CAMP ACHTERBERG: Day One!

Day one began with one excited camper up early and one not-so-enthusiastic camper who only perked up mildly after French toast with blueberry syrup. The other potential campers could not be roused from their bunks. The camp director was undeterred. We packed a delicious lunch and headed off on our first morning of camp- geocaching! (If you’re unfamiliar with geocaching, click here.)

Our first cache was a bust. The navigation led us to a small cemetery. The cache appeared to have been hidden near a maintenance shed directly under a fresh load of dirt and rocks that were presumably delivered this week.

Disappointed but not discouraged, we set off on cache #2 which was also to be found in a cemetery.
This one was a small family cemetery hidden in a wooded area. We found the cache in just minutes, and then spent time exploring the cemetery whose graves dated back to the 1700’s! Many were unreadable, but we found it interesting that the stones we could read gave the person’s date of death and then their age in years, months, and days rather than a birthdate. You’d have to do the math to figure out their birthday. Had I known we would stumble on this treasure I would have packed crayons and paper to do grave rubbings (what a great idea for future camps!).

One camper traded a wooden nickel in the cache for a small Lego figure he’d brought along.

It seemed almost humorous when we pulled up to the site of cache #3 and spied another cemetery. This was a neat Quaker cemetery with small similar gravestones tidily kept. The cache, though, wasn’t in the cemetery, it was nearby – inside a decoy goose!

This one was special because it had been hidden by a grandmother and her grandchildren in honor of one of her other grandchildren who was very ill. It included requests for pictures and notes, so we complied and posted them on the geocaching site.

Our last cache was the kind we normally find – in a park. There were no muggles about and we quickly found the cache hidden inside a light pole lying on its side as a parking parameter. I found my best treasure yet – a pretty anklet – and left a beaded bracelet in its place.

Next we headed to Gifford Pinchot State Park where we had a wonderful picnic near the water, but decided it was too chilly (in July!) to swim.

Once home, we took a short break so that I could provide chauffeuring services for a non-camper before we jumped into our week’s craft project. We are using decoupage to reimagine clip boards and binders for school. Campers utilized leftover scrapbook paper, pages from old books, stickers, and small decorations on their masterpieces. This project must be done in steps, so when camp ended we left our creations to finish tomorrow. (Pictures later this week.)

Tomorrow’s schedule includes a streamhike and we’ve already picked up an extra camper! This is a friendly camp with no registration deadline, so feel free to sign up!