A Camp Mikell weekend

The holiday weekend took Kristi and I to Camp Mikell, near Toccoa, Ga. where Kristi’s been to camp for more than 10 years. Camp Mikell is the camp and conference center for the Episcopal Church’s Diocese of Atlanta.

The camp is situated on 90 acres, but it doesn’t use that many. It reminds me of a cross between Camp Piomingo and The Great Escape/Fun in the Son.

She’s been to all stages of the camp, from camper, to counselor, to summer staffer. This weekend was called Guest Camp, and was a sort of a reunion.

I arrived Saturday afternoon, and Kristi came Friday night. There were all sorts of activities like a bonfire with s’mores, outdoor church in a chapel with popular camp songs, and an owl prowl where we learned about the different owls that make the mountains of Northeast Georgia home.

On Sunday, we went on the Creek Hike, which was not for the faint of heart. It took about three hours, and we hiked mostly through a creek and woods. The water levels varied from ankle deep, to over your head, which made swimming a necessity. There wre also three spots where you had to climb up, around, or through giant boulders. Two of the passways had mini-waterfalls, and required a lot of Spiderman-like moves where you had to shimmy and shake your way over the slippery rocks, and up to the next level. One area needed a rope to pull each other up. It was pretty fun, but quite a bit of work. We were part of a group of nine people mostly about our age. We are both sore yesterday, but Kristi a little more sore, with what feels like “golf balls” in her calves. Good thing I gave her a post-hike massage, or they would have felt like “softballs.” I wish the sisters and Andys could have joined us, but unfortunately the AARPs and rugrats probably aren’t suited. They require you to be at least 12 to go on the hike. It’s really too bad that it's a tough creek to hoe, because Polk would’ve loved to see the critters we saw, like a baby copper head, water spiders, and leeches, which went along for the ride with two people in our crew.

One of the highlights of the weekend was an auction of items campers and friends could donate to raise money for scholarships to the camp.

Kristi made two bibs and onesies with camp poems on them, and eight bean bags filled with pinto beans and sewn herself with UGA fabric. They’re for corn-hole games. She even stepped in as auctioneer, and really got the bids flying in! She got several compliments for picking up the pace. All of her items brought in nearly $100, and the entire auction raised around $2,000.