Let's Go Treehouse Camping!

I survived.  And the cold weather didn't hit until about two hours before we left the campsite on Sunday! That's all I asked for.  The rain we had....but the cold held out.  God is good.

So.  First camp out of the year. And if it is any indication on how the rest of the camp outs will go this year...its going to be a fantastic year.  Have I mentioned before how much I love these girls???

We left early so we could make dinner at the site. The girls love to do a canned food night...where they each bring a can of something and we stick it over the fire right in the can and then they eat out of the can. That is my Progresso soup night. LOL. This trip we had 10 girls and two adults with another girl and her mom joining us the next day.

Our lodgings for the night were treehouses.  They had a real roof so we didn't have to worry about the rain. The only hard part was hauling all your gear up into them. They had ladders or stairs -- of course I used the stairs. Hauling my 200lb body up on its own would kill me....can't imagine adding all the baggage too.

 The weather was in the lower 70's, high 60's and the place was rather damp from the rains. We saw lots of interesting fungi all over.  These white ones looked like sea anemones.  I was sad all I had was my phone camera. I do believe its time to get my lense cap ring fixed on my camera so I can start taking real pictures again.

   Snails were everywhere....

The girls spent over an hour playing with snails. They built teepee's and corrals and such for them. At one point I think they had almost 20. When they wanted to know if they could keep them we said no...but I did suggest we could eat them.  Escargot or snail soup for dinner??  They were not very amused.

Saturday was a full, fun day.  We went on a hike in the morning.  We found a creek which pretty much ends a hike and starts a wet fest with our girls.  Most were completely drenched by the time we were done. We always have them pack extra shoes since they are such water bugs. And you see that bank behind them? Its a clay bank.  Not much longer after this shot some of the girls had completely covered their faces and arms in clay. Wish I had a shot of that.  Then they happily sat in the creek and had a bath.  Crazy.

After lunch they practiced making temporary shelters with just tarps and rope.  The top one was so good it was even dry the next morning after a night of thunderstorms.  But the time-out teepee was my favorite! LOL.

Then came the rain. So we loaded the girls up in the cars and drove about 20 miles to a local underground cavern.  That was fun.  I was shocked at the number of girls that forgot their coats at home or decided to leave them in camp. I did warn them! But they survived.

On the way out we found a great climbing tree.  Our top climbers are 3/4 the way up the tree. We have alot of tree climbing girls.  I can't even look when some of them climb they go so high.

A little mining for rocks afterwards completed our trip.  The girls spent over an hour just doing this. I suggested the caverns because my girls needed to finish up their hiking badge and it seemed a neat place to do it....but I had no idea they would have as much fun as they did. Love it when that happens. It became the highlight of the trip for most of them.  (Plus I had never been so BONUS!) This particular cavern is one of the most colorful in the states and even has some types of formations that are not found anywhere else in our country.  And guess what? We missed all the rain while we were underground. Could not have planned that better.

Most of our girls went to bed early that night.  Even the ones that requested a night hike disappeared to their tents earlier than normal. And the rains/thunder started about 10pm and thats when the last called it quit. We did have two girls that were not feeling real well and were homesick so the boss had her hands full reading them to sleep.

 
The next morning was not only colder...the whole site was covered in boot sucking mud.  By lunch the girls were all ready to go home.  And I was cringing because I was putting 5 mud covered girls in my 2 month old van.  You see, the Mr. is rather picky about his cars.  Makes being a Girl Scout leader a challenge for sure...because they are some messy, trash leaving, kind of girls.  So I pulled out my sheet and towel and threw them on the carpet to try damage control. Worked pretty well.

And the temp just kept dropping so by the time we got home we were all very tired and very cold and everyone was so glad to see their parents.

It was a great first camping trip for the year.

Looking forward to the next one.