Category Archives: Summer Camps

Summer adventure camp related postings for Rock-N-Water Christian Camps

April Water Report for 2013

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Below Normal water but still looking good

We’ve got less water in California than we would like, but we’re still only in the Below Normal range for summer water releases.

This means that for April through the 1st week in May (after which we’ll go off the May water report), we’ll have guaranteed water for whitewater rafting on all but Wednesdays, though we’ll probably have raftable water on Wednesdays anyways.

For more information on how snowpack and water levels can affect (or not affect) some of our adventures, please check out: http://www.rocknwater.com/guest-information/about/water-for-adventures/

Robbers Fire a problem but groups are not impacted by it

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Robbers Fire is not yet a danger to camp or any areas that groups will be going to this week.

The ~1400 acre Robbers Fire of neighboring Placer County, has (for better or worse) received some state wide news coverage. This fire is approximately 20 miles away from camp, and along with numerous natural and man-made obstacles between here and there, it is currently not a danger to camp. Since it started on Wednesday we have, and will continue to closely monitor it just in case. As always, if something will have an adverse affect to your upcoming trip, you can trust that we will attempt to contact you directly to advise you of the situation.

While two of our canyoneering locations (obviously none that we are planing on using this week) are closer to this fire, for the foreseeable future the loss of using those locations will not be felt and probably not even noticed by any of the groups coming up.

There has been a minimal amount of smoke at camp from this fire, but not yet enough to be of any concern for healthy individuals. However, any campers that have asthma, especially those with asthma triggered by environmental factors such as smoke, should of course bring their inhaler with them to camp. Again, we have and will continue to closely monitor this situation to ensure the safety of all our campers and staff.

The terrain map included below will give you a better feel for the distance between our camps and the fire.

Jansen Wendlandt
Assistant Director – Rock-N-Water

 UPDATE 7/16/2012 - The fire is still burning,
but is currently moving away from RNW and the locations we use.
 Update 7/17/2012 - The fire is at 50% containment.

5 Camperships available for Summer Camps in 2012

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Update: 6/25/2012 - All scholarships have been awarded.

Rock-N-Water, through the Christian Camp and Conference Association’s – Corners of the Field program, has just been awarded 5 camperships of $125/person to be distributed among campers of Rock-N-Water Christian summer camps that meet the following conditions:

  • Campers must be under 18 years old and attending 3 or more active days at Rock-N-Water from June 24 through August 31 2012.
  • Applicants must have a combined household Federal Adjusted Gross Income (AGI) of less than the amount specified in the table below.
  • Combined scholarships and assistance from additional outside sources cannot reduce the final cost to the participant below $10 per active day at RNW. We have found that participants with a personal financial investment (even if minimal), typically get more out of their camp experience, and are far more likely to show up than those receiving 100% financial assistance.
 Eligibility 1 Person 2 Person 3 Person 4 Person 5 Person 6 Person
Max AGI $19,064 $25,756 $32,448 $39,140 $45,832 $52,524
For more than 6 People use: Max AGI = (# people x 6,692) + 12,372

If you, or someone you know, was thinking about coming to Rock-N-Water this summer, but finances were getting in the way of coming, then please check out or pass along the Campership Application.

The deadline for getting your completed application to Rock-N-Water is Wednesday June 20th. Eligible applications will be drawn at random the following day until all camperships have been awarded.

Many thanks to the Christian Camp and Conference Association for their hard work in securing the funding to make these camperships possible.

Jansen Wendlandt
Rock-N-Water

Raftable Flows Guaranteed for all but Wednesdays in 2012

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On May 11th, the Department of Water Resources released it’s Bulletin 120 report on the water fall and storage levels in California for 2012. While our snow pack and rain fall has been abysmal in 2012, the reservoir carryover from the 2011 water year was enough to lift us up into a “Dry” water year classification (at least for the American River runoff).

