Camp Twin Lakes XVII - Outdoor Living Skills

This week I switched to work in the other CTL location in Rutledge. That means that while I know how to do all of the things, I'm not quite as familiar with the location. One of the session that we offer is called Outdoor Living Skills, which can be a pretty painful session. At Will-A-Way, we have a treasure hunt set up to teach the kids how to use a compass. At Rutledge, we discuss camping skills and maybe try out a few things like fire building, tent pitching, random play in the woods, etc.

I was scheduled for an OLS session with ten year old boys this week. I was a little nervous about not having the treasure hunt, but still confident. One was in a wheelchair to reduce internal bleeding (he had hemophilia) from a sprained ankle. I met them at the ball field with the external frame backpack full of camping essentials, and we went through the list and talked about each one in the shade. They seemed pretty interested, or at least interested in relating each of the items to a bear attack. When I got to the end of the list, I told them we'd go down to the camping outpost to try some fire building. They were pumped!

Now, here's the thing... I hadn't actually been to the camping outpost before. Somebody told me the trail to it was behind the ball field. So I found a trail that looked promising and off we went! As we walked, we sang "Goin on a bear hunt" and related the verses to the trail we were on. Once we came to a huuge field with nothing looking remotely like a campsite in sight, i was like 80% sure we were on the wrong trail. My poker face went into full swing.

"Are you sure this is the right trail?" asked a counselor.

"Yep!" I said.

"Are there snakes out here?"

"No way!"

"Are there bears out here?"

"Not at all!"

All bluffing. As for the bears and snakes, it's not that I knew there were any, I just didn't really know the status yay or nay.

It had to be between 90 and 100 degrees outside, and we were out in a field with absolutely no shade anywhere. The kids and I were dripping sweat - they were begging to turn back so I said "What do you guys say we stop right here and try building a fire?"

So there we sat, trying to light sticks on fire with a single set of flint and steel, blazing hot. I wanted to tell them that I've scared a bear away before, but I felt that with all the bull I was telling them before, they probably wouldn't believe me. The counselors had found a scrap of shade and were standing in it skeptically . I turn around and see one kid with his shirt off, spinning in circles saying "I'm dying of heat stroke, I'm dying of heat stroke!"

Finally I decided it was time to pull the plug. "You know what guys? You're doing such a great job that I think I'm gonna let you guys go a little early!" We headed back through the random field and the blazing sun. The wheelchair got stuck a couple times, it was crazy.

I thought I had gotten away with it without them knowing until I was walking back towards the dining hall after the session. I ran into one of the other counselors that hadn't come. He came up to me smiling and said "Hey Mike! I'm sorry I missed the session. I went down to where the campsites were and I didn't see you guys!"

I was glad he hadn't said that in front of anybody else from the group. I hoped that he wouldn't think to say anything to them later. I looked off in the distance and said:

"Hmm.... how strange....."