Campout Spring 2010

<a href=”http://www.flickr.com/photos/jaworskihouse/4587801692/” title=”Adventure Guides Spring Campout 2010 by jaworskihouse, on Flickr”><img src=”http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3321/4587801692_f3c23a4cfd_m.jpg” width=”240″ height=”160″ alt=”Adventure Guides Spring Campout 2010″ /></a><br />n<br />nWe had a wonderful, but short, weekend at the Adventure Guides Spring Campout. As last year, we were at Camp Jones Gulch, near La Honda in the Santa Cruz Mountains. But this time, for the first time since we started up with the Guides, we had spectacularly clear, mild and sunny weather. Could not ask for better.<br />n<br />nWe had a pretty good turnout for our Circle, called the Tahoe Circle, with a total of 17 people. The Saturday night Expedition ceremony was in a different place than last year, in what is known as the Indian Bowl. Here is a picture of some of it:<br />n<br />n<a href=”http://www.flickr.com/photos/jaworskihouse/4587794628/” title=”adv_guides_spring2010-043 by jaworskihouse, on Flickr”><img src=”http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4004/4587794628_931cf14818_m.jpg” width=”240″ height=”160″ alt=”adv_guides_spring2010-043″ /></a><br />n<br />nMichael is moving on away from being the Circle Leader, handing the reigns to Kevin, who has been a part of the circle for many years. The Expedition, which is the larger organization made up of many circles, also got new leadership. It’s done in a ceremonial way, with the leaders reading from scripts and being very formal about it. I have to say, I don’t mind this level of ceremony, and honestly, I figured there would be more of it as part of the overall Adventure Guides program.<br />n<br />nThe Tahoe Circle has over half the <a href=”http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4032/4587824212_22f3224e3e.jpg” title=”graduation”>girls graduating</a>. In order to maintain our Circle, we need to begin recruiting. I have had an idea for a while now that we should advertise through our elementary school, but Matt had a caution in that if we are too successful with our recruiting campaign, we may run into scalability problems, where we have too large a group to do things like keeping our meetings in homes. Other large Circles have to use facilities for their meetings. In any event, I plan to contact the coordinator at the YMCA to see if she has a flyer or other material we can use to get the word out.<br />n<br />nBack at the campout, Penny did the zip line two times. It would have been more, but the process for getting up to the zip line is very time consuming. If you are in line for it, plan on staying a while.<br />n<br />nThe <a href=”http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3323/4587804312_a0caa5b4d5_b.jpg” title=”canoes”>canoes were open</a> this time and the weather was perfect for it. It was a bit of a hike to get to the little pond, maybe a third of a mile, but it was worth it.<br />n<br />nPenny really got into the rock wall. With some help from graduating Circle member Zoe, she was able to make it <a href=”http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3318/4587134735_9aea1469a8.jpg” title=”rock wall”>to the top</a>.<br />n<br />nWe stayed until as late as we could on Sunday. We had lunch (pizza and salad) and went for a <a href=”http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4017/4587770320_c2a02ff920_b.jpg” title=”group picture”>hike afterward</a>. When we got back to the cabin to finish packing up and cleaning, <a href=”http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3320/4587769684_07d041af32_b.jpg” title=”last to leave”>our cars were the only ones left in the lot</a>.<br />n<br />nWe’re in for the Adventure Guides again next year, always looking forward to it!<br />