TrailRidge Mountain Camp - the Buladean Years
828.863.4235
  • Home
    • Quick History of TrailRidge
  • Camp Memorabilia
  • Camp Memories
  • Camp Documents
  • Photos & Movies
    • The Facilities >
      • Facilities in 2009
    • Camper Photos - p 1 >
      • Camper Photos - p 2
      • Camper Photos - p 3
      • Camper Photos - p 4
      • Camper Photos - p 5
      • Camper Photos - p 6
      • Camper Photos - p 7
      • Camper Photos - p 8
      • Camper Photos - p 9
      • Campers in Need of Photos
    • TrailRidge Faces - the early years
    • TrailRidge Activities
    • TrailRidge Activities - 1989
    • Photos from Slides - Set 1
    • Photos from Slides - Set 2
    • Photos from Slides - Set 3
    • Old Camp Movies
    • TMC Community-Submitted Photos >
      • Bike Trip - 1997
    • Open Road Experiences
  • Mark's Blog
  • Links
  • Preventing Nature Deficit Disorder

Overmountain Shelter on the AT to be torn down

11/19/2023

0 Comments

 
Ben Parker sent this notice to me today about the closing of the Overmountain Shelter. I imagine several dozen of our campers/counselors stayed in this shelter on one of their "Bob's Dairyland Hikes" that took adventurous campers on the AT from Carver's Gap down to 19-E in the town of Roan Mountain.

Read the story.

0 Comments

The Wastewatcher revisited after 41 years!

9/23/2023

0 Comments

 
If you were at TMC in the early 1980s, you might have been terrorized by the unannounced appearance of "The Wastewatcher" who would show up on a noisy motorcycle wearing clothes that would make the Hell's Angels proud. He was there to enforce the "take what you want, eat what you take" rule. I caught up with Randy and Ellen Nentrup a few days ago. Randy is still riding motorcycles, but I'm thinking he's done with terrorizing the neighborhood. Both are retired and living in Buladean full time.

Randy and Ellen are nurses. Ellen retired a few years ago and Randy just retired in May 2023.
Picture
0 Comments

Ben Parker meets up with Steve Sovelove for another desert hike!

8/23/2023

0 Comments

 
I think Ben Parker does an amazing job of keeping up with camp friends. Here's his trip report of a hike with fellow counselor Steve Sovelove that happened just after his hike with Collyn Martinez.
------
Steve and his wife stayed here for 2 days. On one of the days we did a 5-hour hike in 95-degree heat; we both held up great and I think we were moving as fast as our TrailRidge days. Both of our health has really improved (2 years ago we were bed-ridden at times with pain). Steve is still making custom-cabinets and furniture. He is a master craftsman. He also plays drums in a punk band.
​
We all had many meals together and could not have had a better time together. Neither of us has changed much. He and I are the best of friends for 35 years now! Here's a photo taken in a remote part of the northern Sandias near Albuquerque that we hiked to.
Picture
0 Comments

Ben Parker & Collyn Martinez are still friends and hiking buddies after decades of being out of touch.

8/18/2023

0 Comments

 
Trip Report from Ben Parker

Collyn Martinez lives in New Orleans and involved in real estate. He is visiting NM mainly to see his good friend in Santa Fe. They are whitewater rafting near Taos for a few days, and hiking and camping. I'm still working as a stock investor and close to retiring. Collyn and I did a 2-hour hike up off-trail up a steep arroyo with signs of black bear everywhere but we didn't see any. Collyn and I will be life-long friends. 
Picture
Ben and Collyn in the New Mexico mountains.
0 Comments

Recently uncovered photos from a 1997 bike trip...

5/30/2023

0 Comments

 
Tom Stitt and Mark took a group of kids on the first "long" on-road, self-contained bike trip in 1997. We've had other self-contained trips at camp that were two or three days and we've had "supported" trips that were much longer including at least one "mountains-to-the-sea" bike trips. On this five-day trip, we didn't have a sag wagon. Packed what we needed on the bikes. Tom just uncovered these photos he took and shared them. They are posted on the trailridge.info website along with a bunch of other things to explore.
0 Comments

Do you wonder whatever happened to Gus Jerdee?

5/16/2023

0 Comments

 
It's been nearly 20 years (I'm thinking) since I've seen Gus Jerdee. That changed this week when I found him. I can't disclose his actual location, but he's enjoying his retirement living on a few acres in the mountains of North Carolina. And that's where we're all probably thinking he should be. He and Suzanne stay very busy developing their mountain homestead. Each summer they invite family and friends of family to their own little camp for a couple of weeks.
0 Comments

Trevor Ferrell checks in after over 35 years...

