After completing our first overnight camping experience, I encourage you to discuss what you liked and disliked about the weekend. I recommend that you refer to the Finer Points of Expedition Behavior handout and comment on both the positive and negative behaviors that you observed throughout the weekend (no names please). The weekend experience was also an introduction to minimum impact camping, so please describe what low impact methods were successful and what you feel we need to improve upon during our next overnight. Finally, what will you take away from this experience and what will you do differently next time? Remember you must respond before class on Thursday, September 13 and write at least 2 to 3 paragraphs to recieve full credit.
Daniel
I actually thought that this weekend’s camping trip was pretty fun. I don’t really have anything negative to say about it except that I thought that we could have gone out on more walks and explored more of the area. Otherwise I really enjoyed just hanging out at the campsite and learning how to make fire.
I’ve done a 10 day canoe trip before and that was quite an experience. We carried I swear at least 60 pounds of stuff on our backs including a huge bear-barrel for food. That time it was very difficult (but fun). So I’ve had experience backpacking before so this weekend wasn’t hard.
Anyway, I liked the stalking game that we played in the day and I liked the one with the drum at night. Cooking was fun and easy so that wasn’t a struggle at all. I guess next time I would like to learn more about shelters. I want to learn how to make a debris shelter but I would also like to improve on just my regular tarp or rain poncho shelter. I guess I figured that nothing could really go wrong on just a one night camping trip so over all, everything was good.
Alix
I enjoyed the camping trip quite a bit, mostly i think because I was aloud the opportunities to bond with people that I probably wouldn’t have had been able to otherwise! But I suppose I really liked making my shelter, even though Ford did most of it. Playing the listening games were fun, and definitely being blindfolded made you realize how quite one has to be if they were in a desperate situation. It was hard cooking with a tiny little stove and really no cooking supplies, but not too bad and everything turned out fine. I thought that most everyone in the group were helpful to each other, and willing to learn. There were those whose behavior was rather annoying, and they could have been more mature and more thoughtful about decisions.
To improve for next trip, I think we should have a pot luck type of food sorting, because we will get more variety and that way some groups wont feel that they have less good food than others, we will all be equal. I’m pretty sure that for next time I will need more layers, because it got pretty cold. Also to improve for next time, we should be more respectful, and willing to learn, it will make the experience much better!
sara c
I think our camping trip was pretty fun, everyone seemed (for the most part) to
get along pretty well, which is one of the most important things about camping
(I think). I do think that some people were kind of lazy and didn’t want to do
their full share, and there was some pretty annoying behavior. I really liked
and appreciated that everyone was willing to share pretty much everything.
Singing around the campfire was really fun!! There was definitely some
violating Rule #1 and Rule #6 of the “Finer Points of Expedition Behavior”
sheet, but not enough so that we didn’t function.
I think we did pretty well for our first camping trip. I was also pretty
impressed that we followed the “minimum impact” rules pretty well. I don’t
think anyone even brought toilet paper, and the only trash anyone wanted to
throw (and asked about throwing before they did) were apple cores, which are
biodegradable (and which we DID end up packing out.) Apparently, on our final
sweep of the campsite, we did find two small pieces of trash that someone had
left, but two is pretty few and we did find them.
Overall, a good experience, but I don’t really feel like we did much, most of
what we did was eat and make fire (which was fun, but wasn’t a “full camping
experience.”) But now that I look back, we did do a lot for a short, one-night
trip.
Bolivia67
As far as the expedition behavior goes, I think we did awesome. By this I mean that there were no fights no spats and few arguments. We did mess up a few of the infractions, but because they resulted in no fights, I think we passed with flying colors. Personally, I will try to come more organized than how I did last time.
I think we did alright according to the Leave No Trace Doctrine. If I were a uptight follower I would not the following: We camped at a very high impact spot, so I could not tell if we did damage the environment any more. I noticed that few people brought camp shoes, but fortunately the campsite was for the most part composed of dirt. We went to the bathroom 200ft away from water sources, in compliance with Leave No Trace Doctrine. We probably left some food trash but I noticed and appreciated the trash sweep at the end. We did not leave what we found (Leave No Trace Doctrine #4), when we took the various bark, but that is a sacrifice I am willing to make. We also did not follow Leave No Trace Doctrine #2: camp and travel on durable surfaces, but we did break the infraction with as little impact as possible. But in all reality, we were the best tourists that came through that campsite in awhile. And the campsite itself is only a mile in. We did fine in my book.
