The Author
Camping has always been a part of my life. I love being outdoors. My troop shares this passion and as a group we go on lots of camping trips. Through out these trips we have had experiences that we all will remember for the rest of out lives
Reach For The Peak, Older Girl Camping Competition
With my Girl Scout Troop, I participate in Reach For The Peak, an older girl camping competition. This involves Campsite Set Up,First Aid, Knots, Lashing, Nature Identification, Map and Compass, Survival Situations, and Cooking. It also includes a theme, just for dress up and for fun. Our first year we were The Squeege Hunters (based on our favorite song) and the second year we were THE Superheros, including Batman, Wolverine, Green Arrow, Wonder Woman, The Flash, Captain America, and Superman. We all felt rely cool.
I went to RFTP in 2016 and 2017. My first year was an eye opener as we learned what this competition was really all about. Before we competed we had asked other groups for any tips. All of them told us that team work is the key. After competing we learned just how right they were. We did make a lot of mistakes, but we also learned how to get better. Even though we were all tired and stressed after competition, that did not stop us from having fun. By the second day we were all talking about what our theme should be for next year and how much better we wanted to do. The awards are split into four groups, one: The Marmot, two: The Big Horn Sheep, three: The Eagles, and four: The Peak. That year we earned the award of Marmot. Even though this was the lowest category we still were proud. Most the groups that carried their awards with them all had multiple Marmots. Our best event was lashing, we all helped and did our jobs correctly. Our worst event was dinner or cooking. It did not go well because we accidentally lit a camp stove on fire. Definitely not our best moment. What happened was we turned the gas on, but there must have been a leak because when we went to light it, every thing but the burner lit. We had to use dirt to put it out because water won't put out a gas fire. That was difficult because the ground was covered in pine needles, which burn incredibly fast. Once the fire was out we could not use that stove any more so our four burner meal had to be done with two burners. This caused us to take too much time so we did not finish clean up on time. Dinner the next year went much better.
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Our second year was much easier because we were more experienced. We were calm and worked as a team the entire competition. Even this year we made some mistakes. We learned first hand that it is extremely hard to make a fire with wet wood. At the end of the competition we earned first place in Survival Situations and Dinner. These accomplishments made us extremely excited and ready to come back to compete again.
Troop Camping Experiences:
My troop loves to camp. While camping we have had some unique experiences.
We completed our Silver award, the next highest award after the Gold Award, by writing a booklet about our experiences volunteering with the National Parks system. As a group we went to Rocky Mountain National Park for two weekends to volunteer. The first weekend we were chopping down Musk Thistles because they were foreign or plants from a different area and they are invasive. The park ranger that we were working with gave us safety jackets, so visitors know that we are helping, and they gave us shovels. All our shovels had names written on them. I still remember, mine was named Doug. Otherwise, we all walked down the path till we found some that is when I learned that if you chop down a Musk Thistle by the roots it will never come back. This began our Thistle hunting. We spent two days chopping them down. Now whenever we see one all we want to do is chop it down.
Our second weekend was just as much fun, with a few differences. It poured rain the entire time. We had some hikes planned for the first day and our volunteering the second, but those hikes got rained out. Instead we asked the campsite manager if we could help with anything. We got to help raise the flag in the morning, and we got to clear weeds out of the handicapped trails/spots. Even though it was raining we still had fun. When the rain got bad we all fit into our one car and ate lunch. To top off the rain we had three people come down with strep throat. Even through all this we still were able to volunteer and help pull wild chamameele out of the employee housing. Because of this we can now say we have all cooked marshmallows over a fire in the rain.
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