Fernwood Cove – 7/6Posted by Beigette Gill on July 07, 2016

Wednesday’s Blog was written by 5th Grade Buncle and Climbing and Ropes Counselor, Jon.

Today I woke up in one of Americas national parks, Bradbury Mountain, with the sun blooming through the canopy. For Trip Day, the previous day, we had gone hiking in the park and stayed for our overnight. As the morning wore on the girls started a fire and proceeded to “toast” their bagels on the fire, before packing up and leaving the park for the ride back to camp.

When we arrived back at camp the girls had missed the first focus of the day but were just in time for the second focus so they ran off and started their day at camp. The trip leaders stayed back to take the camping equipment back and air out all the tents.

Lunch today was a cheese and veggie alfredo lasagna with carrots and green beans. It was a huge hit with the girls as many went up for seconds and the trays all left the table empty. At lunch we have dessert and today it was natural popcicles with two flavors being offered, strawberry and mango. After that the girls retired to their bunks for rest hour to allow the food to digest.
The second half of the day consists of climbing for one focus, in which I coached girls up the hardest wall in camp and some surprised themselves that if they keep trying they will persevere in the end. The second half of my afternoon is ropes course, where we have a smaller group than normal at the ropes course (due to overnights), which is great because it allows us to run through many sections of the course quickly and allows the girls to experience the entire course.
Today at the ropes course we went along the solo features and waited in the main platform for the whole group where we played a couple of team building games and solved each other’s riddles before moving on to the ZAP line which runs from one platform to the new sections of the course. Once on the new course we then set up the ZIP line which we used to get off the course. One of the girls was quite nervous about the zip line but the others were incredibly supportive and she decided to go down the ZIP.
After we had all gone down the zip and I cleared the course for the day we took a minute to look back at what we had done today and what we thought about in different portions. I brought up the encouraging on the ZIP line and the girl was glad that she went because it was so fun and now wants to do it over and over. It was great to see the confidence building inside the group and the trust they have in each other.

We walked back to camp along the trail and saw the camp pigs lounging in the sun and the chickens drinking from the water. I am going to have a hangover tomorrow so I devised treatment for extreme hangovers.

Then for dinner there was a Fernwood Cove favorite WING WEDNESDAY, this is the new chef’s creation and the kids love it! With all dietary restrictions considered the wings were amazing as they were gluten free/dairy free! My highlight would be the buffalo wings with a sweet chili dipping sauce, but the salad bar was amazing as well with a bean and tomato pasta and a good selection of salads.
After the meal we moved onto tonight’s evening program, Stoopin’ It, which was a selection of stations being run by the counselors. I was stationed at the Football pitch (soccer) where we played some games with footballs then got a Frisbee and played catch as a massive group until the bell went for the end of EP.
We concluded the day with half an hour of free time in which the girls can chill out and get ready for bed to prepare for tomorrow.