Take a Hike

One of the activities we do at camp is hiking. All the years divide up and go on different hikes. I hear the 2nd year hike is supposed to be the longest but depending on where Jolene sends us, everyone could be hiking a while. Or they could get lost and end up out longer simply because they can't find the way home.

I opted to tag along with the 3rd years. Christy Luque was guiding us and she is over parks and trails at Shalom, so I knew we wouldn't get lost. Phew. The day was lovely. (I promise that it did rain on us quite a bit here and there.) Actually, if I remember correctly, it started to rain exactly as the last group came in from hiking. Good timing.

We had a good group of girls to hike with. You may recognize one here or there. Let's get going...

We finally arrived at an area where we were going to do a service project watering baby trees, but the rain took care of that for us. If you look closely, you can see bottled water on the side and all the little yellow spots in the background are tagged trees that need to be watered. There were baby trees everywhere.

We continued to hike for a while and stopped to rest periodically.

We finally came to a good stopping place where we had a lesson about making Time for the Lord. Everyone found a spot by themselves to contemplate and make some goals.

After some time there, we continued on our other half of the hike. We ran into the 2nd years coming down the trail. I tried to take a quick picture of Robyn walking by. You can see how well that worked. The camera almost always chooses the wrong thing to focus on in a pinch.

From there it was mostly downhill. The scenery was so pretty.

Success...we made it back to camp. Good job ladies. What a great looking group. We don't even look tired. Unless you count the general tiredness of sleeping on cots and not getting showers.

I grabbed a couple pictures from Rebecca. I like this view up above of the lake and the main house where the year-round missionaries live.

And look...there is the back of me. Proof that I was there.

Rotations

At camp, there are quite a few fun activities that the girls rotate through in wards. There are a couple days scheduled so that everyone has a chance to go to everything.

CRAFT:

Our craft this year was arrows with Find Your Grove in vinyl. The girls painted and mod podged to their hearts' content. They were all so different and unique. It was fun to see their creations.

They had extras so some girls came back to do additional arrows. I found this cute girl working hard.

ROCKETS:

Melinda added this activity in. The girls seemed to really enjoy it. They made mini rockets out of paper and then shot them to the moon. Well...they didn't go quite that far, but I was amazed at how far some of them flew.

CERTIFICATION:

I guess this one isn't done in wards. The girls divide into years and get all their skills checked off. I helped out with 3rd years. They did a good job, although fire starting without matches is a trick. The most exciting thing that happened was a weasel attacking a pot gut and trying to drag it into the underbrush. Aaliyah didn't know what to do, so she ran toward the weasel who reluctantly let go of his prize. The poor pot gut ran away as fast as his legs would take him, right down the hill into the podium. After a dazed recovery, he scampered into the bushes. Sadly, I don't have pictures of that encounter.

CONFIDENCE COURSE:

There were a few things to do over at the confidence course. There was the walking A Frames.

The synchronized plank walk.

The trust wire. (By the way, I'm making up these names. I'm not sure what they are really called.)

And the Eskimo Blanket. (That is the real name.) I'm sad I didn't get to watch any of these, but these pictures are awesome.

WATERFRONT:

This is where I spent all my time. Elayne and I were assigned to the docks. It was beautiful.

The first day was rather overcast. The girls still splashed, but they didn't get too wet. June managed to take a dunk. When she was stepping out of the canoe, President Murray wasn't paying attention and the boat drifted. Instead of a dock to step out on, she came up on empty space. She was in the water up to her waist before she caught herself on the dock and boat. Luckily, she wasn't hurt.

We spent most of our time loading girls in and out. There were kayaks too if anyone wanted to try.

I love this group in stealth mode.

Here is me and Elayne with Bro. Underwood as our backup medic.

The second day was a bit sunnier and we had our aggressive groups. (Actually, they would have played tough even with no sun.) They were prepared with super soakers and buckets. The rule is no splashing with the paddles, but no one follows that rule.

Sadly, we found out why the no paddle rule. Hannah got clocked in the face, splitting her lip. I'm impressed that someone caught a picture of her right after.

(Actually, I'm mostly impressed that some of these ladies took their nice cameras out on the water.)

Look at them get into it. It's really great.

On the dock, we armed ourselves for returning tyrants. Here the men are battling it out.

Sorry Jayden...looks like you messed with the wrong crew.

Although, I'll give you some advice. Don't ever give up your super soaker. They will turn against you and it isn't pretty.

It was such a blast. My clothes didn't dry out the entire time I was there. Totally worth it.