Spring camp

Last weekend was the final Pathfinder camp of the year. (The only thing left is to finalize the financial books, which I plan to do tomorrow or Monday.)

This was the hardest camp of the program for me, because the girls plan and run it themselves. I struggle with letting them do that, even though I know it's critical that they do it.

The two girls running camps did a poor job of preparing - they needed to be prodded multiple times before the camp - but they did a great job at the camp itself. One of them, in particular, has become a much stronger camper over the past two years. A year ago she'd light a match, scream, and drop it, and this weekend she was confidently lighting fires and camp stoves with no issues.

Now to get the books done and put it all away until fall.

Winter camp

My Pathfinders are going camping next weekend. There is a building on site, but we're planning to spend a lot of time outside.

Any other year, that would be fine, but this year ... well, let's just say that it's been a little cold.

(One day last week I told my colleague in India that it had warmed up from -25 C to -22 C. He did not think that was considerably better.)

Because it has been so cold, Wanda has been wearing my snow pants when she takes the bus. It works well ... except I'm taking the car AND the snow pants to camp.

I went and bought another pair of snow pants.

And then I realized that my winter jacket isn't really warm enough to wear outside for two days.

I went and bought another jacket.

We might sleep outside on Saturday, so I will be packing almost every blanket I own. We have to bring our own water, so I have to pack that. Then there's the food, and the crafts, and the stuff for a treasure hunt/survival activity, and my Dutch oven, and ...

It's so much easier when we camp in my back yard.

Best. Camp. Ever.

I own two tents.  One is about 15 years old. The floor is square, and it's a dome tent, with two poles that cross to hold up the roof. It doesn't need to be pegged (although you probably should peg it, if there's any chance of wind).  I can put it up by myself in 10 minutes.

The other tent is 2 or 3 years old.  It must be pegged, and is long, rather than square.  It's harder to put up if you don't know what you're doing.

At one of our first Pathfinder meetings, we handed the girls the older tent and watched them try to figure it out.  There were 4 of them, and it took them 45 minutes to get it (almost) right. 

Needless to say, one of the things we've worked on this year was camp skills, because while the girls were interested and enthusiastic, they didn't have much camping experience.

We did a camp in October. A couple of the girls didn't pack properly and were cold, it took a long time to get the tents up, and, naturally, it rained.

Our second camp of the year was this weekend.

Friday night, the girls took 10 minutes to put up the second (harder) tent, then helped with the dining tent.

They did the meal prep and cooking and clean up.

They built clotheslines and a slingshot and a basin stand.

We spent 3 or 4 hours canoeing on Saturday, and they still had time to spend hours decorating t-shirts and hanging out in the woods.

It was cold, yet most of the girls were fine, because they'd brought everything they'd been told to bring. (One needed an extra blanket, which she borrowed from another girl who had an extra.)

I'm so proud of these girls.

And next year they get to do the whole thing - preparation, planning, and grocery buying - themselves.

I'll have to bring a book.

Fall Camp

This weekend was our fall Pathfinder camp.

Do you know how hard it is to find a site to camp in tents in late October?  It's not terribly easy.

Luckily, I have a big backyard, so we decided to camp there. As an added bonus, I didn't have to pack.

Friday was beautiful. We set up the tents (one 6-person tent for 4 girls, one 6-person tent for the leaders, one dining tent), then walked over to the Sportsplex and went for a walk on the trails in the dark.  The girls kept freaking themselves out by inventing stories that murderers were lurking in the bushes, which resulted in screams whenever we encountered people doing nefarious things like walking their dogs.

It was late by the time we got to bed, so we slept in on Saturday morning.  After making our breakfast and cleaning up, we went door to door selling cookies.  We had lunch, and then it was time to get ready for the zombie walk.

Most of the girls did their own makeup, so we had wildly different zombie looks. (Well, three were zombies, one was a butterfly. I don't get it, but points to her for being her own person.) I went with these instructions. It turned out OK.

Note the sad lack of brain hair clips

If I were to dress up as a zombie again, I'd add more toilet paper and prob ably go with different colours over top. It lasted quite well, even on the drizzly day. I didn't actually put together a costume, simply because it was cold and rainy, and my costume options required better weather.

We took the bus downtown - getting the occasional strange look - and walked to the start of the walk.  There were tons of people there, dressed as every type of zombie you could imagine. I took some pictures, but ... my phone is across the room, so just use your imagination.

A little after 3:30, the walk started. It was long. Really, really long. And by the end, my feet hurt enough that I was actually walking like a zombie. If I were to do the walk again, I'd join the group on Elgin Street.

We made it to the Parliament buildings, but didn't stay there long because everyone was exhausted. We bused home and cooked our supper inside.

We woke this morning to more rain. I unsuccessfully attempted to persuade the rain to go away via twitter, but we had to take the tents down wet.  I now have tents drying all over the basement.

Still, it was a good weekend.  The girls hadn't had much camping experience, and they learned a lot. They even managed to remain mostly cheerful during some difficult weather.

But I plan to sleep for the rest of the day.

After I cook supper and do my laundry, that is.

