GRP's Trout House
Greetings from GRP! These past few months, sounds of construction echo across the front field. The Trout House is nearing completion and the landscaping is underway. It is really coming together! This new open-air building will be the centerpiece of our front side of camp just below the Lodge. We are already dreaming up uses for this space apart from its intended use as the hub of fly-fishing. Lakeside theater productions?
Star, a long-time mentor and story-teller at GRP, designed the landscape that will tie our new fly fishing pavillion to the lake below. Several weeks ago, the hill next to the trout house was blank, and the design was merely a sketch in Star’s notebook. Today, huge boulders nestle on the hillside, forming the base of what will eventually be a gorgeous waterfall and pools,flowing down from the Trout House aquarium.
Jesse Burns, the manager of a local landscaping service and a friend of the camp, has been gathering boulders from around the Preserve for quite a while. With the help of his crew, he excavated and then placed each stone using a trackhoe. With over 20 years of experience, Jesse operates the machine with a delicate touch, resting the boulders up against one another, giving the hill a natural look.
While Star and Jesse’s crew have worked on the tiered waterfall, Hawk (another long-time mentor and story-teller at GRP) and Joe (the camp’s off-season caretaker) have mixed mortar and laid stone - Sandy jumps in to help between fishing adventures, too!
The stone walls will eventually create a native-species flower bed and become the back edge of a patio just below the deck of the Trout House. It’s a magical project to watch unfold and we’re all looking forward to watching campers discover this space when summer rolls around!
