A beautiful camp - with work and play

The kids enjoy lots of activities

 and the SOWERS help maintenance "do their thing"

Kayaking  and waterboarding enjoyed by the kids

The path to the zip line is quite a hike!

The Dining Hall

Can you imagine feeding 250 kids  at once?

Just think of the preparation. How would you like to be on the kitchen staff?

As volunteers we ate in another building with older teenage staff.

Very energetic and loud!

Can you imagine 50 teenagers playing games, shouting, and eating?

We had a good couple of weeks working on a variety of projects.

In a camp like this you never run out of work.

Ladies  Work

I'm glad our jobs were easier than others like kitchen work!

They had so many left over T-shirts  that we 'converted' them to pillows.

 Next year the SOWERS get to stuff the pillows with the filling.

Apparently the pillows sell very well.

We actually finished 120 'pillows'

The rest of our work time was cleaning some of the staff apartments

 as they had left camp for the winter.

The guys had a big variety of jobs.

This shed was built "backwards"  ( the slanted roof dumped the snow over the doorway and there was no access in the winter) so they were asked to change the window and door openings so that there would be access to the shed in the winter. 

Nice job, guys!

One of the maintenance sheds has needed a "re-do" for a long time!

It had been designed for vehicle maintenance but had degenerated into storage and a chicken coup, with everything covered with feathers and dust.

The new maintenance director is doing a fantastic job.

Steve and Lou were doing the entire space with cleaning and painting.

Lots of staff members and other special campers cleared out enormous amounts of 'stuff' so that the job could be done.  

Now that the walls have a new coat of paint it's time for cleaning and 

acid washing prep for painting the floor. 

After power washing, Lou stained the deck (or at least half of it) 

on the top of the boat house.

(More stain was purchased to finish the job.)

Next year the maintenance director said he wanted to start power washing

and staining the 62 cabins!

This gives a good picture of what SOWERS do!

Rampart Reservoir - a nice little hike

Rampart Reservoir is large with a  trail around the lake that is 11 miles.  

We only did a couple of miles. 

Interesting rocks  that you can easily walk to.

At the end of the trail this view was surprising.

Pikes Peak in the background.

Feel free to add your own name for the rock.

This property is a Forest Service Recreation area.

Camping is allowed and this view is from a picnic area.

This was a nice day with an "excursion" brake.

Work week at Eagle Lake Camp

 

This is our RV camp at Eagle Lake.

The couple on the left is on staff at Navigators.

  The tiny home was build in North Carolina by John's father and transported to Glen Eyrie last year where we met the father.

The motor home is Steve and Diane's.  They have become full time RV'ers and have been at Eagle Lake since May.

Here we are - thankful the truck repair didn't take too long, 

and we're ready to work.

I was glad I had been able to get my sewing machine repaired at home.

It is going to get a big workout.

The camp stores have a huge surplus of T-shirts left over and the directors having us "repurpose" the T-shirts into pillows to be sold at the camp store.

Next year the pillows will be stuffed.

(there are 100's of T-shirts!)

This may be the job for next year Ha!

Eagle Lake Camp - getting there

 Eagle Lake Camps

Rampart Range, Colorado

A gorgeous view of Pikes Peak (on a clear day) from the top of camp.

We were a week late because of the truck problem but had a nice couple of days in Lake George.

The road to the camp is awful, 250 kids are on their way up on a Sunday, and our trailer had a very rough ride.  We even stopped to check that theTV had not fallen off the wall.  It didn't but there was a lot of 'shake, rattle and roll'.

It was slow going  at 10 miles an hour with potholes and washboards.

It appears that with 3 different agencies (State, City, and Forest Service) having jurisdiction over the road, nothing gets done.

So, we have some loose screws - some of which we don't know where they came from.

The roll of toilet paper almost completely unrolled!

and the cat food didn't stay put.

The camp was completely fogged in and only 51 degrees!

Our fellow SOWERS (Steve and Diane) gave us a tour of camp in the fog.

When Steve and Diane came in May, they could not get to the camp because of a big snow storm.

This is the view on the road to camp from town.

Colorado's weather is always a surprise!