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.
0 Comments
Apparently, in 1988 - campers and counselors on a rather boring Sunday afternoon decided to write, direct, act, film, and "kind of edit" a feature film. These movies are about ten minutes or so each and while the quality can't compare to what we could do today with a decent digital camera or a cellphone...they're still funny to watch. Check out this first one, "A Camper's First Session - or A Parent's Mistake." Camp friends are always the best. Ben Parker keeps in touch with several former campers/counselors including Steve Sovelove. Steve and and his family have been staying at an Airbnb this week in Albuquerque visiting their son at the University of New Mexico. This week Ben has been on several hikes with Steve and one of his son's. Ben says Steve is doing great. Still building furniture on Lopez island north of Seattle.
First photo: Ben (left) and Steve. Second photo: Steve and his son. Every so often we'll hear from a former camper or counselor. It's always fun to have friend check in. I just got this email from our one and only Australian counselor, Trevor Creighton. Here's what he had to say...
I was a TMC counselor in 1988 (the Australian one). This afternoon I decided to find out if TrailRidge could be found via the all-knowing Google and there it was - your fabulous site! I can't tell you how much I am enjoying it. I'm still sifting through, but already have come across some snippets from a couple of compadres from '88 - Paul and John. I have such great memories of my one summer. I had intended to come back the following year but got married instead. It was a tough choice ;-) I'm looking forward to going through the photographs now. Already spotted Sam Brinkley. I remember taking quite a few of the kids down to his grave on the 'Sam Brinkley Memorial cycle tour' on a few occasions - that was a blast! I still manage to weave in some tall tales of TrailRidge around the dinner table to any captive audience I can find. One of our bike rides out of camp was down Hughes Gap Road, over to a side road, and up to a church cemetery that was the resting site of Sam Brinkley. His beard was legend.
For #WorldBeardDay we're spotlighting Sam Brinkley, who became known for one of the world’s longest beards in the early 20th century. He was born near Burnsville in Yancey County. As an adult, Brinkley stood at 6 feet, two inches with a beard that measured in at 5 feet, 4 inches at its peak length. Notoriety came with the remarkable growth of his beard. He began by exhibiting it to the curious, and he went on tour with the Barnum and Bailey Circus. He reportedly earned thousands of dollars by charging people to see his beard, which he kept tucked in a pouch. Brinkley was a late bloomer when it came to facial hair. According to newspaper accounts, until he was 21, he had no real beard to shave. By 23, the growth had reached the astounding rate of a full beard in a week’s time. One article reported that the beard was entirely natural, not the result of restorers or invigorators. Another called it “soft and beautiful.” For decades Brinkley was known as the world’s expert on the cultivation of beards. He died in 1929 from complications of tonsillitis, and he is buried at Buladean in Mitchell County with a striking photo featuring his legendary beard recessed into his tombstone. -Original post from the North Carolina Department of Natural & Cultural Resources (9/5/20) The scanning is over. As of now, all the individual photos I had (that were originally attached to camp applications) have been posted on the website. There are over 400 of you. Of course, I'm sure we're missing another hundred or so. We can fix that. Just read the notes at the top of page one and bottom of page 9.
I did a quick tally of where everyone came from in the listings. I counted 23 states, DC, and Mexico. I feel certain we had a few more states represented. However, for being the "world's smallest camp," even I'm impressed. Camper Photos -- Check 'em out. Received this great photo last night. Bill Janvier and Ben Parker are still good friends after meeting as staff members at TMC over 35 years old. Bill (living in the Raleigh area) went out to do some hiking in New Mexico with Ben who lives out that way. Camp friendships are the best!
You'll see that Bill is wearing a very old TMC t-shirt and Ben has his TMC patch and third-year carabiner. (Plus he's wearing an old jacket that I gave him.) Thanks for keeping the spirit alive! So TrailRidge folks, after traveling with my MindStretch Travel Adventures groups for years...we finally took the guys on a trip into the old TMC neck of the woods. We hiked up to Round Bald and a little beyond from Carvers Gap. It was 59 degrees when we arrived there this past Wednesday. And when we were done...guess where we had lunch with those famous milkshakes? You guessed it - Bob's Dairyland. Nothing has changed except the "outhouse" at Carver's Gap is slightly fancier than before.
We did meet a couple of Southern Appalachian Highlands Conservancy caretakers and they had some news about the old TMC property. I will wait until I visit the old TrailRidge before posting any info. That's not happening for several weeks. There were two predecessors to MindStretch Travel Adventures. The first was called Open Road Experiences and compared to today’s adventures; we were roughing it. We were gone weeks at a time and spent almost every single night in tents and prepared virtually all our own meals. Today’s MTA programs still enjoy all the great activities during the day, but we’ve learned how nice it is to come back to “base camp” in a real bed in a hotel and eat dinner out in a restaurant.
So the other day I received an email from a camper from the very second year of the Open Road program (1979) saying he had discovered the MTA website and it looked like we had gotten spoiled. He could be right but I’m older and wiser and it’s nice to have the best of both worlds. But I should mention when my wife and I started our residential program (between ORE & MTA) there was nothing at all easy about that first year. All of the rain we’ve had the past couple of years (at least here in Western North Carolina) reminded me of that very first summer at TrailRidge Mountain Camp in 1982. The boys arrived to find out there were no cabins, there were no flush toilets, there were no real hot showers, and there was no dining hall. We hardly had electricity. The idea was that the boys were coming up that first summer to help us “build” the camp. And they did arrive…by the dozens. We slept in tents and tarps and endured rain. And we endured more rain. And more rain. In fact, that summer was a record setter back then. I imagine that record has been recently broken. We cooked under a dining fly and used solar showers (if we showered at all) and had one of five porta-potties to choose from. Then, as expected, the health department discovered we were running this camp and we had as of that moment not been permitted. That’s another story. Well, we had an ultimatum to get those tents off the ground, get the bathhouse open, get the dining hall opened and inspected, and quit drinking water out of the spring. We had a weekend to get it done, but luckily the Fourth of July was around the weekend so we got an extra day or two. We did get it done. The rain didn’t stop. Most of the kids had fun. Some of them came back. And we continued running the camp for the next 14 years or so. And then I was back to traveling and the camp morphed into MTA. And I’ll tell you, it’s the way to go! And no matter which way we travel or camp…we make new memories (almost like these) every single day. Picture Notes: This first photo was from our 1979 Open Road trip. It was seven weeks long - SEVEN WEEKS! We traveled from New Orleans to New England and into Canada. We called ourselves, "The Dirty Dozen." The second photo is from the very first couple of week or so at TrailRidge. This was an example of someone's shelter. Nothing else about that summer. |
Mark's BlogJust 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
April 2024
Categories
All
|