What his means is that while other rafting rivers across California might go dry this summer, we’ve been guaranteed great whitewater rafting flows on the South Fork* of the American River from at least Memorial Day through Labor Day on all but Wednesdays. And I’d predict that we’ll probably see rafting flows on about 40% of those Wednesdays even though they are not guaranteed.

*On the Middle Fork of the American River, for our Class IV River Rafting trips, we’ve been given a “handshake guarantee” of raftable water 7 days a week from May 5th through September 30th.

For the most part, we’ll be able (and have been scheduling accordingly since January) to avoid needing to count on rafting flows on Wednesdays in order to make our trips happen. However, in the rare cases where that isn’t possible, and in the even rarer cases when we don’t get that Wednesday water, we have many great alternate plans in place. These include full day inflatable kayaking (Fun-Yaking) trips at the lower flows (which are still plenty high enough for whitewater kayaking fun), Rock Climbing (if you weren’t already doing it), or exploring one of 4 different river Canyons for some incredible Canyoneering experiences.

If there is a chance that we might need to risk counting on Wednesday water for your trip, then we’ve probably already talked to you about it. Ensuring you get the highest quality trip simply comes down to you being a little flexible with Wednesdays, and trusting that we are going to do what it takes to have backup plans in place to make sure that you get the best trip possible.  But if you are concerned, or just have questions, please feel free to give us a call.

Jansen Wendlandt
Rock-N-Water
800-738-0555

Rain, Snow, and blessings from God

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God sure blessed us with an interesting week this week:

  • We started with cloudless days in the low 90s and ended with the same, but in-between we had over an inch of rain that fell one night and only reached 68 one day (Yes, and inch+ of rain the end of June in sunny California).
  • A Backpacking trip returned a day early after they went to bed with rain falling over night, only to welcome in the next morning with snow starting to fall. Yes, Snow on June 29th at only ~6,000 feet above sea level. But they got a good days rest and finished off their trip with a day each of Rafting and Rock Climbing, despite the fact that one of their vehicles thought they weren’t having enough challenges and decided to break down on them.
  • The rain elevated river levels for a little bit, but we were able to adjust our start times such that we didn’t see anything more than we were ready for.
  • Thank you to all the staff and campers for the maturity you exhibited as we took shelter from the rain together, and for being patient with us as we adjusted plans to keep every adventure as safe and fun as possible.

We might be a bit more tired after this week, but we had a great time, and God did amazing things in the spiritual lives of campers and staff alike. Thank you for keeping the campers, the staff, and the ministry of Rock-N-Water in your prayers.

It’s raining in June, but we’re all good.

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We’ve got a cooler rain and thunderstorm system moving through right now, and we are all hunkering down under the shelters we have set up around camp for the night. But as of 8:56 PM on June 28th, it does not look like the weather will prevent trips from happening tomorrow (or the next few days). We’ll just get a little wetter.

A blessing of a day

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As you probably heard, California has received a “decent” amount of snow pack this year, combined with a relatively cold and wet May. This winter that meant digging through 15 feet of snow to get to the ROOF of a cabin for one of our snowshoe winter camps. This summer, it will mean dynamic water conditions, and sometimes putting in place alternate plans to ensure that each camp this summer is funnest and safest experience possible.

So that we can better predict and prepare for different snow melt conditions, we have been working hard to further improve our understandings of the drainage/reservoir systems that feed into the different river canyons that we play in.  With only a few holes left to fill in, we left messages with two different government agencies this morning.

Within 1 hour, both agencies not only called us back, but also fully answered every remaining question that we had, gave us their personal predictions of what the snow melt is going to look like, and even gave us readout information for a sensor that we had been trying to get information on for months.

Praise be to God for making everything come together!

Jansen Wendlandt

Youth Pastor Couples Retreat is today

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Today is our Youth Pastor Couples Whitewater Retreat. Please pray that God would bless this event and those participating in it with a time of comradery, fellowship, marital stregnthening, and spiritual encouragment.

http://www.rocknwater.com/leadership-retreats/couples-retreat/

And of course that everyone would have a ton of fun!