4 June 2009
GSUSA: Mountain Mama Marathon
Posted by admin under: Outings .
This past weekend my daughter’s Girl Scout troop had an event that my daughter and one of her best friends organized. We called it Mountain Mama Marathon and it was basically a chance for the girls to learn and practice their outdoor skills. First off, the girls backpacked into the camp from the highway… it was about a quarter mile so not too hard. Next they went to 3 classes done in round robin style. That is, there were 3 stations and the girls were divided into 3 groups and directed to the stations. After 20 minutes they rotated to the next station and then again after another 20 minutes. The first stations of the day were: orienteering, lashing, and tent set-up. Next the girls were taught three methods of water purification: boiling, iodine, and water filter. The next three classes were: string burn (building a fire to burn a string at a preset height with the minimum amount of time given only a 1 foot 2 x4 piece of wood), tomahawk throwing, and first aid.
After this we broke for lunch a little late because the dry ice I thought was such a great idea had frozen our cornish game hens. Still, we cooked them 4 different ways: roasting on a stick over a small fire, as a stew, foil packets, and pan frying. With some vegies and ramen and the extended time waiting for lunch it tasted great.
After they set up their tent and stowed their gear and dodged an unexpected cloudburst they took a night hike to the top of a nearby hill where they could watch falling stars and get a glimpse of faraway Los Angeles city lights.
Dinner was a nice fettuccine alfredo with salad. We tried making a peach cobbler, but the mesquite charcoal we brought would stay lit so we had a warmish peach compote the next morning instead. We also had defrosted eggs made into boil-in-a-bag omelets.
We also did competitions based on what they learned although they didn’t have time for everything. The last event was a backpack relay sprint from the camp up to the highway.
I learned a lot about food purchases because we had a little less food than we could have used, but enough to stave off starvation for the weekend. The girls learned a lot more about how much work goes into an event of this size. It was very gratifying to my daughter to receive an e-mail from one of the other girls’ mom saying that her daughter had a wonderful time. I thought it was great, too, and I hope to see more adventurous outings like this for my daughter in the future.
- Crew: Couldn’t Hack the Hike
- Cubs: Outdoor Skills
- Back from Camp. Miss Me?
- Backpack Indexing
- One Pot Pack-up Pie
One Comment so far...
smokyscout Says:
4 June 2009 at 8:30 pm.
Outstanding! These are the type of events that girls will remember when they are grown and gone.
