Pioneer Camp according to Abigail

Abigail and I spent the last two days of May at her fourth grade Pioneer Camp overnighter.  I thought it would be fun for Abigail to write about her experience (my two cents will be in blue).

Very recently, I had the privilege of being able to go to Pioneer Camp for a lifetime experience that I will always remember.

When we arrived at Pioneer Camp, we unloaded our belongings, dropped them off in our wagon and then headed to our first station. My station was the Lanyards. This was my favorite and just happened to be where my spontaneous mom was teaching kids how to make Lanyards.  

I manned the lanyard station in this teepee for 5 hours.  

It was fun to listen to the kids interact with each other and get to know each of them better.   I enjoyed being the cool Mom and loved that Abigail enjoyed having me there with her.

From there, my activity group and I headed to the Cooking station where we helped prepare dinner. We made Indian Fryebread, and then peeled apples, along with some carrots. Then we sliced the apples, carrots and potatoes for our stew that night.

After our time of one hour was up and everybody had finished their part, and written in their journals we headed along to our very next station, Toys. Here nothing had to be done that you would have to put a lot of effort into. You just got to play with different toys that Pioneers would have used back in the good old days. My favorite toy was not really a toy. It was a piece of string that you would use to make different things like, Cat’s Cradle, Cup and Saucer, Eiffel Tower and last but not least, Witch’s Broom. I still happen to have the same string that I used at Pioneer Camp.

To the next station we went where Stinging Nettles stood. The center was an Exploration hike, and one of the parents pointed out many plants like the Salmon Berry. Unlike this plant, some plants were not edible. Whenever my group came across a Stinging Nettle, we would yell “ NETTLE!” and then we would know not to touch it. One of the people in my group purposely rubbed their hand on the back of a Stinging Nettle to test it, and received the pain of a Stinging Nettle.                  

My last station was Candle making. We started out with a tidbit of wax on our string. Our string was connected to a waxy stick. Then we dipped it back and forth between the hot wax and cold water. After a little bit our Candle had formed through our shaping and perseverance. Later I stuck on three flowers and a big, wide leaf.

That night after we ate dinner and dessert, we sang songs by the campfire. I will always remember singing Tarzan and how I made up my own verse about Mother Nature. After sitting on the rocks for what felt like forever, we went into our Cabin’s and Wagon’s to tell stories. Right across from us was a Wagon where three other girls slept. 

Our wagon for the night and the wonderful three girls I shared it with.

Inside our wagon

We walked over there to tell stories and to keep an eye out for where Mrs. Beck was. In a couple minutes Mrs. Beck walked over to the Wagon right next to where we were. We didn’t know if we were supposed to be where we were so we ran over to our own Wagon before Mrs. Beck could catch us. Then off we went to sleep. 

Abigail took the picture above of our wagonmates and our neighboring wagon friends.  We hung out with them as much as we could.  Their chaperone was an older sister of one of the girls.  She and I became quick friends and had lots of fun within our two groups.

The very next morning we awoke and had a nice breakfast of Hot Cocoa, Flapjacks (pancakes), Fruit, and Apple Fritter. Afterwards we headed over to where the Toy center was and had free time with all of the toys for a couple of minutes. Then when our few minutes had past, Mrs. Beck came and called us all over to play a game, Kick the Can. She was guarding the can and when she called the month that you were born in, you would have to come over and try to kick the can. If you made it you would get to become a Queen or a King. I never made it and the game never ended because it was time for our miniature hike. We formed into our activity groups and walked along the road learning facts along the way. We also all earned beads for our Trading Post at school (also earned through out the whole trip). After we had walked for a couple of minutes we arrived at ‘Oregon City, which was apparently 1,700 or so miles’ which represented the kind of places Pioneers arrived at along their way. 

Abigail’s class arrived safely in “Oregon City”

Then both classes packed their belongings into cars and then hung out, and ate lunch until it was time to go. That was my experience at Pioneer Camp at Camp River Ranch in Carnation, Washington and I had a BLAST!