BY MELODY GUY TON BUT TS, A S S I S TA N T D I R E C T O R O F COMMUNIC AT IO N S
“Sometimes, it’s a little difficult, but it’s Senior Challenge, not Senior Disney,” Murray says with a smile. And there’s a flip side to the difficulty. “I think they get a sense of true accomplishment. It’s kind of neat because it’s a challenge to themselves individually, and it’s a challenge to work with a group.”
Priyanka Purohit, Anna Wears, Austin Elizabeth Regnerus and Nico Herndon represent a diversity of outdoor experience levels. I’m comforted by the knowledge both that I’m PHOTOS BY MELODY GUY TON BUT TS not the only one lacking camping experience, and that we AND GREG MURR AY have an Eagle Scout among us in James. I can also tell that we’re in great hands with our Black Mountain Expeditions instructors, Jamie Terry and Dave Grams. understood the real beauty of Senior With Jamie and Dave, we go through our backpack Challenge not gazing out at a gorgeous sunset • DAY 1: SAT UR DAY, AUG . 23, 2014 contents. Sleeping bags and pads? Check. Headlamps? from a mountaintop perch, not zipping to the For the four-or-so-hour bus ride from Durham Check. Clothing for both really warm and really cold bottom of a gulley on a rappel rope — but in to Black Mountain this morning, I refuse to allow my weather? Check. Contraband Snickers bars? Uh, no. the midst of an overnight torrential rainstorm, mind to imagine the adventures — or misadventures Phones? Way, way no. awakened by the cold, wet material of our shelter — that might lie ahead over the next six days of Senior We then divvy up the shared supplies, like stoves, on my face once again. Challenge. To tell the truth, I am a wee bit nervous. water-treatment devices and these extra-protective tentOK, maybe not in that moment, exactly — I do not come from a family of campers; the closest I like tarps called Megamids, which Jamie and Dave say are but the next morning, after a night spent taking ever came was sleeping in a tent on the Rockingham leagues better than the tarps that most groups will use. turns with the students who slept alongside me to Speedway racetrack as a young Girl Scout. There, we Dividing the food supply — a wide variety, from cheese temporarily steady our poorly anchored shelter, it had the benefit of nearby restrooms, and I’m pretty sure and peanut butter to fresh vegetables and canned chicken was clear. Senior Challenge is an experience that that the facilities on this camping trip won’t be quite so — rounds out our packs. develops grit. It is an experience that cultivates pristine. Fortunately, I have the benefit of an engaging and As some of the other groups head off to their community. It is an experience that makes leaders wonderfully distracting seatmate in Claire Burdick. destinations, our group of 14 gathers to discuss what we’re out of those who before saw themselves only as Before we know it, the bus grinds to a halt. All 99 excited about and what makes us nervous. Most of us are followers. of us — 96 seniors and three adults (Lee Hark, Thomas excited about bonding with one another, rappelling and For 36 years now, Durham Academy’s senior Phu and me) — lumber off the buses, grab our meager hiking. What makes us nervous? Far and away, the most class has been heading to the North Carolina belongings and head to an open grassy field, where we are popular answer is using the bathroom outside. mountains for an outdoor adventure that has met by Senior Challenge director Greg Murray; the four We pile into a van that takes us to our starting point, become a hallmark of the DA experience. DA “Mountain Men” who help behind the scenes, Lou somewhere in the awe-inspiring Linville Gorge area. We Senior Challenge is “the perfect Parry, Verle Regnerus, Steve Engebretsen and Rick Dike; stop for a chat at the trailhead, and Dave gets right to the combination of physical, mental, emotional,” and several dozen staff members from Black Mountain point: We’re all going to have to get comfortable using the says Greg Murray, an Upper School physical Expeditions, which organizes the program with Greg. We bathroom outside. He offers tips on taking care of our education teacher who has served as director of circle up around Greg, who offers a little motivational business with discretion and sanitation in mind, and we Senior Challenge for the past 10 years. “They’re talk before getting to the moment the students have been take a short hike to a campsite. challenged to do things that don’t come naturally waiting for with bated breath: the announcement of the Jamie and Dave show us how to set up our shelters to them. I think they get a taste of who they are, groups. and guide us to a nearby stream to collect water for what they can accomplish. They come to the I am pleased to learn that I’ve been grouped with 11 drinking and cooking. They walk us through the allrealization that they can tough it out.” students whom I don’t know very well; the biggest motiva- important water-treatment process and demonstrate how That might mean toughing out incessant tor behind my decision to attend Senior Challenge was the to use the stoves to make dinner. We decide that our first rain for all six days, consecutive sleepless nights or opportunity to get to know more of our incredible seniors. wilderness meal will be pasta, made tasty with Parmesan the discomfort of hauling 60-pound backpacks Neil Cornwell, Nathaniel Brooke, Elizabeth Hall, Helen cheese and seasonings like garlic powder and crushed red continued on page 12 for miles uphill. Morgan, James Grubbs, Thomas Olson, Holly Caudle,
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