The Wilds Camp part 1

Hello everybody,
The reason I haven't posted anything is because this past week, August 4th-8th, my sisters and I went with our youth group to the Wilds camp in North Carolina. 
We left on Monday at 4:00 am. and got there around 5 or 6 p.m. (We made it just as everyone started eating dinner! :) After we ate dinner with our cabin, our counselor helped us bring our luggage to our cabins.
Each cabin has 4 sets of bunk beds in it, plus the counselors big bed. Nine people can fit in the cabin, but  we only had 8 girls, (including our counselor) in our cabin. Usually, each girl cabin has a brother cabin, and each boy cabin has a sister cabin. If one of the cabins does not have a sister or brother cabin, it's because there weren't enough campers to fill all the cabins. So, the counselors go on core. They help out wherever they're needed. Some are lifeguards, and some are security people. Here's a basic schedule we would follow almost every day.

• 7:30- Rise and Shine. Clean cabins and go to flag raising.
• 8:15-8:45- Breakfast
• 9:15-10:00- Chapel
• 10:00-10:30- God and I Time
• 10:45-11:30- All Camp Game
• 11:30- 11:45- Cabin Pictures
• 11:45-12:30- God and I Time Follow Up
• 12:45-1:15- Lunch
• 1:30-2:15- Christian Life Seminar. The topics were: Band-Aid Christianity, Dating, and Visual/Social Media.
• 2:15-5:30- Freetime. You could go on the Superslide, Land trolley, Giant Swing, Climbing Wall, or go to the Snack Shop, General Store, Cool Beans, and Craft Shop.You could also float down the lazy/crazy river if you wanted to. :)
• 5:45-6:15- Supper
• 6:30-7:15- All camp game
• 7:15-8:30- The: Snack Shop, General Store, Craft Shop, and Cool Beans were open. 
• 8:45-10:00 - Evening Youth Meeting. (This was the evening service.)
• 10:30-10:45- Cabin Devotions
• 10:45- Lights out and all quiet on the campsite.

There are 3 teams: Redwood Timber Toppers, Blue Ridge Lumber Loggers, and the Green Mountain Cross Cutters!!

The Blue and Red teams had been winning all summer, and the Green team had only won once! I was on the blue team this year and it was alot of fun. Each team has 3 or 4 cheers that they say.

On Tuesday, my counselor, our friend, and my sister and I played paintball. I was a little scared of getting hit with the paintballs, so I didn't run out in the open and shoot- I stayed behind the boxes they had. But I did get shot once. Thankfully, it wasn't on my bare skin, though. Our friend got shot on her arms and legs, and she had welts all over her! The paintballs stung right after they hit you, but the pain went away soon after.

                                  This is the bridge we crossed over to get to the paintball field.

                                                       This is the playing field of paintball.

On Wednesday, all the girls went to the lake while the boys went hiking. If you wanted to swim in 4th falls, you had to take a swim test and swim under a noodle. I enjoyed the lake more this year than last year because it rained last year. My counselor, and my sister and I were the last ones to leave the lake. The lifeguard wanted our counselor to jump off the water tower, which was 30 feet high, backwards. She climbed up there and took a long time doing it because she was scared. My sister said, "I'll do it" so she climbed up there and jumped off backwards! I don't know how she did it!

The big colorful thing in the water is the blob!! You climb up to the tower, run and jump off, and stick your legs out like you're siting down. You're supposed to land on the blob in a sitting position, and it's very scary to jump off the tower. I did it though, and I crawled to the end of the blob. A girl from our cabin jumped off and landed on the blob and I slid into the water. It was very fun to watch small, light people get blobbed by bigger, heavier people! They would fly into the air, and then fall and plop into the water. :) The second tower was the water trolley. I went on that a bunch of times! It was so much fun.

You could also do paddle boating, canoeing, and kayaking. I did canoeing and paddle boating with my counselor. My counselor and I were canoeing and we saw 2 girls, that were from the cabin next to ours, paddle boating. We paddled over to them and they were playing bumper boats with us. Then we had the idea to climb on the back of their paddle boat, and they could give us a ride around the lake. My counselor held on to the canoe as we were taken around the lake. We were going to bump into a foam thing that was floating in the water and knock it over because it had a lifeguard on it. :) But she heard us so we didn't get to. After we were done canoeing, my counselor and I went paddle boating, and the 2 girls sat in the back.
We had such a marvelous time at the lake.

On Thursday, all the girls went on the hike while the boys went to the lake. You could either go on 1st fall, 2nd falls, or 4th falls. 3rd falls wasn't open because the Wilds is building a zipline over it, and it's a dangerous waterfall. People rarely hike it, but when they do, only groups of 10 people can go at a time.
Our cabin hiked 4th falls. I hiked it last year, but we couldn't swim in it because it had rained to much. This year, we could swim in it though!! It's not very hard hiking to the waterfall. It's very hard hiking back up the mountain, though. Here are some pictures I took along the way and at the 4th falls.

                                                            Starting out on the hike.

                                                     Stony Point. This view was so gorgeous!!

                                                                     4th falls

The water was cold, but lots of girls went swimming. We even stood right under the waterfall!! It was a sight to behold. Pictures just don't do it justice!!

         This is a big rock you could climb up and look at the waterfall, and sometimes, even feel the mist!!

                                  This is another waterfall I saw while I was hiking back to camp.
The Wilds is such an amazing camp!!! I highly recommend going there for a week one summer. :)

Saying of the week: 
 
Bible verse of the week: Psalms 62:7-8 
In God is my salvation and my glory: the rock of my strength, and my refuge, is in God. Trust in him at all times; ye people, pour out your heart before him: God is a refuge for us. Selah.

Yous warmly on the Victory side,
Ashley