Trailblazers Rebooted, Part Two

In Part One, I wrote about our new Trailblazer troop and how it’s structured and formatted.  After I started writing, I realized I needed to break out our experiences from the logistics.  This one will be about the moments we had as a troop during our first year.

I’m entering my 12th year as a Girl Scout leader. I’ve found that there have been years that I look back on with a smile, and others, not so much.  Before this past year over a two year span, there were some bright spots, but overall it was a tumultuous experience on many levels.  There were times where I started to wonder if the door on this part of my life was beginning to close and it was time for me to move on to something else.  I told myself that we’d see how the Trailblazer troop played out, and I’d make a decision about what to do after that.

Then the pandemic hit and things were thrown for a loop.  The world came to a standstill. The National Council Session turned virtual, and three years of anticipation went out the window. Things dragged on throughout the summer, and I became very bored and wrote incessantly about the upcoming NCS.  But throughout it all, I put all of my hopes in our new Trailblazer troop’s kickoff.  We leaders met in-person in August to plan the year and crossed our fingers that we’d be able to pull it off.  I really cannot say enough about my co-leaders.  We work well together and come at things from different angles, which in my opinion gives us a well-rounded approach. 

At the beginning of September, we had 30+ girls registered!  As I mentioned in the previous post, our original intention was to host one Zoom meeting and one in-person activity a month.  We kicked off the year with a Zoom meeting about the 10 Essentials for Your (Hiking) Pack.  I don’t remember how many girls attended, but it was a good number.  Our in-person activity that month was going to be a day-long affair at Camp WaBak.  In the morning, we would trek to nearby Jones Gap State Park to take a 5 mile hike up the Jones Gap Trail and back.  We would then come back to WaBak for lunch, and in the afternoon, we would run archery and orienteering sessions.

At that point, our council allowed 12 people total (adults & girls) in a “pod” at a time with others allowed as long as they were separated a certain distance apart.  I sent out the sign-up form having no idea how many would sign up, but we limited it to 24 girls.  We immediately had over 20 sign up, and I ended up having to turn off registration earlier than the deadline because when we hit 24, I realized that we were over the 12 number due to the number of adults we had.  I started sweating this because, well, I’m a big worry wart.  A few days before the activity our council raised the limit to 15, so our afternoon sessions (broken up into two groups) were right at where we needed to be numbers-wise. Whew.

I checked the weather throughout the week, and the percentage of rain creeped higher and higher.  Normally I would be sweating this too, but since we hadn’t had anything in-person for months and months, I didn’t care at that point.  We announced that the event would go on rain or shine. And rain it did!

Girls showed up a little nervous since this was our first event and many of them didn’t know each other since they are from different troops spread throughout the council.  After everybody arrived, we shuttled everyone 5 minutes down the road to Jones Gap State Park and started our hike.  Everybody was so enthusiastic.  We first hiked to Jones Gap Falls, stopped, and took a few pictures.  Then the bottom dropped out.  A full out downpour.  But nobody complained because we were just so happy to be doing something.  ANYTHING. We came back to the camp completely drenched, ate lunch, and started our afternoon sessions which went great as well even though the first Archery session dealt with rain again.

Everybody went home excited, and we received a lot of positive feedback from parents who were also happy that their daughter was able to participate.  Many of them mentioned that their daughters talked about it all the way home.  One parent drove two hours to get to WaBak!

I once again became excited about being a leader.  Zoom meetings continued to go well, but we had to postpone our October activity of canoeing to November due to … yep, rain.  But storms accompanied the rain, so we had no choice but to move the date. In November, we visited an indoor climbing facility.

For a couple of years, I really wanted to take my troop up to WaBak to see the Geminids meteor shower which happens annually in December.  There’s a very large field next to the camp that offers a spectacular view of the night sky with no light pollution.  It’s amazing.  So I suggested this as a December activity back during our planning session.  Due to COVID restrictions, only a few could stay in the cabin (called Lucille Smith) next to the field, so I said we’d have to camp out in tents and use the cabin as a bathroom.  During the day, we walked to the WaBak main campground and used the facilities there for sessions and meals.  And of course, we threw in a hike up Big Boy Mountain.  I’ve discussed my Big Boy hikes a couple of times on this blog.

