Day two of Frontier Week dawned with an early-morning thunderstorm moving through camp like a locomotive careening off the tracks. By the time the whistle sounded for lineup, however, the rain was gone and the sun appeared. After breakfast, the six tribes split up to conquer various activities. Seniors and Hi-Seniors continued to work at the campsites, while Juniors assembled in the picnic grove for torch painting.
It is a Frontier Week tradition for the youngest members of each tribe to decorate the torch that will be carried by the Chief at the Final Flame ceremony on the last night of the competition. With Head Coaches supervising and offering artistic guidance (as well as paint wrangling), the Juniors worked together with their tribe-mates to paint a large trunk of wood about 6 feet long. With their tribe’s color as the base, the tiny artists incorporated the other tribes’ colors into their design. To finish it off, each group signed its tribe’s name to the torch. One tribe’s members even dipped their thumbs in paint and left their fingerprints as a signature to their hard work!
The remainder of the morning was devoted to the Frontier Competition. Every Senior and Hi-Senior from each tribe participated in a different area of camp. At the lake, there were canoe and kayak races, as well as swimming relays. Other areas of competition included climbing, archery, biking, and even ping-pong!
The big finale of the Frontier Competition was crowd-favorite King of the Hill. Though it has been held at the lake in previous years, the event took place this year at the pool. Part of the floating Wibit was relocated to the deep end, while lifeguards anchored each end to keep it from drifting. In a round-robin tournament, one Hi-Senior from each tribe faced off against one another in a “last man standing” style contest. When the whistle blew, the opponents had to approach one another while maintaining balance and try and knock the other person off the Wibit into the water. The person whose body last touched the Wibit was declared the winner. There was lots of gentle ribbing, flailing limbs, and big laughs.
An incoming storm derailed the afternoon’s event, Overland Overwater, an all-camp obstacle course that will be rescheduled for a later date. Instead, the tribes gathered at their meeting places to work on their team chants. After about an hour, everyone met up at the stage for cheer presentations. These were dramatic masterpieces that segued into an upbeat, loud chant involving the whole tribe. The Creek tribe held a dance competition, the Modoc tribe held a bear-repelling ritual, the Yahi tribe conducted a tour of its native lands complete with an owl invasion, the Shakori tribe held an Olympic competition, the Ojibwe tribe parodied Goldilocks and the Three Bears, and the Mohegan tribe played poker with very high stakes! Oh, and there was chanting and stomping and clapping, too.
Unfortunately, the rain continued to pummel camp throughout the afternoon, and tonight’s much-anticipated Rope Burn was postponed for a later date. But if previous Frontier Weeks are any indication, it will definitely be worth the wait!
Day three is on the horizon!
