To read part one of my first day, click here.

After we had introduced everyone, we did some group exercises. I don’t remember what it was, I just remember it was something about being a team. Then it was time to start the “duffel shuffle”. Gavin (the driver) had pulled all of our duffel’s out of the trailer and placed them in a pile. We all grabbed our bags and went back to sit in our circle again. Then we all went over to the tarps to get the backpacks out from under them. We started sorting through our clothes, making sure everyone had what they needed. We sorted through everyone’s bug stuff, making sure that there was not too much DEET in them. (Mine did not have any DEET in it… :D)

Then we started packing things in our backpacks. It was amazing how little we put in! We had the clothes we were wearing, and we put a long sleeved shirt, long pants, a fleece jacket, a pair of long underwear, and extra socks in our backpacks. That was pretty much all we had in there! We put two pairs of clean clothes in the resupply bag, and left the rest in our duffels.

Then we took care of all toiletries. We each got our teeth stuff, a hairbrush, sunscreen, and bug stuff. No soap, shampoo, razors, or anything like that. At least I was able to bring some soap to clean my retainers with! (I feel like it gets them cleaner, and towards the end of the trip I was extremely glad I had a way to get them really clean).

Taking care of all of that took forever. It was starting to get dark by the time we were done, and we had not even had dinner yet! At least Katie had gone to make it, so we knew it was coming!

When we were done with the clothing it was time for personal gear. We each took two water bottles and labeled them, we each took out our spoon and bowl and labeled them. We made sure that everyone had different marks on their stuff so no one was mixing them up.

Once we were done with the personal stuff, then it was time to explain how to pee. I know I was embarrassed for this part, but I don’t think anyone else was. Towards the end of the trip, I started to not mind as much. Just a word of warning – I am going to be writing about this trip like it was. I want to be able to read this and remember exactly what happened. If talk of going to the bathroom bothers you, you might not want to keep reading my story. Just sayin’. 🙂

Anyway, it was time for the pee talk. Katie explained that you have to go 200 feet away from camp. (I honestly don’t remember why…) Then she told us all about the “pee rags”. Each girl had a bandana that she kept tied on the side of her backpack. The boys were warned to stay away from these bandanas at all cost. 🙂

I don’t really remember what happened next. But after whatever we did then, I am pretty sure we each picked a pile of food to carry. We stuffed them into our food bags, carefully identifying what kind of food we had, and which food bag was ours. I had something that did not weigh a lot, (don’t remember…) and my food bag was the orange one with the little purple patch on the bottom. That food bag was then mine for the rest of the trip.

I think after that it was time for dinner. We had already labeled our bowls, spoons and water bottles so we grabbed those and headed down to the kitchen. We were having Mac and Cheese for dinner, and everyone was so excited! We were all really hungry, since it was after 7:00 and we still had not eaten.

The Mac and Cheese was amazing! It was just the first example of how anything can be done in the wilderness with some hard work. 😀 We all really liked the food, just not the clean up part.

To clean your bowl, first you licked it clean or used your finger to clean it. Then you poured some water from your water bottle in it, and drank the water. It doesn’t sound that bad, does it? But I can tell you this – it was REALLY nasty when you had Mac and Cheese for dinner. All cheesy and greasy… *insert an involuntary shudder*

When we were done with dinner, I think we cleaned up and went to bed. I don’t remember exactly… It happened almost three weeks ago, and I can’t even remember what happened less then a week ago. That happens when I get really tired. 🙂

I sat in my sleeping bag, listening. All of the other girls were in their sleeping bags next to me, Jen and Katie were setting up their tarp, the boys were all talking in their tarp. I sat up and looked to see if I could see the guys – they were being so loud! I could see a couple of headlamps under their tarp, but other then that I could not see anything. I lay back down and looked out from under the edge of the tarp at the stars. Since I was on the edge, I could see the stars pretty easily. The trees made it kinda hard in places, but from the clearing I was able to see quite a few. There were so many of them! They were beautiful.

I don’t think anyone (other then the instructors) slept well that night. I know I didn’t! The crickets were so loud, that even when everyone else stopped talking the noise was just so loud that I had trouble falling asleep. And then I woke up and had to pee, which was quite an adventure.

All in all, I think I managed to get around 5 or 6 hours of sleep that night. It’s not enough, but it was not bad for my first night of sleeping outdoors!

And now that I am looking back, I realize that overall it was a really good first day!

Click here to read the first part of Day Two.

*Everything here is from my own memory and may not be correct. Outward Bound is not responsible for anything I post here.*