How could you blame Terry Mixon if he had decided never to plan a group camping trip again?
His first attempt was memorable for all the wrong reasons: The heat and humidity were unbearable; the fire radiated so much heat that no one wanted to get near it; and the scenery at Tanglewood Park, although nice, was familiar.
Yet, there was something undeniably special about sharing time outdoors with friends and exposing children to nature.
"You could see the potential," Mixon said.
From that inauspicious beginning, a tradition was born.
Fifteen years after the Tanglewood trip, Mixon and others from that group have continued to camp together, sometimes three times a year. The number of families who have joined the fold has grown from four to nine, although not every family makes each trip.
Typically, each camping trip has drawn between 20 and 25 people, children included. And those children, once little tykes who had to be monitored around the campfire, are now high-school and college students who hang out together, often retreating into a tent to play cards.
"It's part of their lives," said Melanie Adams, one of the regular campers.
The campers all met each other at Highland Presbyterian Church on Cloverdale Avenue. Many of them are former scouts who grew up loving the outdoors.
They have ventured far beyond Tanglewood. They like to go to Grayson Highlands State Park in Virginia on Memorial Day weekend when guitar virtuoso Wayne Henderson drops by the park to play. In mid-summer, they typically plan a five-day getaway in Western North Carolina. Over Labor Day weekend, they like to go to the Grandfather Mountain area.
The list of places they've camped at or near makes an outdoors lover slobber with envy -- Shining Rock Wilderness, Linville Falls, Roan Mountain, Doughton Park, Fontana Lake, the Davidson River area near Brevard.
Besides Grayson Highlands, one of their favorite places to camp is the Apple Tree campground in Macon County.
Mixon and John Dallas usually plan the trips. But the women have issued one order.
"Only campgrounds with hot showers," Dallas said.
"The women insisted on no primitive camping," Mixon added.
So they choose campgrounds where they can park their cars right up to their sites, which makes hauling coolers filled with steaks and pork chops much easier.
Still, the campground needs to be "marginally authentic," Mixon said.
They also like finding spots near rivers or lakes. On lakes, they rent pontoons and find swimming holes. Along rivers, they tube, paddle and fish. Often, they go on three- to five-mile hikes.
The kids I talked with have fond memories of playing flashlight tag and hide-and-seek in the woods. The adults imparted lessons about nature. Dallas used to spread out a tarp on clear nights and point out constellations. Laura Mixon, 17, said her parents never took a hike without a guide book.
"We'd have to stop at every leaf," she said.
Evan Bain, 15, laughed about throwing up every time his parents, John and Anita, drove on N.C. 276, a notoriously winding road near Brevard.
The kids not only leave their electronic gadgets at home but also say they don't even miss them.
"I'm very comfortable around nature," said Catherine Dallas, 17.
As the kids have grown and headed off to college, fewer of them are able to make the trips. The adults are carrying on without them and say they will continue to camp together as long as they enjoy it.
It was clear from the little time I spent with some members of the group recently that they have forged a lifelong bond. They laughed at old stories about tents flying away on Grandfather Mountain and getting stuck on Lake Lure as a storm approached. A laptop slideshow displayed pictures from past trips. In one photo, a dozen or more of them posed at the base of a waterfall, all looking gloriously happy and wet.
"I do this to get away from technology and for the community," said Dillon Robertson, who started camping with the group around 2005. "There's an acceptance of each other, our commonalities and our differences."
FOOT NOTE: Beech Mountain's Parks and Recreation Department will a host a series of guided hikes this winter. The hikes range from 1.6 to 2 miles. The next hike is Friday at 9 a.m. on the Wild Iris Trail. For more information, visit www.HikeBeechMountain
.com or call 828-387-3003.
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