Last week, I went to a sleep away camp with all of the fifth grade
classes. The camp was called Outdoor Ed, and we learned about many different plants and animals. During the five day
trip, we saw many animals such as mule deer, red tailed hawks, and many ground squirrels. We were divided into
different trail groups, and we had a naturalist named Catherine that
explained to us about the plants and animals that we spotted. We also
had a counselor who was a senior in high school. She took care of us when Catherine wasn't with us, such as at night, and during our meals. On the
first day, I dressed in a skirt and a t-shirt with no
sweater. I almost froze that day because as soon as the wind picked
up, the temperature dropped. I learned my lesson to always dress in
layers!
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| In front of the dorms |
One of my favorite day during camp was when we did the all day, 7
hour hike. We were the only group that saw a family of mule-deer. We
also saw a dead bobcat along the way, which really grossed us out, but
we didn't let that ruin our day.
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| A family of Mule-Deer |
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| Dead bobcat |
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| View from the 7-hr hike |
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| Chumash lesson |
On a different day, we had a lesson on the Chumash Indian tribe. During the lesson, we learned how to make necklaces out of abalone
shells, tried to make fire without matches, saw different animal furs, and built a shelter from sticks. I was very surprised at how hard it is to start a fire
by spinning a stick. We all tried and tried as a group, but we only
got a little bit of smoke. We also saw animal furs from a coyote, skunk,
rabbit and dear. The coyote skull
was really cool, as it was large, and fierce-looking. I thought the best part of the whole Chumash
lesson was building the shelters. We had to learn
to build a small shelter with materials that we could gather in nature. I was in
charge of gathering the sticks, and everyone else was in charge of building the shelter. When we finished, we made a big tent, that all 4 of us could go into!I had an amazing time at Ourdoor Ed, and I will always remember my experience.
Have you ever been to a sleep away camp?
Did you enjoy it?
