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

To see a picture the instructors took of us in our campsite, click here.

I woke up the second day to the crickets chirping (they were even louder than they had been the night before!) just in time to see the sun start peeking out from over the trees. Since everyone else was still asleep and I knew that I was not going to fall back asleep, I pulled out some postcards and wrote to Mom, Grandma and Grammy, telling them a bit about my first day.

Then Jen and Katie were moving around in their tarp, whispering and laughing as they started putting their stuff away. I put the postcards away – I could finish them another day. I started packing up my stuff, knowing that I wanted to be ready as soon as I could be. No need to be the slowest person to pack up!

Jen came around to wake us up by whistling. She was really good at whistling! A few of the girls woke up, and we were able to get the other girls awake. The other girls started putting their gear away, (sleeping bags, black foam mats, and clothes sacks) and getting dressed, so I got back to work. I had gotten an ok amount of sleep, the birds were singing, Jen was whistling, I could hear the other kids talking… It was a pretty good morning.

It was made even better when I learned what was for breakfast. Bagels! I love bagels, and these were no exception. They were cinnamon raisin bagels with cream cheese and apple butter. It was delicious! And for a bonus? It tasted like real cream cheese, even though it was not. 😀

After we had cleaned out our bowls, (the water was not that bad this time… :)) it was time to learn to poop and still Leave No Trace. Someone went and grabbed the poop bag, and we all walked pretty far away from camp. You had to poop far enough away from camp that you could not smell it from camp, and your poop spot also had to be far from water.

Inside the poop bag was one roll of special toilet paper, hand sanitizer, and a folding shovel. The shovel had been named already – the first person to use the shovel on the course gets the honor. The name? Princess.

The boys protested. They wanted to call it Thor instead. But Jen insisted that Princess was it’s name, so Princess it was.

One of the things that was hard for me on this trip was that there was no privacy whatsoever. You needed to go poop? You had to ask around and find out who had Princess. You would get back and everyone would ask how your date with Princess went, and if you had had fun. That was a little funny, asking the guys how their date with Princess went, but it was also kinda embarrassing. All though, I think I was the only one who actually got embarrassed by anything there…

Once we were done with the poop talk, we went back to the sleeping area to split up the group gear. Katie asked us to each stand behind a pile of group gear. I chose a pile that looked like it did not weigh as much as some of the others. I did not want to take too much weight and make it harder on myself! I ended up with a tarp, extra strings, and the repair kit.

You know what I found out? Those tarps are surprisingly heavy! The repair kit and strings did not weigh that much, but the tarp was pretty heavy. But that was the pile I had stood with, so I was stuck with it! It did not really matter though- everyone else had pretty heavy piles too.

We each grabbed our group gear and dragged it up to where our backpacks were. We were taught how to load our backpack with craftsmanship. Then it was time for our compass and navigation lesson. We split up into two groups – one group went with Jen to learn about maps, and the rest of us went with Katie to learn about our compasses. We were told that we needed to have our compass and whistle with us at all times – even if we went to the bathroom in the middle of the night.

I knew how a compass worked, but Katie taught us some of the ways we would be using it on our trip. Then my group went over to talk with Jen and learn about how a contour line works on the types of maps we used. (I don’t remember what the maps were called – I forgot about 30 minutes after Jen told us…)

When we were done with “Navigation 101” we put our backpacks on and learned how to tighten up the straps so it would fit comfortably and put the weight where our bodies would carry it best. I don’t think I learned very well – Jen had to help me adjust it later on in the day.

Then we decided to play a game of Ninja before we went out on the trail. I had Rebecca on one side, and Bobby on the other side (I think…). I was doing really well! Over half of the people were out, and only a couple of the people left had both arms. I still had both of mine, and then when I was talking to Bobby, Rebecca came and hit my arm so hard it gave me a bruise. LOL

So I had one arm left, and I managed to get one of Bobby’s arms. I think Rebecca got my other arm then so I was out, but I’m not 100% sure.

Later I was talking with Bobby, and he asked me why I was so good at Ninja. While we were playing the game, I had thought he was actually scared of me. Now I know that he was just playing. But back then I thought he was actually scared of me. Let’s just say I learned a lot about the kids on my crew by being with them for two weeks. 🙂

I told him that I had five brothers and he just grinned at me. I don’t think he believed that was the reason I was so good at Ninja. Now I have to admit, it was probably the best game of Ninja I’ve ever played. But my brothers have taught me to always be on my guard, and I have gotten good at avoiding anything that might be coming at me – a punch, kick, or an arm that is trying to hit mine. 🙂

After we decided that the game was taking too long and we were going to need to have a Ninja face-off later, it was time to go! I looked around at our campsite one last time – it had been a good place to start this trip.

As we marched down the trail, I prayed that our next campsite would be as good as that first one!

Click here to read the next 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.*