I sent out the sign-up sheet and figured we’d have a small number sign up due to the fact that it was scheduled for mid-December, in the middle of the holiday season, and that we’d have to camp in tents when it would most likely be pretty cold.  I say “pretty cold,” because camping in 40 degree weather is just that to us Southerners!  Well, we had over 20 girls sign-up, and again, I had to close registration due to COVID limitations on numbers.  A lot commented that they just wanted to get out of the house because so many things were canceled.

Everybody got up to WaBak about 10am Saturday morning, and we stayed one night.  The weather didn’t cooperate when it came to seeing the Geminids showers because it was overcast all day, and guess what showed up that night?  Yep, rain.  It dropped to the low 40s that night but we had prepped for the cold, and as far as I know, everybody fared all right.  But the rest of the weekend was so much fun, and the girls were cooperative and enthusiastic about everything we were doing – even while climbing up Big Boy which is no easy feat.  It was a great weekend, and we’ve even kicked it around that we might make it an annual event.

In January, we planned a family trip up to Sapphire Valley Ski Resort for some skiing and snowboarding adventures since that was something the girls stated they wanted to do when we asked for feedback at the beginning of the year.  I won’t go into a lot of detail, but let’s just say that was my first and last time skiing.  Cross that off my bucket list.

In February, we scheduled a hike and a river clean up.  We ended up canceling the River Clean Up due to … yep, rain.  The river level was too high.  Well, and also because we scheduled it thinking most girls had President’s Day off, and a lot of them didn’t.  Lesson learned.  We sometimes struggle with finding dates due to the fact that school breaks throughout the council aren’t all the same.  The hike later in the month had a decent turnout even though it was during cookie season.  And it was wet and misty.  (See the pattern?)

Around that time, we realized we had a wide range of girls when it came to levels of outdoor progression in the troop.  Some girls had never primitive camped before while others had been on multiple backpacking trips.  We wanted to give those girls with less experience a chance to catch up on their skills, so for March, we planned two trips on the same weekend – one a backpacking trek for experienced girls, and the other – led by me and two other leaders – a primitive camping weekend.  Again, we felt like we were taking a little bit of a risk with late March weather because in South Carolina, you could be talking winter or spring weather depending on how Mother Nature feels at the time.  The two other leaders and I had a big planning meeting a few weeks prior and wanted to fill the weekend with skill-building sessions including fire building, knife safety, water filtration, outdoor cooking, and hiking.

We camped at the Brickhouse Campground in Sumter National Forest.  I pulled into the campground at 9am that morning (drop off was at 11am) only to find that the entire 20+ lot was teeming with people.  Oh no!!!  I could see there were a few BSA troops there along with non-Scout visitors.  I said a lengthy prayer of thanks when I was able to snag the very last two spots that backed up to one another.  Even though the campground is first come, first served, I was assured that it wasn’t used very much in March, so I panicked when I first pulled in and saw it full because there weren’t any other camping options close to that area.

The weekend went great, albeit a little chilly, especially at night.  It dropped into the high 30s.  If you had told me before the year started that I would have tent camped in 30 and 40 degree weather, I wouldn’t have believed you.

That night, two of us leaders and a few girls huddled around the firepit and started telling silly stories and (quietly) singing songs. You could tell we were the Night Owls in the bunch.  It was great to just spend time with girls and cut up, and it helped to bring back an enthusiasm I hadn’t felt in a long time.

About 11pm, we realized we needed to get to sleep!  Coming into the weekend, I knew it was going to be cold, but I was just thankful no rain was called for.  As soon as I nestled into my warm cocoon in my tent, I heard the faint pitter patter on my tent of you know what… yep, rain. I jumped out of the tent and started moving some things we had sitting out under the picnic table and threw things in my car.  Thankfully it was just a very light rain, but come on, man!  I now have the reputation of being a rain magnet.

For April, we attempted our best to fit in a paddleboarding activity but kept running into issues.  Either the company didn’t have the right certifications or they were closed due to COVID.  So instead, we opted for a ropes course at Clemson University.  I figured we’d have low numbers since it was at the end of a couple of school districts’ spring breaks.  We had double the amount I predicted. And… yes, it rained, but we did it anyway.