A zoo of a weekend

This weekend was Doors Open Ottawa.  Building around the city that aren't usually open to the public open their doors.  Some offer tours, others allow you to look around at your own pace.

I haven't been in several years, in part because for the last three years, some fool keeps booking Spark camp for the first weekend in June. (Yes, it is me.)

This weekend was also Spark camp at the Papanack Zoo.  We decided to make it a day camp - it's cheaper, and a lot less packing - so we all met at the zoo at 10 (except one girl who was sick, one girl who was MIA, and one girl who got scared by the rain).

It was pouring when I left my house, but when we got to the zoo, it wasn't nearly as bad.  There was some drizzle, but not too bad.

After lunch, it progressed to misting - constant really light rain. Everyone was a pretty good sport about it, but by the time we got to feeding the animals at around 3, it was raining pretty hard.  We packed it in and went for pizza early.

(We went to the Friendly Restaurant and Pizzeria in Rockland, and the pizza was really good, so keep that in mind if you're ever out that way.)

Last night, I put away most of the camping stuff (although my hiking boots really need to be cleaned and put away, and I still have a cooler of drinks in my living room), and this morning, I headed out to Doors Open Ottawa.

The old Ottawa train station was open to the public and I've always wanted to go in, so we started there. After we looked around (and ate some popcorn), we went through the tunnel to the Chateau Laurier and took a tour there.

We didn't get to look in any of the guest rooms, but saw the drawing room, heard about the history of the hotel (including the Titanic connection) and visited the pool.

As we were hearing the history of the pool, and older woman felt the need to put up her hand and say that she had swum in the pool.  That prompted two other women to tell us about how they used to swim in the pool. I didn't really care, since I naturally assumed that people I don't know had swum in the pool at some point. If not, they really didn't need to keep full of water.

Overall, it was a good weekend.  I might even make it to work tomorrow.

But I should really clean my hiking boots first.

Summertime

This weekend was perfect for camping.

We drove out to the campground on Friday night. We didn't go far - Rideau River provincial park is about 30 minutes from here. There were three of us + our gear in the car, and it was packed. I was driving, and I couldn't see the backseat passenger.

We got there around 6:45 and were unpacked and set up by about 7:15. We wandered around and explored a bit, but mostly just sat around the fire.

Saturday morning, we - you guessed it - sat around some more. When I'm at home, that's not something I do at all, but when I'm camping I'm content to just sit. After a while, it got pretty warm, but the dining tent provided enough shade that we were comfortable.

After lunch, we went to the beach for a while. The water seemed incredibly cold, but I think that was because of how hot the air was - once I was in the water, it was pleasant. I managed to drag myself out of the water before I got burnt to a crisp.

Later, another friend came out to join us for the rest of the day and we all had a good time chatting and playing games. We also made bush pies (like grilled cheese sandwiches, except with apple pie filling instead of cheese) in my new bush pie makers.

The weather was beautiful, and the bugs were kept to a minimum, although as usual I did get a mosquito bite right where the strap of my sandal sits.

It has been a few years since I've been camping, and I'd forgotten how much I need this type of weekend.

Wringing out

I'm back from camp.

It was a lot of fun. We arrived at the Papanack Zoo a little before 11 and set up camp. There was a little rain while we were setting up, but it wasn't bad. After that, we had lunch, then we started our tour of the zoo.

Because we were doing a group camp, we had a guided tour of the zoo. We saw the tigers, donkeys, bison, goats, peacocks, a panther, baboons, swans, boars, foxes, and a bunch more animals I don't remember. Most of the afternoon was hot and sunny, but there was a sudden downpour that resulted in some of us getting wet, so we went back to camp to change and rest.

After supper, everyone got a cone of food to feed the more domesticated animals. We also had a campfire, then we got to watch them feed the lions.

It was an interesting day, and the girls had a wonderful time.

This morning we had to get up at 7. I woke up at 5 and thought "Yay, it's not raining."

The rain started at about 6:30.

We struck camp in the rain.

(Yes, I do have 2 tents drying in my basement.)

We were supposed to leave at noon, but it was cold enough and wet enough that everyone was gone a little after 11. (Since this was a mother-daughter camp, we had the luxury of ending early.)

It was a good experience. Maybe we'll go back in a couple of years.

Back from camp

Camp went very well. It was tiring (as usual), but fun. The parents were a great help - I made a big mess yesterday (we made our own pizza dough) and I didn't have to clean it up. Wonderful.

It rained much of yesterday, but we still did a treasure hunt in the rain. The girls loved it. One of the clues told them to go on the path until they found a bridge. They saw some (wet, rotted) logs across the ditch, and were going to go across them. I got them to wait and see if there was a real bridge later - and when we got to it, they were afraid to get across. Wet, rotten logs are one thing, but asking them to walk across a solid bridge was too much.:)

We also went outside for our campfire last night. It was actually snowing at the time. It was much more pleasant than it sounds. Everyone was dressed for the weather, and it wasn't that cold out.

This morning we cleaned up. We were finished early - so all of the girls went home before our official end of camp. It was great. Normally we wouldn't be able to do that - but since the mothers were there, we didn't have to wait for them to arrive. It was great. I was home, showered, and unpacked by 1:15.