-Brian
Alexi
I’m having a hard time responding to this as I wasn’t on the overnight. However, for the next one I hope everyone gets along well and that the weather will be good. From what I heard the trip went fairly well, no major misshaps occured. I hope we can make it even better next time.
ginny_w
What wasn’t there to love about our trip?!?! =]
Anyhow, I would like to address some specifics. I really liked how everyone was able to get along and collaborate into groups effectively. Through this we were able to learn and take it seriously. I also liked how us CAPsters had a positive attitude the whole camping trip. With negative attitudes, it just brings the whole team down, but everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves. Since everyone was being positive and pleasent it made my first CAP trip an experience.
I liked how I got to learn while having fun. Being able to be outside in the woods with fun people is a great way to learn. Plus I think the things we learned are crucial. It is important to know these type of survival skills.
There wasn’t much that I disliked about this trip other than I wish we could have done more physical activity.
Being able to explore and go hiking as a group would be the only think I’d change. As a class, we are physcically fit so doing more phsycial activities would be way fun.
I will take away some basic survival skills and a great memory with me.
Awsome trip everyone!
lucky davis
I would like to say it was a great trip and I had lots of fun. I’m sorry if my morning cheerfulness was a bother to anyone. I think for the most part the trip went smooth, There were a few minor glitches as always, but overall good. Most of us, me included, need to work on keeping our things together. If we were on a longer trip we would have been in trouble. Sunday morning I saw lots if stuff left out that would have been uncomfortably wet if it had rained, such as my raincoat and gloves.
I think it would be interesting to talk about food, what kind of food is good for backpacking, how to jazz up a simple backpacking meal while keeping it light. Also different types of backpacking stoves. I don’t think many of us would know how to pack well for a long backpacking trip.
I really enjoyed the survival aspect of the trip. It was fun to lean about shelters and when each kind is the best, however I would love to get the chance to build one on the next trip. The different types of making fire was great to learn. I would like to build my own set and start a fire myself sometime.
As far as low impact or leave no trace camping I think we did a fine job, keep in mind we were following the lead of Ford and Rory, if we were on our own it may have been different. It is a great skill to learn and as the outdoors become more necessary in our ever-growing world we must learn how to separate the two. Overall it was a fun informative camping trip and I’m exited for the next one.
Cooper
I saw a couple examples of bad expedition behavior and a couple examples of good expedition behavior on the overnight trip. I think I exhibited at least one example of both, but saw examples of bad and good expedition behavior from other campers as well.
One example of bad expedition behavior I saw was when two people were sword-fighting in the kitchen area. Also, one of the campers was being slightly negative and surly.
I also have some examples of good expedition behavior. People helped each other a lot, didn’t fight and were never grumpy.
Expedition behavior is very important. It can mean the difference between a good trip and a bad trip. If someone doesn’t feel good, they shouldn’t take it out on everyone else. They should bottle it up inside so, even if that person is having a suckish time, other people can have fun.
RubyKF
The CAP overnight was overall a great experience for me. I hadn’t been camping for quite a while so it was good to get back out in the outdoors. My favorite parts of the trip were sleeping in a poncho shelter (I’ve only ever slept under the stars or in a tent), the trust walk at night and singing songs around the campfire (cliche, I know). One thing that I was dissapointed about was not being able to get a bow fire going but hopefully in the future I’ll be able to.
In terms of expedition behavior I thought that overall, things went pretty smoothly. Everyone was pretty nice to eachother and generally people respected each others space, with only a few small exceptions. An example of bad expidition behavior was a certain bought of sword fighting in the cooking area which could’ve left somebody severely scarred. Hopefully swords will be left home next time.
I thought it was great to learn more about low impact camping. I had some knowlege about this but not enough. Using a sump hole, packing out trash of all kinds and spreading the charcoal we produced were all great ways to reduce our impact. Something we could work on next time is bringing fewer packaged foods. We had way too much trash for such a short trip.
I think the biggest thing i will take away from this trip is a new motivation to get out and go camping more. I enjoyed this camping trip and hope to do many more like it.