Sunday, June 30, 2013

I have camped with both girls and boys.  There is a difference.  I might start with the obvious….girls smell better.  More than this, however, is an attitude.  Boys are rough and tumble and often try to out-macho each other with the faster climb or the heavier carry or the more dangerous passage.  Girls are just more into being together and having fun together and enjoying the relationships that they have and that they build.  I just returned from our ward’s annual Girls’ Camp. 

The camp was held at Caines Head, Alaska with a total of 18 girls ages 12-17.  7 of the girls completed an overnight hike requirement this past Monday, hiking to Lost Lake, while the other 11 began their experience on Tuesday.  I met them in Seward on Tuesday where they had arranged to have their gear hauled out to the camp site on a water taxi.  A member of the ward with a boat ferried the girls and their 5 leaders to the beach and I rowed them ashore in a rubber raft.  Later in the afternoon, the overnight hikers showed up.  The gear had been deposited on one end of the beach and the camping site was on the opposite end, so we cheerfully hauled many hundreds of pounds of ice chests and tents and cooking paraphernalia about ¼ mile round trip down the beach.  And I mean cheerfully.  Bill, my compatriot in chaperoning the exercise, and I were among the first to arrive and by the time the second boatload of girls appeared, most of the gear had been moved.  The only one grumbling was me, and I kept that to an internal roar, but the girls were happy to help.  I tried to manage one joke per trip just to pass the time, but with chattering girls, the time passed quickly anyway. 

After everyone was present, tents were set up and dinner was cooked and the evening ended with a devotional around the campfire. Boys can have a spiritual devotional, but girls really set the example, and every evening was a spiritual treat.

Caines Head is about 6 miles out of Seward Harbor and features magnificent views of glaciers and the mountains of Resurrection Bay.  The beaches are covered with round flat black shale rocks that have been tumbled by the ocean and make excellent skipping stones. 

The highlight of the second day was sea kayaking.  The girls had prepared by practicing in a swimming pool, but were a little awed by the freedom out on the ocean, and of the whales that were surfacing as little as 50  yards away.  Bill and I had been tasked with building a sauna and then heating rocks up in the fire and transporting them to the sauna so that the girls could get in a little “pamper-time”. The Bishop joined us in the afternoon and was able to stay until Friday.  The evening ended with a campfire and devotional.  

Boys pride themselves on culinary delectables when camping like “suicide stew”, but the girls eat as well as I eat at home.  They helped prepare the food, purified the water with water filters and washed the dishes without complaint. 

Caines Head is the site of the ruins of World War II defensive emplacements that protected Seward from the Japanese.  On top of the point, about 2 miles up a trail from our camp site, is Fort McGilvray. It originally featured 6 inch guns and was the destination of our hike on the third day.  After we arrived at the fort and had a chance to look around the pitch black tunnels, a group of younger kids showed up with their leaders.  Our girls “adopted” them and spent the next 1 ½ hours playing games with them in and around the fort. We held another campfire sing-along and devotional that evening, and  Friday the girls worked on their camp certifications. Bill and I heated up the sauna again and the girls had  another steam bath. 

After dinner around the campfire, camp awards were presented, a devotional was held and the evening ended with a testimony meeting followed by Dutch oven peach cobbler.  The spiritual level and the love the girls expressed for the Savior and for each other was humbling and impressive.  The nurturing they have received at the hands of their parents and their young women leaders is preparing a generation of women that will be dynamic leaders as well as wonderful wives and mothers.

Saturday morning consisted of breaking camp, hauling the gear to the other end of the beach, and hiking the 4.5 miles back to the cars for the drive home, with an ice cream stop in Seward.  I don’t love smelling like smoke and going showerless for a week and living in a tent like I did when I was a bit younger, but I do love being with these beautiful young women.