Camp Augusta’s New Ropes Course
Times are changing and Camp Augusta is looking forward to the future summers to come. As of 2022, most of our ropes course activities are built into the Ponderosa Pine trees in our beautiful woods. As the historic drought continues, our trees struggle more and more with the extra stress off having a ropes course built into them.
Well, we’re glad you asked! A ropes course course is a static, purpose built “Challenge course” designed to combine the elements of traditional team building, agility course challenges and adventure course *ahem* adventure… All while being high up in the trees!
The answer is “kind of”.
The PODS course at camp is a multivine traverse element that allows you to complete challenges on a linear course going from point A to B, B to C, etc. The new ropes course will be far more than that!
PODS:
- Has 3 points of entry
- All entry points are vertical climbs between 35 and 45 feet from the ground.
- Has around 20 elements total
- Has two paths – forwards or backwards
- All participants must remain in the order in which they climb
- Is exclusively built into living trees
- Has limitations around how/what can be retrofitted to the course
New pole course:
- 13 poles standing from 60 feet up to 85 feet and 5-6 points of entry!
- 3 levels, with each level having between 10 and 20 brand new elements per level to challenge adventure seekers of all experience and ability levels!
- A mixtrure of both team and individual elements to tackle with groups or on your own!
- Each level will have multipule routes (up down, left, right, forwards, backwards) to choose from… You could try a new way every day of summer camp or family camp if you’d like!
- The new course will be largely in the shade, and nestled among trees rather than exposed to the sun!
- Puzzles… Yes Puzzles! The new pole course will have you breaking a mental sweat as well as a physical one!
- Secrets to uncover… Hunt easter eggs that will be left for you to find as you go!
Trees are sussepatble to The California drought and the infestation of bark beetles. Our forest is not immune to the challenges facing our state and our weakened forest now has a significantly increased risk of “die off”, especially among our large trees here at camp, adding significant risk to the longevity of our ropes courses.
If we were to continue to build into our living trees, we would run a high risk of damaging or killing them. Meaning we would lose more of our beloved forest AND more of our ropes course to these evironmental factors.
This course of action provides decades of structural integrity and measurable stability to our course because we are taking the ‘living’ aspect out of the course by using poles!
Retrofitting/expanding the course becomes exponentially more manageable because poles do not grow and thus will not grow around our course, cables or platforms!
We can more easily install industry standard updates, expansions and developments with a purpose built course.
A pole course of this size will mimic larger tree courses and be a unique experience for campers
The maintenance of the structure will be of a lower financial cost annually and will require less input/coordination with unrelated entities (Arborists reports will no longer be a deciding factor on the eligibility of the course for future years)
Sadly, yes.
In the past 20 years Augusta has lost 80% of large tress trees to drought/beetle related stress. We do our best to give our tress a chance, though we cannot stop all of the trees from dying.
- In 2014 we lost the original “Giant’s Junkyard” trees at the top of Pine Village and had to move it towards Cedar Village
- In 2015 we lost the original PODS A/B trees in the middle of the course and had to re-direct the course through a new tree. In doing so we lost on of the elements on the course (now shorter) and lost our 100ft “Tower of Terror” climbing element
- In 2021 we lost “Tiny” our 120 ft “Giant swing” that lived next to the climbing wall
- In 2022 we lost a “Canopy Tour” tree (replacing it with a pole out by Archery)
- Also in 2022 we lost both the “High Zip” starting tree and the end tree. This means that High Zip is no more and that our Aerial Silks beam needs to be relocated onto two more poles (placed infront of where the trees were, next to the campfire circle)
We have a budget agreement and a “Do not Exceed” agreement with Challenge Works. The cost of the course will be $150K. This price will include all design, materials (purchase and transportation), poles, labor (including human expenses such as food, transport and housing) and installation of the course from start to finish.
Pole courses are not cheap things to build. We need to eusure that all of our ropes courses are build to meet or exceed ACCT standards for challenge courses in the USA. That means we need to use a certified vendor like Challenge Works to make sure the build is done correctly.
The price of materials, design, labor and equipment means that:
- Platforms cost between $700 and $1,000 each
- Elements cost $2,500 each
- Poles cost between $4,000 and $6,000 each
- Machinery to install the course costs over $2000 per day of use
- After that we have certifications and inspections cost around $4000.
- Harnesses, helments and all the pieces to buy for the course!
Great question! All of the “Donate” buttons on our page lead to the form to donate… Just like the one above!
Or give is a call/email: 530-265-3702, office@campaugusta.org
We don’t have a name yet!
Wanna help name the course? Great! Add your suggestions by emailing office@campaugusta.org
9 things our new pole course will do that PODS can’t do
- The new course will have both vertical climbs and easy access bridges to our first level! That means you can walk onto the course!
- On hot days – We will have a mister system! Keep your cool 80 feet in the air with a lovely breeze of mist washing over you!
- Night time ropes course! – We will be able to run lights – black light, flood light, dance party light… We can do it all!
- Hang out spot for overnights – Our platforms and transition areas will be big enough for campers to overnight out under the stars but over the forest floor!
- Level transitions – Swapping height for challenges that suit you! You can go from 20 feet, to 65 feet, back to 20 feet as you traverse our new course!
- Changing elements – We will be able to change our elements with ease! Each year could look different if we wanted by rotating through our elements!
- Zig and Zag from one side of the course to the other from each platform! No more linear loop!
- Teambuilding on 3 levels! Group challenges will span all the levels of the course!
- We will be able to have upto 30 people on the course at once!