When the girls first started getting onto the ropes course one by one, there were two girls at the end who really struggled.  However, with some encouragement from both leaders and other girls, they got past the first platform.  I went last.  You could tell the two of them were having more difficulty than the others girls, but they kept pushing through.  At one point, I passed one of them who seemed to be extremely hesitant.  I told her that if she told herself she couldn’t do something, she’d never be able to do it.  Then I looked ahead and my stomach dropped.  We were at the highest level and had to cross it using a single cable to walk on and a single cable to hold onto.  However, there were extremely large PVC pipes every couple of feet that you had to go around.  I swear it was something out of American Ninja Warrior.  Did I mention it was raining?  So I told her to let me get to the next platform and then she could follow me.  About halfway through, I was literally shaking from fright and because my muscles were starting to burn.  I tried to keep a poker face so that I wouldn’t scare this poor girl to death, but admittedly, I WAS scared to death so I don’t think I was very successful. I so very slowly inched my way across thinking it would never end. I looked back and she just stared straight ahead with a look of dread on her face.  I told her to just tell herself she could do this and to take it one inch at a time.  I went on across the next section which was much easier (whew).  You ended the course via zip line.  Before I left the platform, I looked back, and she was almost through that difficult section.

When I got down to the bottom, I asked where the first girl was, and it turned out that she was going through a second time!  This was a girl who was scared of heights and struggled with anxiety, and there she was trekking along having fun!  Her dad was standing on the side, and I talked to him for a little bit.  He was so extremely proud of her and we both agreed that this might be something she could build on to push through difficult times.  At that point, the girl who was behind me finished off the zip line with a huge smile on her face.

After I got home, I wrote the moms of the two girls and said how excited I was for them. They responded and said it was one of the best experiences they had because they were so proud of themselves and talked about it all the way home.  The moms felt like it really changed their perspectives and you could feel their confidence soar.  Experiences like this are why I volunteer for Girl Scouts because you never know what could change a girl’s life.

For May, we wanted to offer backpacking, but we decided to break out into beginner and intermediate levels.  My Senior co-leader Cheryl and I volunteered to lead the beginner one.  The other trek was led by two leaders, and they went to Kings Mountain State Park.  A friend of mine who used to serve as a trainer for our council and as a troop leader for many, many years had just moved to a new development near WaBak, and she told me at one point that she’d love to host troops on the adjoining land her community had purchased.  It’s 400 acres of undeveloped forest and maintained by a local conservancy group.  There are miles of trails with a few camping sites.  A month prior to our trip, Cathy invited me up so that we could walk the trails to see if this would work with our trek.  It was perfect, so she made arrangements with her community and put us on the schedule.

I had originally expected more girls to sign up, but we ended up with three.  The intermediate trek had 4 girls.  I think late May is a hectic time for everybody, but Mother’s Day and Memorial Day weekend make it hard to fit everything in.

A few weekends before our beginner trek, Cheryl and I ran a beginners’ backpacking training with our three girls.  Cathy attended as a backup because this was my first time running a backpacking training, and I wanted her input (and help!).

May was a very weird month and some things came up that for some reason made me melancholy.  I hoped the trip would perk me up.  We met that Saturday afternoon about 1pm and did our gear check and weigh-in at Cathy’s community barn (next to the trailhead).  The trail follows the South Saluda River and the campsite is near where the Middle and South Saluda Rivers join up.  I won’t walk you through the whole weekend, but I have to say it was exactly what I needed to get me out of my funk.  The girls, who didn’t know each other beforehand, clicked and got along very well.  They were also polite, good-natured, and just flat out funny, and I told the parents later that I really enjoyed having the pleasure of being their leader.  Due to COVID protocol, we were limited to one person per tent unless the tent could handle social distancing.  This doesn’t really work for backpacking, so some of us slept in hammocks, including me.  I wasn’t thinking straight when I checked the weather and didn’t pack enough night clothes, so I got a little chilly during the night and didn’t get much sleep.  But guess what – IT DIDN’T RAIN!!  We had a great time and even partook of a few fresh eggs straight from under the hen Sunday morning since the community’s chicken coop wasn’t too far away.  Cathy commented how much she enjoyed accompanying us and working with girls once again.

I’m going to end this blog post with my favorite moment from this past year.  The next morning of the backpacking trip, I was attempting to pick up a small pot of hot water on a stove using my bandana. Well, things didn’t go quite right, and the bandana ended up catching on fire and singeing part of it and burning a few small holes before I could blow it out.  I was very irritated, because this was my favorite bandana.  One of the girls said, “Mrs. Amy, think of the holes as memories.  You’ll see them and remember this weekend.”  Wow. Talk about a perspective shift.  That was just what I needed to hear, especially at that time.

Our Trailblazer leader planning meeting is coming up soon, and we’re looking forward to a second year of fun and challenges!  See you on the trail!