What is the BFMS Catoctin Weekend?

  To many BFMS members, a Catoctin weekend is a favorite getaway, a chance to escape to the beautiful, wooded setting of Catoctin Mountain Park. To others, it is an opportunity to try new musical and dance experiences or to share activities they enjoy with others. For families, it is often one of the most wholesome and relaxed (and affordable) multi-generational outings of the year. For everyone—whether they come single, with a partner, or with parents or offspring—it is a weekend of community.

  What can a Catoctin weekend be for you? The flyer and camp tour give a good picture of the weekend’s activities and the setting in which we enjoy them. We always have a variety of dance workshops, ranging from the familiar contra and English country dance forms to dances from far-flung places, some couple dances, longsword and rapper, and perhaps some zydeco or swing to spice things up. There are storytelling sessions for young and old, song swaps, musical instrument workshops, rhythm sessions, craft activities, and nature outings. Beyond the scheduled activities there is ample opportunity for forming new friendships during kitchen duty, hiking, swimming in the pool (at the Spring weekend), or impromptu jam sessions. Evening parties include a potpourri of music and dance.

  As a village, Catoctin participants have witnessed budding friendships, romances, and growing children. We encourage our neighbors to develop and share interests and skills. First-time campers bring new faces and fresh ideas to the weekend, while regulars give us the backbone of talent and organization that keeps us going. Some folks travel from out-of-state to be a part of a Catoctin weekend. Many who have experienced this adventure love it so much that they bring friends, relatives, and neighbors to future camps.

  We come to Catoctin from our busy, varied, hectic lives to a place and a time where we can simply be with one another. We share our love of traditional music and dancing, we share meals and housing, we share of ourselves and our families, and we build community together. What is the BFMS Catoctin weekend? It is an opportunity to be in community with others. In this age of anonymity, electronic communication, and high-tech substitutes for human interaction, this opportunity is priceless! Come and see for yourselves.

—Julianne Harden, Catoctin Weekend Program Chair Spring 2002

Goals of the Camp

History: For many years the Baltimore Folk Music Society had a weekend event at Catoctin Quaker Camp. It was a relatively informal affair, running from Saturday morning through Sunday morning. The main events were a potluck dinner on Saturday, a big dance on Saturday night in the dining hall, and the traditional singing on Sunday morning. Hiking, jam sessions, and stargazing through Herman Heyn’s telescope filled out the rest of the short weekend. The campers at those events really were campers, staying in their own tents.
  The current series of Catoctin weekend camps was started in June of 1986. We have attempted to retain the informal, relaxed atmosphere of the original weekend series while adding additional structure for the purpose of attaining two main goals: (1) To create new teachers of traditional music, dance, and crafts, and (2) To provide a family atmosphere to foster inter-generational continuity in order to insure the Baltimore Folk Music Society’s long-term membership. The improved facilities at Camp Misty Mount, plus starting on Friday evening rather than Saturday morning, made possible for us to add an organized schedule of classes to the mix. The new camps sold out quickly every year, so in 1991 we added the October weekends to help meet the demand.

New Teachers, Musicians, & Leaders: The camp provides forum where people who have a particular skill can practice teaching it in a low-stress, relaxed environment. We make no distinction between teachers and campers. Everyone works in the kitchen, eats the same food, wears the same badges, and pays the same rates. In less than two days, the camp builds a bond between teachers and campers that is comparable to that in a week-long professionally run camp. While we can’t teach very much about a topic in a one-hour workshop, we can get you started, and tell you how & where to continue studying. For example, we have several superb dance callers in Baltimore who started learning at Catoctin, and now there are several hot dance musicians who have been coming to the camp since they were infants.

Membership: The camp has a family "feel" to it that encourages all age groups to mix together at many different types of events. (We even have kitchen jobs for kids as young as six.) While we do have workshops specifically targeted towards young children, they are handled in the same fashion and done in the same cabins as adult workshops. Children of all ages can participate even as their preferences in workshops gradually changes from storytelling to songwriting, kid’s dancing to contra dancing, paper crafts to handicrafts, etc. Some of the best teachers today have come camp every year for 21 years, starting when they were only infants. In a few years, we expect them to bring their own children to start the process anew.

