Campouts

[Skater Bubbles]

Do you guys do camp outs at your camp? We do at our camp, we call them overnights and we take our campers out in the woods for a night and cook dinner on the fire and everything and then we bring them back in the morning. So we do that once every week cause we have new campers every week! It's one of my favorite evenings at camp!

[CAMPFRIEND]

I miss campouts so much. I am trying to get them started at my day camp. I can only hope.
________
Honda CBX (http://www.cyclechaos.com/wiki/Honda_CBX)

[camper]

we used to take kids around the lake into the woods to camp out, but not really anymore. now we have teepees...1 on girls side and 3 on boys side. the boys' are right behind their bunks and the girls' is down by the lake. the boys send entire age groups to their teepees, the girls send 1 bunk at a time.

[rockinsmiles]

We have a camp out each week with the campers. We will have a camp fire and marshmallow roasting/s'more making time. then the group breaks up into their cabin groups and go to where they are going to sleep out. we just lay on a tarp under the stars. i like sleeping out but i dont enjoy waking up earlier than normale or waking up soaked. i also dont like the camp fire that much because it can get pretty choatic not to mention hotter than it already is!

[~Imp]

We take them to the site where a church used to be in the bush - there's nothing there now except for a few foundations, remains of pews and a giant wooden cross. We get them to make bivouacs, have a small fire going etc.

[Flukie]

Our outdoor skills groups do a prim camping trip and the CITs had to go on a prim this year - they were annoyed, I made them go anyway, and then they decided it was the best part of training. I win! :) We have a prim site as you come into camp, just off the road and I asked our director to find me another one that is more "woodsy" for this sumer so girls can have two different experiences. Groups can opt to prim if they want or to sleep on the beach, sleepin in canoes (they were rained out every time this summer), or sleep in the flag circle. Most don't opt for this though!

[Trees]

What's "prim"?

[Flukie]

Sorry - prim is what I've grown up identifying a primitive camping trip as. For our CITs, prim is where they put their outdoor skills into action and are forced to bond as a group - it is just them, for 24-hours, together in the prim site.

[CAMPFRIEND]

Sorry - prim is what I've grown up identifying a primitive camping trip as. For our CITs, prim is where they put their outdoor skills into action and are forced to bond as a group - it is just them, for 24-hours, together in the prim site.

Do you send Counselors with them?

[Flukie]

I was with them as the CIT Director during their group prim - our director isn't too big on solo prims (understandably), even though I'd like to them to do it as an intern for one night. Generally, a solo prim though is done behind a unit in site of the staff and is a chance for the CIT to spend 12-24 hours by herself reflecting. I'd like to do this, but I'm not sure we'll be bale to fit it in.

When units go to prim, they always have staff.

[Indigo]

We do one overnight every week... Some campers love it, others hate it. I had a few groups who were overjoyed when I got permission for us to camp out on the sun deck/roof of our lodge, and a few who felt that was a cop-out. But when we camp out, we get hammocks, cots, or ground mats.

[who_stole_my_loofa]

Every unit at my camp does one overnight per session. Personally I'm not a huge fan of them because the counselors do all the work and the kids aren't really allowed to do much on them so it's really just exhausting. But hey- positive attitude changes everything right?

First we hike to our sites and then they have pack out lunch already there for us and while the kids are collecting the first round of wood we set up the campsite- mainly put out the tarp, clear the fire pit, hang everyone's bags on the high hooks and set up lunch. After lunch the kids have 2 options they can either climb our mountain or go to the zip line. The mountain is like a 4 hour hike and so incredibly exhausting- as a camper I only did it once and as staff I've only had to do it once also (thankfully). The zipline groups always get back to the site first so the kids start collecting wood again and just kind of playing around while the counselor starts cutting and preparing food. When the other counselor comes back we start the fire and cook everything. It is always ground beef with special sauce(ketchup, mustard, salt, pepper) and then potatoes(we slice them thin and sneak season them with lowreys seasoned salt) and finally veggies: carrots, onions, green peppers. Dinner takes a long time to prepare so after the kids eat it's usually already dark and we try to wind down fast. We always do smores and a few stories or songs. The kids are always tired so we tell them it's like midnight when its really like 8:30 (we take away their watches!!!). So they roll out their sleeping bags and go to sleep!! In the morning we start the fire up again and try to make rocky mountain french toast- but it never turns out good because they are egs from a carton and not real eggs (ewie). So after that we clean up the site and hike back down to the cabins for SHOWERS!

Loofa