Turbo-Charged for Term 2!

The second term of Summer 2025 at Balcones Springs has kicked off with a ton of PHUN! On Sunday night, we began camp with our classic summer tradition – team initiation – where old campers put on their red, blue, green, or purple to welcome new faces at Camp Balcones Springs onto one of four camp teams, the Texas Rangers, Rough Riders, Lone Stars, Silver Spurs. Boys and girls will compete in various games and events over the course of the term with their respective teams.

On Monday, boys and girls of all ages dove right into their activity schedules for the day after a morning of team competition games. At Camp Balcones Springs, every other day of the week is designated as either a Girls Major Day, where girl campers participate in the activities they have chosen to focus on during their time at camp, or a Boys Major Day, where boy campers do the same. Whenever it’s an “off day” from their majors, campers partake in a “minor day” where they participate in a pre-scheduled offering of activities alongside their cabin mates and peers. Some of the week’s minor activities have included tubing on Lake Joy, pickleball, cooking, fishing, archery, tennis, arts and crafts, jewelry-making, axe-throwing, and swimming in the lake and pool!

Our youngest campers – who don’t select their own major activities – traveled around camp trying their hand at different things, including cooking, tiny boat racing, survival skills, pickleball, tubing on the lake, and swimming!

Monday night after dinner, campers participated in a camp-wide manhunt for some of our Camp Balcones Springs counselors! Each cabin had 20 minutes to search throughout the entire property and locate hidden counselors, each assigned a certain point value pending the quality of their hiding spot. After the hunt ended, every cabin totaled their points, and the night transitioned into a live auction for some exhilarating – and some more…eccentric – prizes. Some of these special offerings included boxes of cereal for the cabin, a candlelit dinner with a leadership member, pet rocks, Chick-fil-a breakfast in bed, a late-night pool party at Papa’s Pool, a pie-in-the-face to your counselor, and – our big ticket item: immediately leaving the Counselor Hunt and getting to go off-camp for a late-night treat at Sonic! The evening ended with every cabin walking away with something exciting, and it was the perfect way to round out the first full day of camp!