What to Bring to Camp

Things You Should Bring:

• Flashlight - No lighting on some paths!
• Sleeping bag - It will be cold at night!
• Alarm clock - No electricity in cabins!
• Raincoat/umbrella/etc. - It rains a lot in the mountains!
• Warm clothes - It’s usually colder than the cities!
• Swimwear - (Pool is open only for Spring camps.)
• Any special foods or medicines you require - Refrigerator available.
• Towel/soap/shampoo/toothbrush etc. - The camp has community mens/womens bathrooms & showers.
• Potluck meal for Friday evening.

Things You Might Want to Bring:

• Camera & film or memory cards - Film? What is that?
• Binoculars
• Field guides - The Eastern Region Trees one is the most useful. The animals at the camp are very shy.
• Hiking boots or strong tennis shoes
• Leather-soled dance shoes or dress shoes - See note below.
• Compass & water bottle - Lots of hiking trails around the camp
• Frederick County, Maryland map
• Song/tune/dance books - Tunes you know or want to learn.
• Musical instruments - Even if you can’t play them.
• Note paper/pen/pencil - PDAs are acceptable.
• Tape recorder - Tape? What is that?
• Cool clothing for dancing
• Seat cushion for campfire
• Dishwasher-safe coffee mug - We wash & sterilize it after every meal.
• Tote bag/backpack/fanny pack
• Sack for dirty clothes
• Hair dryer - Bathrooms have outlets; can’t be used in cabins.

Things You Must Not Bring:

• Alcoholic beverages & other drugs - Not allowed in U.S. national parks.
• Pets - No pets of any kind are allowed at Camp Misty Mount.
• Tents/RVs/pop-ups - Not allowed at Camp Misty Mount.
• Valuable items - Cabins will not be locked.
• Portable heaters or lamps - Heaters and gas- or liquid-fueled items not allowed in cabins.
• Electrical appliances - No electric outlets in cabins; electrical appliances not allowed in cabins.
• Weapons - No weapons of any kind allowed at Camp Misty Mount.

What Shoes to Wear

Hiking Boots: Hiking boots are the most comfortable for walking up and down the mountain. If you’re planning to spend most of your time at workshops and not walk around a lot, you can get by just fine with an old pair of tennis shoes instead. Just don’t ruin the soles of your dance shoes or other good shoes walking on gravel paths!

Dance Shoes: The best shoes for dancing are ones that will slide on a wooden floor. It is very hard to do most types of traditional dancing in tennis shoes or other athletic shoes, because they don’t slide. The ideal shoes have leather soles. If you have any dress shoes or similar shoes with leather or fairly hard soles, those would be best. Test the shoes by trying to slide your feet on a wooden or other hard smooth surface. If they stick, you won’t want to dance in them. You’ll get tired quickly and you’ll wonder why anyone likes to do this kind of dancing!

  The floor in the mess hall is wood covered with waxed floor tiles. It works almost as well as a plain wooden floor and is quite nice for dancing. It is only slightly more slippery than an ideal wooden floor.

Clogging Shoes: Again, the best shoes are ones that will slide on a wooden floor. For clogging or any other stepdancing workshops, you will find it nearly impossible to dance in tennis shoes or athletic shoes. So if you are planning to come to the clogging or stepdancing workshops, you must make an every effort to acquire a pair of hard-soled shoes. You do not need taps on your shoes in order to clog. In fact, if you have tap shoes, don’t wear them to the classes. Sometimes the teacher will wear taps in order to make his or her sounds loud enough for the students to hear, but the last thing that the other students want to hear is other students’ mistakes!

  Stepdancing workshops are usually done in the large 8-person cabins. The floors made of rough-hewn wooden planks worn smooth by more than 65 years of use. With leather-soled shoes, the sounds of stepdancing’s taps, slides, and steps resonating in the log cabin are magnificent.

The Cabins

Construction: You will be staying in log cabins built by the Civilian Conservation Corps in 1933-34. They are historic buildings protected by federal law. You are expected to take care of the cabins and will be held responsible for any intentional damage to them.

