Trail Life Troop 1613 & American Heritage Girls 3110

This past weekend we enjoyed the company from not one, but two groups!  The first was the Trail Life Troop 1613 that meets out at Southside Baptist Church. The guys arrived late Friday afternoon -- just in time to see the end of the warm temps we'd been enjoying all week and to get in some 'polar' camping!  In fact, it was so chilly Saturday morning, it took a while for folks to start stirring.  It was too cold to abandon those warm sleeping bags!

Along with the guys from Trail Life, we also had Troop 3110 from American Heritage Girls who also meet at Southside. 

A lot of the families are involved with both groups, so the guys graciously allowed the girls to piggyback on their reservation.  The guys just stayed the one night, but the girls were working on a badge that required a two-night stay.  Their leader told us that since there was ice on the ground Saturday morning, she'd also be looking for a polar camping badge for the girls to earn!

Friday evening there was some friendly girls vs. the boys camp cooking competition. Each group fixed a dinner and then had judges decide which was best (1) tasting, (2) looking, and (3) most original!  Not quite sure who the winner was, but both groups did an outstanding job of serving up camp grub!

Saturday the groups enjoyed a variety of activities including hiking the trails and some archery instruction.  While they were hiking down near the creek, one of the girls spotted a 'critter' on the ground, so of course they wanted to bring it back to show us . . .

A fuzzy, little tricolored (maybe?) bat . . . whom they named "Cheeseball".  The cold was probably a bit too much for him and he ended up on the ground.  By the time the girls brought him back up to the campground, he'd warmed up a bit and wanted to get moving.  They let him go on an appropriate (?) tree.

The girls also performed a service project and repainted all the electric boxes in the campground.  

They're now a very bright orange and highly visible!  We really appreciate the girls taking care of this.

Despite the cooler temps and a little frozen precipitation on Friday night, both groups had a wonderful time.  We hope they'll make another trip out, and soon!

An American Heritage Girls Weekend

This weekend, we had a first visit from American Heritage Girls!  This is a Judeo-Christian focused organization that was established in 1995 as a Christ-centered alternative to Girl Scouts.  There are actually several 'troops' in Madison County.

They arrived Friday afternoon and got busy setting up tents.  This was a family camp out, with a group of their older girls branching out on their own (pitching their own tents, setting up campfires, etc.).  There was a total of 66 participants and at least twelve different families! 

They even had a family pull their pop-up camper up!

There were children of all ages; seriously, I saw a woman carrying a baby who couldn't have been more than two-three months! 

Like hardcore campers, they stayed out in the main campground, and did all their cooking at the site and over the campfire.  We came up Saturday morning to see how their night was.  Everyone we talked to said they slept great -- the cool, camp air with a tinge of wood smoke does that!

They did some badge work that morning. . . 

They were working on a fishing badge . . . where to find bait, how to bait the hook and how cast, etc. Several of the dads gave demonstrations.

After they worked on their badges, they had their closing flag ceremony.  After that, the families were free to wander the camp and do their own thing.  Several took to the trails, some packed up, some enjoyed the camp fire circle for a little longer and some headed over to the playground and obstacle course.  One family took their gear and a picnic lunch down to Serenity Pond for a little fishing . . .

And another hit the trails and found a turtle!

Sweet girls!  They'd heard about the turtle sanctuary, so they came knocking on our door.  We were thrilled! It's the littlest box turtle we've ever seen . . . 

And not long after letting it down, she (dubbed Fredrika the III) headed for water and a hiding spot!

We thoroughly enjoyed having this group up here and meeting some awesome families.  We had a lot of inquiries about family groups camping -- we're so glad they had a great time at the camp!