2/23/2023

0 Comments

 
Another camper from the past. This morning I got an email from camper Trevor Ferrell. I'm thinking he was there around 1985. Ben Parker might know for sure. Thanks for getting in touch, Trevor.

And here's his memory...

I was a camper for one year. Do not remember the year or too many details. I do remember Ben Parker. I remember leaving the cabin and another camper said to Ben, "It's cold Ben, it's cold." Ben laughed and we continued to use the saying, "It's cold Ben, it's cold" during the camp session. Anyway, thought I would share.
Picture
Picture
0 Comments

Hearing from my little brother, Robert LaPlace

2/15/2023

0 Comments

 
Every so often someone gets in touch with me just to chat. I just hung up with Robert LaPlace, who at age ten or so came to TrailRidge for his first of a few summers. He's the guy fourth from the left. In this photo he was on an Outer Banks bike trip with staff members Gus Jerdee, Danny Moore, and Joe Mahon (Great Britain).

I got to know Robert when he was just nine or so when I was living in New Orleans and he was nearby in Metairie. He and I became "brothers" as in the Big Brothers program. We've been friends ever since which would now be over 40 years.

​Also in this photo I recognize Chuck Lockwood, Tommy Paylor, Chris Brown, McHardy Stoutz, and Michael LaPlace in addition to Robert, Gus, Danny, and Joe. 
Picture
0 Comments

Kirk Moyer - 40 years later...

11/3/2022

0 Comments

 
Ten years ago, first-year camper Kirk Moyer from Metairie/New Orleans, sent me an incredible piece talking about his TrailRidge memories. Kirk was there that first year (1982)and came back for a second. That first year was no cakewalk so the fact that anyone returned was somewhat of a minor miracle. Kirk resent his story just this week to commemorate the 40th year of TMC's founding. Thanks Kirk. He's actually going to be up in the TrailRidge-Roan Mountain-Hughes Gap areas in a couple of weeks.

Check it out: https://www.trailridge.info/uploads/7/7/7/4/7774835/i_blazed_the_trail_-_kirk_moyer.pdf
Picture
Kirk Moyer from his first-year application for camp.
Picture
A recent Kirk, along with his wife, at a recent coronation ball for the upcoming New Orleans Mardi Gras.
0 Comments

Ben Parker and Steve Sovelove...still camp friends nearly 40 years later

10/19/2022

0 Comments

 

It’s always good to get some updates from past staff and campers. Ben Parker (5 years at TMC including the very first) and Steve Sovelove (2 years, ’85 & ’86) are two camp counselors who have remained friends for nearly 40 years.

Steve lives on Lopez Island, Washington and works as a cabinet/furniture maker. You can view his gallery at Phoenixrainwood.com. He and his wife, Alisa, are now empty nesters, and just spent two weeks in Spain. Steve’s younger son goes to the University of New Mexico,

Steve met up with Ben and has spent nearly a week having a camp reunion. Steve and son, Tyler, and Ben had two days of great hiking in the Sandia Mountains here. Their hike included 3,000 feet of elevation change.

Ben, lives in New Mexico with his son, John, and works as a stock investor. Ben is recovering from some recent spinal surgery…but is still able to get out there and hike some trails.

0 Comments
<<Previous

    RSS Feed

    Mark's Blog

    Just some random thoughts about how TrailRidge came to be and about life at the camp in those first 15 or so years in Buladean.

    Archives

    November 2023
    September 2023
    August 2023
    May 2023
    February 2023
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    April 2021
    February 2021
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    October 2019
    June 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    October 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    October 2017
    September 2016
    March 2016
    July 2014
    September 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    July 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012
    January 2012
    December 2011
    November 2011
    September 2011
    August 2011

    Categories

    All
    30th Anniversary
    Appalachian Trail
    Ben Parker
    Bug Juice Shots
    Buladean Elementary School
    Camp Feature Films
    Camp Movies
    Davies Hood
    First Year
    Gus Jerdee
    Kirk Moyer
    Little Hump
    Memories
    Mindstretch Travel Adventures
    Open Road Experiences
    Roan Mountain
    Second Generation Campers
    Tom & Marian Jerdee

columbusmark@gmail.com