Campers Speak Out!

Best Camp Moment

So far, the best moment at camp was when I went down Smelter Rapid in an inner tube. It was great fun. When I went down, I could only see a wall of whitewater. Crashing into the water, I felt the full force of the river. Amazingly, I survived the wall of water!

By: Jack

My Perfect Day

Now my perfect day would be of course the best day ever. I would start by simply awakening to my excited dogs in my room, wagging their little tails, happily waiting for me to move. After a while an irresistible scent of pancakes determined me to get up and eat. They were deliciously fluffy with whip cream and fruit. Since the pancakes were so distracting, I finally realized I had to get ready. As I started walking around the house I noticed how big and fancy it was, like a beautiful dream. As curious as I was I kept walking and went outside and looked around more. The house had probably an acre or two of land and right next to a river. I decided I should probably go in and noticed it was 11:00 and I had to leave right then! Now your probably wondering where I would be going? Well skydiving, the most extreme thing I’ve ever done!

Afternoon

I called for my mom and showed her the time, so she hurriedly shot right down stairs, knowing we were going to be late. I couldn’t be late for well the most exciting day ever or most terrifying, but I guess I would find out soon. My mom nervously grabbed her keys and unlocked the car shoving me in and nagging at me. Since sadly she was the only one that would go with me, everybody else was too scared. Finally we drove our miniature, uncomfortable, and squished up mazda to pick up Emily. We drove down our street and stopped in a friendly little house’s driveway. We honked our horn and Emily came running to our car and hopped on in.

Night

About 20 minutes later we parked at a big boring brick building. Where we could be meeting our instructor, named Chas Whom seemed to be extra friendly and surprised that two 14 year olds were going skydiving. After showing us all of the steps and rules we headed to the helicopter. I had never been so close to one, it was sweet with an American flag print on it. Me, Emily, and the instructor jumped in, as my mom walked away. She said goodbye and have fun and all of that other stuff, but truly was probably scared and going through all of the bad things that could happen. Finally the propellers started spinning and me and Emily jumped in the back seat, while Chas went through all of the safetly precautions again. The propellers went faster and faster and soon we were hovering in the air, hundreds of feet about the ground. Emily and I put on our gear and double checked it. The helicopter stayed in the same spot and we walked toward the side and looked down.

By: Grayson

CLIMBING

Tops of trees

Wind rushing by

Mist in the air

Smooth rock

A dry mouth

A blank mind

Moving smoothly on the rock

By: Grant

Best Moment at Camp.

My best moment at camp would have to be biking down Horse Gulch. To go down, you have to go up. After two hours biking up, we finally got to enjoy the ride coming down. On the way down, I was like Speed Racer in my Mach Five. On the way down I yelped, “Ya hoo!” Then, out of nowhere, a small animal flew into my mouth. I stopped instantly, followed by a cough. I coughed up a grasshopper, and that was my best day ever.

By: Adam

Best Moment

My favorite moment at camp was hanging out in the cabin. I had fun in the cabin because we have a lot of food and it’s fun to talk at night. We try to get a workout in every night, so I’m hoping to leave camp being fit. Also in the cabin, both of my leaders are a lot of fun to hang with. Once a week we have a big clean in our cabin and when were working, we are allowed to listen to music and have fun while we clean. In are cabin in the morning, we always have silent mornings. During the night we make bracelets and there really fun to make. Our cabin is so much fun to be in.

By:Josie

The Wicked Truck

     The truck is an old Ford 650. It was totaled from a ninety-nine car pile up. The truck was crushed from both sides. The windshield was broken and the engine fell out in the middle of the road. A tow truck took the truck to the dump. Luckily, I was at the dump that day so I told the owner of the shop that I would give him $350 for it and he said that is a deal.

     So, I took the truck home and I started to work on it. The first thing I started to work on was the engine. I put a new engine in the truck. It was a big block a twelve cylinder and with a NOS system in it as well. So all together, the truck was 3300 horse power. I changed the color of the truck to orange. I put a five foot lift kit on it and the best Bose stereo system in it as well. The truck looked sick, but I was still not done. Also, the truck was a gas guzzling diesel. The stock rims I had to let go. So I decided to replace them with orange, heavy duty rims. The exhaust pipes came through the bed of the truck witch look very sick. This is my most Wicked Truck ever, made by me.

By: Woody

Kayaking

Fun

Cool

Wet

Cold

Refreshing

Fun

Funny

Daring

Mind blowing

Great

Risking

Good

Singing to myself

Focused and clear

By: Jackson

A Lot Happens in Six Days!

Let me start off by apologizing. I know many of you check this blog regularly looking for updates and I haven't posted up in six days. I'm sorry. I sat down a few time to bust out a post only to interrupted and get pulled away. I'm not making excuses, just apologies. With that said . . .

What a week it has been! We had Academic Olympics, visited the Animas Forks ghost town, spent some time in Silverton and started the second week of our first outdoor pursuits. But, before I tell you about all that great stuff I'd like to point out that today is the halfway point of camp!!! (Crazy, no?)

So, Academic Olympics is great. Each cabin wages a war of intellect against the other in a trivia game that has question spanning the categories of Academics (What are 6 of the 8 letter combo's that make the 'er' sound?), Colorado (What is the full name of the Animas Rives in English or Spanish?), Camper/Staff Trivia (What staff member is a triplet?), Sports (Who co-invented the SCUBA system?), and Outdoor Pursuits (What are the four commands in climbing?). To the victor goes the spoils and in this case the spoils is a meteor crater sized bowl of ice cream for the cabin to share. We have two sessions of Academic Olympics. Last week the Sherpas won. Who will win next week? That is anyone's bet (and I heard Bobby is the counselor taking bets this year).

Last weekend we had the opportunity to explore the Animas Forks ghost town, which is a treat. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animas_Forks) The campers get an opportunity to explore buildings that have survives a rugged environment that chased their builders out, including the site of an infamous murder. After our self guided exploration we enjoyed a picnic lunch and headed down to Silverton. Silverton is a fun mining town that offers many shoppes and curios. All is all we had a really good time.

As for the second week of our first outdoor pursuits, we continue to build upon skills learned. Those climbers are climbing higher, the bikers pedaling harder, the kayakers paddling faster, horses riding further, and us in Wild Colorado, well, we just continue to explore the wonders and activities of Colorado (I was in a cave in the bowels of the earth but two hours ago). Expect great things. :)

I have a few photos to upload, so check out our flickr site soon (you know, nowish), the link is down at the bottom of this blog. Also check back here for some writing samples from our awesome campers.

Until next time (which will be sooner, rather than later, I promise),
~Tom

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!