amazing group!
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| a beautiful heron on Lake Logan |
This past week, there were no storms or rain until Friday (when we were down in the lodge and main camp and the kids would be leaving soon). It was very hot and humid, but I was very happy to have dry feet and no crazy storms to worry about!
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| Emmy (one of the counselors) proud of starting a great fire |
The week started off rough on Sunday: a huge tree had fallen over the weekend (suprise surprise), blocking our way up to The Meadow (our living area). So we had to wait for people to clear it before we could move our luggage, water, and food up. The kids were also way younger than I thought they would be. I was told I had high schoolers, but the kids that showed up were 9-12 year-olds. I had to completely change my plans. I also tend to enjoy older middle/high school kids way more because they are more independent, more mature, and you can do more awesome high adventure activities with them.
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| Adam (the counselor I had for WA for 2 weeks: July 14-19 & June 30-July 3). He's hilarious! |
In spite of the rough start, the week ended up being great! The counselors were super fun and we had another awesome volunteer from OCU. The kids were pretty cool too.
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| with Travis, the other awesome volunteer counselor from OCU, at the end of the week |
My favorite part of the week was the rapelling trip (with a 40 foot repel). At first I was nervous because I've never taken anyone under the age of 14 repelling, but they did great! I was so proud of them! The leaders in training (a group of older high schoolers at camp for the past 2 weeks) joined us too. I was back-up belaying and spent almost half the time waiting/relaxing with the 2 high school girls talking. After the trip, our camp director (who has been leading the rock climbing/repelling trips) treated us to ice cream!
This upcoming week was originally supposed to be Extreme Wilderness Adventures, where we were going to be traveling to West Virginia for rafting, repelling, climbing, hiking, camping out, and other exciting things. Sadly, not enough people signed up so it got cancelled. Now I will be counseling 8th graders. I haven't been a counselor (without also having a bunch of other responsibilities) since 2011, so I'm both excited and nervous. It will be our last week with campers, so I'm going to make it a great week!
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| beautiful Big Springs |
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