A Girl Scout Leader's Musings . . . .: April 2007

Yesterday we did two firsts with our troop. #1 we went on a hike and #2 we went geocaching. All of these things completed our badge Your Outdoor Surroundings. It was also the 1st time that none of the months came with us. It is nice to have additional adults with us, but it was rather nice to see the girls interact with us alone for the 1st time.

Once again we headed to Low Gap Park. For those of you from the bay area it is our version of Briones or Mt. Diablo. Anyhow, we went over the badge work that we needed to cover while hiking and took off. Our goal was to locate a cache that Heather and I were unable to locate in January. I have spoken to the cache owner several times since then and he game me additional clues. But alas I left them in my care. I was a little flustered when I got there because something in the rear of my car snapped on the way there. When I got out of the car my rear end was about 2” above my tire. Grrrr, not again!

Anyhow, off we went up, up, up. When we got to the top I look out my regular cache page and started to read it again. We agreed that we were at the correct trail head. I then explained to Siobhan that one of us had to be at the head of the line and one at the end. Since I had one of the GPSs I lead. I tell you what it sure was pretty there. We hiked for about 10 minutes through the trees and up and down the hills.

Finally we arrived within 25’ of the cache and to the left was a bench (which the owner said we would find). The girls sat down to have some water. We read the instructions again and were off. According to what we read we were supposed to go past the cache and then find the “sneak trail”. So we found it and headed off. Hmmm, this isn’t correct. Finally I said let’s go back. Once at the top I announced that it was snack time.

I then took off through the bushes trying to locate our goal. The trees were very thick and I couldn’t get within 17’. When I went back up Siobhan said “We are not leaving without it.” Hmmm, sounds like someone has the bug. She even asked how much one of these things cost.

Finally it was decided that she would stand on the main trail where the GPS pointed to the cache and I would take the girls (that wanted to) about 5’ into the bush and a rather icky trail. So off we went when I got to where Siobhan was she said stop. I then told the girls to spread out and start looking. They said what are we looking for. I said, something about this big. Remember look for broken branches because someone was just where 3 days ago, and look for

something that doesn’t belong here. Katie R. said that box doesn’t belong where! Yahoo, I could have kissed here. It was a ammo can about 2’ from me. I told the girls to go back up and I would toss it up to them.

They opened it up and made their trades. Well I provided the trades because no one brought anything. One of the girls pulled out a travel bug and I said NO THAT IS FOR ME. Katie signed the log Troop 335 and Heather signed it as Team Orville.

I climbed up through the bushes and had scratches all over but I was very satisfied. On the way back I taught the girls a hiking song. They had a great time singing it over and over again.

Here is a shout out to all my Girl Scout friends. Can you remember any of the hiking songs we used to sing? I can only remember one so I need help!