One of the best things about Guiding is being able to take part in new activities and learn new skills! In Trex, we love to offer opportunities to do just that, especially when it comes to building confidence in BC's beautiful outdoors. This is why we decided to put on a backpacking training camp for both Trex and Link at Chilliwack Lake! Thank you to everyone who braved the long drive out in rush hour traffic to take part. We had a fantastic time! Special thank you to the Link members who joined us - we look forward to offering more bridging opportunities in the future!
After rolling in, setting up camp and having a good night's sleep, it was time to review some of the usual camp skills. You know the drill: tarping and knot-tying. Not always the most exciting, but if you ever find yourself huddled beneath an well set-up tarp in the middle of a rainstorm on the second day of a seven-day trip, you'll be thanking your lucky stars for the helpful expertise of Belinda Li. She swiftly taught us how to keep our tarp knots simple and our butts dry! |
When we were sitting down to plan our menu, we weren't quite expecting to end up with sushi for our saturday lunch. However, after some pointed insistence from a certain (very) passionate individual, we made it work in the form of sushi bowls! It just requires a snack pack of seaweed, some smoked salmon, vegetables of choice (we went with cucumber, avocadoes and carrots), and rice! If you're extra ambitious, you can wrap everything in the seaweed and get a proper backpacker's sushi roll. We highly recommend it! |
Of course, it's not a backpacking training camp without the Leave No Trace Amazing Race! Nancy and Jacquie were running around day and night to get it all set up, and it was well worth the effort. After filling their stomachs, our two teams were ready and raring to go!
The race focused on a few key topics, including food, poop, packing, and appreciation. And believe me - the judges did not go easy on the girls! If each challenge wasn't completed to the correct criteria, the teams would have to start over again. It made for some rather tense moments...
After an afternoon of dashing decisions, nimble-fingered knot-tying, superior stove-lighting, and admirable agility, the final leap for the finish began! Across the campsite, down the trail, and onto the lovely little beach they raced. Neck in neck, chests heaving, striving to be the first to reach Guider Nancy...
Congratulations to the merry winners, whose team name has been lost to time (but was very funny and creative)! Honestly, we all had a blast, and I think we all had a lot of fun learning a little bit more about how to approach our wilderness forays.
Tired, accomplished, and hungry, we all wandered back to our site to enjoy a classic meal of camp tacos. Thankfully, there were no fire bans in place, so we spent the rest of the evening swapping stories and cooking s'mores. Finally, we capped it all off with a beautiful moongazing session down by the lake. Needless to say, most of us slept well that night!
Of course, there is one component of backpacking that we hadn't fully covered yet - the hiking! Because the focus of this camp was skill-building, we decided not to make everyone carry their fully loaded packs up the trail, but we did go for a nice day hike up to Lindeman Lake. There were many dogs and large rocks also out enjoying the sunshine!
All in all, it seemed like everybody had an awesome time! It was fantastic to have an opportunity to bring Trex and Link members together, and we hope they were able to learn a lot! We would love to offer more camps like this in the future, as well as a full-on backpacking camp where these new skills can be put into practice! If you are interested in learning more about a particular type of adventure camp activity, such as backpacking, kayaking/canoeing or cycling, let us know and we'll do our best to facilitate it! Thanks again to everyone who came out -- you're the reason we love what we do!