There's a Madness in these Mountains

Well, at least there is every Wednesday evening. See, we here at DMC believe that while variety may be the spice of life madness is the sugar. (Why else would we voluntarily lock ourselves up in cabins for five weeks with a bunch of kids?!?) So once a week we provide a special evening activity in a series we call 'Mountain Madness'.

Our first week camp brought Mountain Madness in the form of Water Balloon Madness. We broke into teams of three and spread out on the basketball court while teams took turns launching balloons 50+ feet into the air in an attempt to bomb the other teams. It's a bit harder than it sounds but we've yet to have everyone return to dessert dry.

This week we did our Madness Relay. With people split into teams of five we put them through their paces in evens water balloon launching, egg tossing, BB gun shooting, and other forms of Tom-foolery.

All in all it makes for a good time and mixes up our evening activities a bit.

And if that wasn't enough Academic Olympics start tonight, but I'll tell you about that a little later (tomorrow, peradventure?)

~Tom

Stick a fork in week one . . .

 . . . 'cause it's done!

That's right, we've been here more than a week already. Time flies when you're having fun, and if we are good at two things here one is academics, but the other is having fun. In fact, we have so much fun that I don't always have a chance to post up here on the blog or get new pics up, but I will do my best to do it often. On that note, there are some new photos up, so hit up the link at the bottom of the page.

Our weekdays were filled with adventure. Kayakers got rowdy on the river while the climbers were rude on the rocks. Those exploring the equine sports had an interesting week learning that horses don't always cooperate. Wild Colorado (my group) rocked out learning serious survival skills that culminated in sleeping in our shelters in the forest (until it started to storm that is). Our day-campers group Wild Colorado 2 had a great time trying new things and our bold bikers broke in some of the single track trails in the area.

Academics are going well. I even had one camper confide in me that he likes his academics classes more than his outdoor pursuit (this was a new one for me).

This last weekend being the Fourth of July was a special one. In all honesty, after experiencing a Fourth of July at DMC any other celebration just seems to lack something.

We started off with a restful Saturday. In the morning campers had some choices of activities: a nice bike ride, a hike to the 1,500 foot cliff that is Castle Rock, or running Cascade Creek which involves jumping off several waterfalls into the pools below. After that we cleaned our cabins and enjoyed some cabin privileges (town runs, goto the movies, ect).

Sunday we started with a convoy (CW McCall style) up to Silverton where we stopped to enjoy a picnic lunch in a mountain meadow. From there we trucked on to Ouray for some relaxing hours in the hot springs there. It's an amazing thing to lounge in water naturally heated to 104 degrees surrounded on all sides by towering mountains. After that we turned the kids loose on the town to explore the shops and grab a bit to eat. Then we headed back to Sliverton to be wowed by their fireworks show, which never disappoints. It truly was a great weekend.

This week we start our first week of our second outdoor pursuits. The same options are available as last week, with the addition of our SCUBA class. In the water, on it, over it, or by it, a good time will be had by all.

With that, the dinner bell will be ringing shortly, so I'll leave the rest to be told to you by your fantastic kids on their calling night (they are calling, right?).

~Tom

Gettin' into the Groove

Just like every other organization, we do have our routines here at DMC. We know them, love them, and live by them. From Mysto Man and his cabin cleanliness checks, to our beautiful beloved buddy beads we do things our own way out here. After a few days just about everyone had the hang of it. Our daily schedule is a busy one, but we have a lot of things we have got to do.

Take for example yesterday (Thursday). Where else would a 16 year old girl get up at 6:00am, eat breakfast, goto tutoring, enjoy an art class painting gourds, goto study hall, then writing class. Then, at 12:20pm, goto lunch, relax an hour, learn the basics of (BB) rifle marksmanship, hike through/jump off six creek waterfalls, and socialize for an hour. Then, and 6:00pm have dinner, play a wicked game of lacrosse, have dessert, and end the day with an hour of reading?

Almost makes you wonder, what did I do today?

Regardless, we are running full steam ahead. I'll get some more photos up soon.

~Tom

Day One

Parents, let me start off by saying we love you. After you left yesterday we (the staff) had a chance to meet your wonderful kids. We played a few fun get-to-know you games, enjoyed a light dinner, then moved on to our cabin meetings. In the meetings our campers had a chance to get to know their counselors and the campers they will be staying with this summer.

As far as first days go, this one has been a great one so far.

Because of the academic nature of our camp the first full day is one of testing. This serves two purposes. First it lets us know where your kids are so we can customize their tutoring specifically to their needs. Second, it gives us a point of reference so we can measure their progress.

Now, a day of nothing but testing just wouldn't be a great day, so we also had a hike up to pristine Potato Lake and played some intense games of kick ball and capture the flag. We also taught campers how to safely and properly use a hatchet while we built seating around the fire ring for tonight's camp fire.

We'll get some photo's up on our flickr ( flickr.com/durangomountaincamp ) soon.

In the mean time, it's almost dinner and Dan's home made spaghetti sauce is not to be missed.

~Tom

Summer 2010

Believe it or not summer is just around the corner again, and things are up and running here at DMC. Our staff of dynamic directors, terrific tutors, and crazy cool counselors have gathered back at out home away from home in the mountains to prepare everything for yet another great summer.

There are going to be a lot of familiar faces this year as most of our staff, and many of our campers, are returning from last year. Camp enrollment is at full capacity and the facilities are looking great. This year we'll be running three boys cabins and one girls cabin.

Our academic programs are shaping up nicely and plans for our outdoor pursuits have got the counselors excited. Again this year we'll be featuring mountain biking, SCUBA diving, equine sports, rock climbing, kayaking, and Wild Colorado (which should be even more wild and more fun than last year).

Don't forget to check back here regularly for updates from staff and campers and to visit our flickr page at flickr.com/durangomountaincamp for photos from our adventures this year, as well as those from adventures past.

As we toil away in our final preparations resounds on everyone's mind:

It's going to be a great summer!