Silver Spur Christian Camp and Conference Center

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Yesterday I mentioned the low elevation numbers….well today they changed. And so did the scenery. We’re no longer in the green grass and low warm elevation. Tuolumne is in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada Mountains, and Silver Spur is at 2500 feet! The road to get here was absolutely scary…narrow, with no shoulder~~just a ribbon of asphalt….twisting and turning. Neither of us believed they could successfully have a camp of any type this far out, and yet we passed two other conference centers. I’m not naming names, but one of us threw away the sheet with directions on how to get here and we had to rely completely on gps…and it got us here.

And it’s a beautiful camp. Pretty much just carved out of the mountain. They have over 100 acres, with three different camps (Silver Spur, Silver Creek, and Silver Something-else-that-I-can’t-remember right now) operating, either individually, or some groups rent more than one camp. They're all quite close together. It’s an impressive operation. The area is surrounded by oak trees, and guess what…there’s more than one kind of oak tree! The trees are dropping their acorns, and you can hear them hitting the roofs all over camp. Because we’re situated between two mountains, the sound really travels, and it’s kind of like a cork popping out of a bottle. They’re very loud when they land on top of the motor home, and sometimes we can hear them roll, and sometimes they just hit and land, but three have hit since I started this entry! They’re allllll over the ground. I guess they hurt when they hit you on the head!

We are working with four couples: Wanda and Dave from Rapid City, Paul and Germaine from Nashville, and Earl and Nancy from New Hampshire. There’s also another couple, Jim and Jerilyn, who came to Silver Spur from another volunteer group, and then Jim began to have health problems, so they just stayed here and continue to volunteer their time. Jim can’t do a lot, but Jerilyn is very involved. I think they’ve been here three years! They’re going to join us for morning devotions, weekly Bible study, tours and our socials…everything but our work assignments. It’ll be like having five couples.

The bad news? We don't have cell coverage or tv, and we only sometimes have one mediocre radio station, and have to go to the Lodge for wifi. We can get cell coverage up the hill at Silver Creek. And the walk is good for us. 😊

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Photos

Oak leaves in full glory
This picture is taken in front of the main lodge, which is the doorway where the group was standing for the picture. In the background is one of the two pools.

Not only is this tree magnificent,
but I aso included this to show a little of the road we were driving on to get to the camp. Where you see the gate, or a mailbox, you don't see any sign of a house. They're probably tucked into the mountain, like we are.

Rocks
This is on the trail going up to Silver Creek Camp. The ground is covered with leaves~~just like fall!!

View from our window
I just took this to show how close we are to the camp. The cars you see are in the parking lot, which is across the yard and a creek. It looks like they're close, but they're not.
The cars belong to the 120 scrapbookers that were here for a three day workshop over the weekend.

Other sounds
It's hauntingly quiet up here, but you can always hear woodpeckers doing their thing. There aren't many other birds around.

Evidence of woodpeckers
These holes covered the tree, and you can see that many of the holes have an acorn in them. The woodpeckers don't eat the acorns, but they eat the meely worms that come from the acorns. The oak trees can tolerate this many holes. Isn't it intersting?

Our Team
Nancy and Earl...Germaine and Paul...Wanda and Dave. Wanda and Dave are the team leaders.

Comments

[Patti]

Great Pictures!
Man O Man! What glorious colors on those Oak leaves. I can't imagine having those acorns drop all the time. Does it sound like big hail or just soft sounds since there isn't as much force behind them?

[Lisa]

the colors are beautiful!

[Danielson]

Silver Spur
The acorns sound like throwing a rock against a building. Wanda got hit on the head by one, and has a lump there. If they hit the plastic cover on the ceiling vents, it gets your attention for sure! Sometimes they land on the roof and we can hear them roll, but sometimes they hit and stay. The acorns are anywhere from an inch to three inches long. I didn't know they were that big.