Outside: The outsides of the cabins are rough-hewn logs with whitewashed mortar between them, giving the cabins the horizontal-striped look as shown in the picture. Each cabin has a wooden porch with an electric light. Most have a small bench on the porch. The larger cabins have large stone porches. They have screened windows with either plastic or glass to keep out the cold.

Inside: The cabins have three to eight beds inside. Most of them have open closets, and the larger cabins have a table and benches inside as well. None of the cabins has heat. In fact, they are all vented to the outside.

Workshops: Most of the workshops are held in the large 8-person cabins. So if you’re staying in one of these, you can be sure that you will share your cabin with workshops on Saturday and on Sunday morning. Sometimes we have workshops in several other cabins as well.

The Workshops

Number and Duration: The workshops are scheduled for one hour each. The number of workshops varies from one camp to the next, but is normally about 18 to 24 in the spring and 15 to 20 in the fall. Some workshops take more than one hour, so you have to make arrangements to meet with your teacher at odd intervals through the remainder of the weekend.

Teachers: All workshops are taught by the campers. The teachers pay the same rate as everyone else. Our only consession to teachers is that they only have to work one hour in the kitchen, while everyone else has to work two hours. With the sole exception of the chef, no one is paid for coming to the camp. A small number of scholarships are available for people who want to make an artistic contribution, but who cannot pay for the camp.

Types of Workshops: The workshops depend on who volunteers to teach them, so they vary from one camp to the next. Of course, some types of workshops are more likely than others. Some are almost guaranteed: square and contra dancing, English country dancing, international folk dancing, clogging, gospel singing or Sacred Harp singing, and so on. The rest are selected from things that people volunteer to teach, as long as they fit in with the Society’s purpose (traditional music, dance, or crafts) or the purpose of Camp Misty Mount (environmental education).

Why Pay and Teach? Why would anyone in his or her right mind pay for the camp and then have to teach a workshop as well? There are many reasons. Professional musicians or dancers might want to try something new, or just "let down their hair". Amateur dance teachers might want to hone their teaching technique with a friendly audience. Novice musicians might want to improve their performance skills. Many musicians, dancers, and craftspeople just can’t help it. They look for every opportunity to spread their love of their art. One thing that we are never short of is people willing to teach the workshops.

  One of the two primary goals of this camp is to create and train new teachers of tradional music, dance, and crafts. We always try to have a varied program, and give new teachers equal weight as experienced teachers in deciding what workshops to put on the schedule. If you want to teach something, let us know on your application. If it fits in with our purposes in running the camp, we’ll make every effort to squeeze you into the schedule.

Parking & Carpools

Overview: The Catoctin Mountain Music & Dance weekends are known for many things, but the most famous feature of the camps is its carpools!

Parking: Camp Misty Mount has parking for exactly one car per cabin, plus three guest spots. With cabins being mostly the 4-person variety with a few threes and eights, you can imagine the parking problems we would have if people did not form carpools.

Carpools: Several weeks before the camp, you will receive your registration materials and carpool list. We reserve one Camp Misty Mount parking pass for every four people. (The three extra spots are needed for the van and volunteers’ cars full of stuff.)

Alternatives: There are none. You are not allowed to park in Catoctin Mountain Park after dark, except as a registered guest at one of the three camps (Camp Misty Mount, Camp Greentop, Camp David) or as a registered guest at one of the campsites. After twenty years of music and dance camps here, no one has found a better solution than carpooling.

What Animals Are at Camp Misty Mount?

  There are many animals that share the camp with us, but since the camp is usually sold out, or close to it, you won’t see too many of them unless you wander off to a quiet place by yourself.

A few of the animals are:

• Deer - Easy to spot if you walk quietly in the woods.
• Chipmunks - Often spotted on logs, if you are quiet and look very carefully.
• Snakes - Many varieties. The poisonous ones are very rare at the camp. Just watch out for them in warm weather.
• Black Bears - A few have been spotted in recent years. Be sure to be very polite to them. Don’t put food in your cabin!
• Birds - Many varieties; bring a field guide and get up early in the morning to see them.
• Insects - The gigantic millipedes are my favorites. About 5 to 6 cm. long and about 7 to 8 mm. diameter.

Check the Park Service’s website for more information.

(Or go here for information about plants at the park.)