Today was the "final exam" phase of the week. Last night I gave everyone a map, a compass bearing, and a distance to travel, which they plotted on their maps.
Today we went to a section of National Forest that was 1 mile by 0.6 mile. No trails, a few old roads. It was bounded on all sides by roads.
Each person had a different course to follow. We sent the person with the longest walk on her way first. See her out there through the leaves? She was also the youngest participant. See my strategy there? <wink>
Each had the goal to find either Cathy's car, Miki's car, or my car. We weren't trying to trick anyone. We were at specific locations along the boundary roads.
Everyone mostly stuck to map and compass only falling back on electronics for some occasional verification. Here comes a successful bushwhacker out to find me.
We came back with the same number of people we left with! Celebretory pizza at the end of a full week.
Here we are- six confident campers with Cathy and me as staff.
This whole experience went better than my wildest dreams. These ladies were so enthusiastic and kept telling me how much fun they were having. They caught on to plants to watch for very quickly. They loved the firebuilding.
I was particularly pleased that when sent off alone to find their way through this forest section they chose to do it primarily without electronics. My goal was to induce a little bit of stress, but set them up for success, and that's exactly what happened. One person got a little off course, but we found her with no real issues. And she said she probably learned more by her mistakes than if she'd gone directly to her goal.
I haven't done much this afternoon, and I may just watch a movie tonight. I need to chill and let some of this percolate.
If I'm going to keep doing this (and I am), I need to raise some money for a bit more infrastructure. Pondering Kickstarter. You have to be a non-profit to get most grants, or find a non-profit that will sponsor you.
Some walking occurred today, but I have no idea how much. Maybe a couple of miles. I was mostly at my car waiting to pick up and drop off campers who were orienteering through the woods.
 | See Confidence Camp- Day 5 |
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