Henley B. is a Media Corps Girl Scout who recently went tent camping for the first time with her troop. She wrote about the experience and took pictures of their adventure.
The weather was perfect, not too hot or cold, just right. We made all our food by campfire. Our campsite was on a lake which made the experience calming and relaxing. We unplugged our lives in technology and just worried about what is going on now.
First things first, we got to our campsite and set up our tent. The tent was a very large tent which made it hard to put up. We worked as a team to put it up even though we were all tired from school - we still got it done. This was the first thing that we did that was, “out of the ordinary.”
The next morning, we made breakfast sandwiches. We had a lot of things to choose from including bacon, sausage, eggs, and cheese. Then, we wrapped it up in foil and put it on the fire. After five minutes, we took the sandwich off the fire and had a delicious breakfast.
For the rest of the morning we talked, relaxed, and made bracelets. Meanwhile, we started setting up for lunch - you can’t go wrong with a classic sandwich. Once we finished lunch, we went on a hike around the lake and saw the primitive camping, camping with no utilities. After the hike, we had turtle time, and I took a nice nap. Some of the other girls read books, drew, or made bracelets. Once turtle time ended, we started the fire for dinner.
For dinner, we had foil packets and had A LOT of options to go with it. Some of the options included steak, chicken, potatoes, onions, tomatoes, mushrooms, etc. Once we had chosen what we wanted we put it in foil, put some butter on it and whatever kind of seasoning we wanted, then we wrapped it up and put it over the fire for ten minutes. Once it was done cooking, we had a delicious dinner. I would highly recommend doing this during tent camping quick, easy, and good. After that we had S’MORES! We had chocolate, graham crackers, marshmallows and our troop’s favorite - Peeps. Lastly, we went to sleep that night. It was truly our last night outdoors, and we enjoyed it!
Eventually the next morning came. Packing up and folding our tent was the hardest part, but we got it done. On the way home, we went to the Happy Days Diner for some lunch as well as Mineral Wells Fossil Park to get some fossils. We had a lot of fun laughing with each other and having a great time. Before heading home, we got some ice cream and went home.
We had a lot of fun on our camping trip as it was the first time we went tent camping. The girls in Troop 1488 would like to thank Ms. Lacy and Ms. EB, our troop mom and leader, for taking us camping. We loved every second of it! This is just what Girl Scouts is about, trying new things and figuring it out along the way. I hope that you can try something new that will make you smile even if you are hesitant at first.