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Class V paddling propels ‘Charlie Dock’ to Morehead scholarship

Charlie Dockendorf’s vast experience in outdoor adventures of every kind was among the assets helped him gain a prestigious Morehead scholarship.

By Bill Moss, Published: May 12, 2025

At Colorado Rocky Mountain School, Charlie Dockendorf served as a student body president, dorm leader and wilderness trek guide for his younger classmates.

“What’s really cool about Colorado Rocky Mountain School is every new student goes on a 10-day backpacking trek in the Colorado wilderness,” he said.

As an upperclassman, Charlie helped to lead many of the hikes himself. He was, after all, rooted in all things outdoors. His father, John, founded Adventure Treks, which takes young people on backpacking and kayaking trips across the U.S. and abroad, and later owned Camp Pinnacle in Flat Rock. Charlie’s mom is Jane, and he has three similarly high-achieving sisters — Audrey, Ella and Ava.

“I did a few Adventure Treks trips,” Charlie says, “but I worked a lot with Camp Pinnacle in the outdoors” starting in the sixth grade.

His achievements in academics, leading his peers and conquering outdoor challenges have brought him one of the highest honors for high school seniors across the U.S. Charlie will attend UNC at Chapel Hill on a Morehead-Cain scholarship, one of the most prestigious full-ride grants in the U.S. He spent two years at Hendersonville High School before enrolling in the Colorado boarding school as a junior.

“First and foremost, my parents for having the trust in me to take advantage of things, to self-regulate, to send me off to boarding school knowing I would thrive, because it’s a big jump,” he said when I ask what accounts for his well-rounded success story.

He also credits his academic adviser, Eliot Taft. Charlie and his mentor designed a college-prep level course “reading the great American novels and deciding why they’re great American novels and why they’re so important to the American canon.”

He reads books the old-fashioned way, by the way, by turning pages made of paper. I postulate, based on his upbringing and outdoor pursuits that he wasn’t big on smart phones or tablets.

“That is definitely true. I was not allowed much screen time as a kid,” he says. “I think that is something I’m also super grateful for. I had to be creative and play outside. I don’t spend much time on the phone or screen.”

At the outdoors-oriented prep school, the kid sometimes known as “Charlie Dock” excelled at competitive “big mountain skiing,” kayaking and mountain biking. When I ask whether he’s also a distance runner, he responds that “I ran an ultra-50k but I don’t race marathons,” as if a run 5 miles longer than a marathon is hardly worth a mention.

Because “Chapel Hill is not necessarily known for whitewater paddling or mountain biking,” he plans to join the club rowing team at Carolina. In the classroom, he’ll major in English lit and Chinese.

“I took Chinese in high school (at Asheville High School) but have not been able to at Colorado Mountain,” he said. “I think it would be a real shame if I finish school not being fluent in another language.”

Soon he’ll embark on the Morehead program’s immersive outdoor experience through the National Outdoor Leadership School — a 30-day wilderness backpacking trek in Alaska. He expects it to be tough for many — “it requires a lot more experience than a group of high school students has” — so he’s looking forward to using his own knowledge and experience to help guide his Morehead peers.

Among the high value assets of the Morehead-Cain scholarship is its summer program — working in an American city and “learning about its challenges and how to tackle them” after freshman year; getting a global perspective abroad after sophomore year; and gaining “real world experience in some sort of internship” after junior year.

Four years from now — fluent in Chinese, deeply ingrained in the English and American literary canon, a buff adventurer on water and land — might Charles Burkhardt “Charlie” Dockendorf be a long-haired bearded chap reading poetry of the Orient while sipping a latte at Starbucks?

Nah.

“The tentative plan is I go to Chapel Hill, I graduate, I take a year or two off, working some odd jobs — maybe teaching kayaking,” he says. “Then the plan is to go law school and become a lawyer.”

Possibly specializing in the environment. Which he knows a lot about. IRL, not from a screen.