Thursday, July 31 was an interesting day with O-3 at high ropes and M-2 and M-3 at low ropes. O-3 enjoyed climbing up to the Catwalk and jumping off with a partner, while bonding overthrown fact that they were all afraid of heights. This fear was more easily overcome as each pair held hands and "fell" off the 25 foot high log. It definitely helped them to know that at any point they could lean back and be held up by the belayer. M-3 played games such as Chicken Kingdom and Alaskan Baseball to satisfy both their need to run around, and the teamwork and communication skills that we strive for at low ropes. For evening periods, we had half of Tusc, groups T-2 and T-4 for low ropes as well. We used initiatives that we had not used with any other group, such as the Holey Tarp, and Flip-Tarp. We basically had a Fun-With-Tarps session! For Holey-Tarp, the goal was to roll a ball from one edge of the tarp to the other, avoiding the holes, kind of like pinball. Flip-Tarp involves using a tarp to throw a ball into the air and then flipping the tarp completely over to catch the ball on the opposite side. Tusc came up with a very creative and impressive strategy that worked perfectly!
Friday afternoon was the other half of Tusc who had high ropes. We did a Flashback Friday, and opened several of the elements that are normally reserved for the younger campers, but the senior campers had so much fun with them.
Tamar Feldman, Ropes and Onondaga Activity Counselor
