Director Jud's Blog

Saving the best for last – SMA Session 4, 2016 

Saving the best for last session 4 2016 at Stone Mountain Adventures has kicked off with an explosion of wackiness, adventure and fun. Already a week deep this is our smallest group of the Summer facilitating an awesomely close net bunch of campers and friendships being formed.  All those left over from the previous session made a great effort in welcoming the new campers, chatting to families and giving our new campers tours of the camp!

As per usual belay school and swim check ran smoothly preparing campers for climbing and a range of fun water activities. The sport/swim activities have proven once again to be a fantastic reprieve from the humidity and heat. It’s been fantastic to see the campers throwing themselves into soccer, ultimate Frisbee, tennis, volleyball, softball and touch rugby.

This session we have been rock-climbing, paddling & sailing, hiking, mountain biking the adrenalin fueled Alligrippis Trails, getting towed behind the wake-boat and trawling the Amish market - an amazing melting pot of food, goods and culture. Canoeing the Raystown Branch of the Juniata River was an adventure too after we were met with a rain storm and harrowing end to the activity – although the float was cut short due to weather concerns the whole crew had an exciting time watching the storm pass and all returned with big smiles.

Three overnights so far this session have been some of the best of the summer emptying out the entire camp for the night; wake boat, rock-climbing and biking were all amazing.

The wake boating overnight had a special guest, namely Mike Sebola who armed with a drone and mounted camera turned the waterskiing, wakeboarding and knee boarding prowess of our campers into some incredible action packed footage.  The camp was also filmed from the skies leaving a lot of anticipation for the film to be released! The camping wake boat crew were also joined by the bikers overnight creating a great atmosphere.

While the two overnights were nestled by the lake, the rock climbers adventured out to Bilgers Rock. Using the charcoal from the campfire camper and counselors alike streaked their faces tribal-like and took to the rocks for an amazing climb.  

Evening activities have been on par with the daytime. Jud games this session were energy packed and full of laughter, while the disco roller-skating night was a momentous success seeing everyone get out in the ring and boogie along to some great tunes. Power hour has seen friendships form and campers come together as they discover their shared interests, the happy lull of ukuleles has been a much welcomed sound to the late afternoons.

Cabin life is well underway as all camp day arrives at the halfway point of the session, this time the theme for cabin skits is ‘if SMA were the Olympics’. A T.V screening the games by the outside dining area has meant we can enjoy events during lunch and downtime.   

All in all it has truly been a magical start to the beginning of our final session here at Stone Mountain for the summer. Where do we go from here? Well adventure and fun are definitely on the forecast, and it is only getting better!  

SMA Teen Summer Camp

SMA 2 Week Teen Summer Camp