I had the privilege of taking two Guides and one staff child (2nd year Brownie) to Blue Point Camp on Kootenay Lake.With so many struggles we have had in the past with getting our Kaslo Girls out camping, I felt so thrilled to be a part of this unit and to be working with this group of young woman.

We left Kaslo at 4pm as we had to wait for school to get out. We started off on our journey to Balfour on the Kootenay Lake Ferry. We arrived at the ferry, and while we waited for it to come in, we looked around at Blue Sky Imports at the ferry landing. The girls saw several interesting things in the store.We loaded on the ferry for the beautiful ride across the lake. Then we walked all over the ferry and looked around. We discussed other adventures we could go and do such as the Creston Valley Wildlife Centre, Glass House etc.

When we got to Blue Point Camp we unloaded all our gear and made several trips down. Then we got to meet our hosts for the weekend: The lovely Creston Leaders and Girls. We arrived at dinner time, just in time to quickly throw out our bed rolls and go help with chores (which included firewood, supper prep, and latrine duties). When supper was ready we went into the hall to wait for our turn to eat. After everybody had their plates of food, the Leaders announced that they were coming around to take away the silverware! We did a mixed utensils meal, eating spaghetti with egg beaters...the girls were thrilled!

After supper we set up camp boundaries, and then we got to make Buddy Burners. This was huge for the Girls who had never made them before. Afterwards, the Girls came up with a name for a town, a flag, and a skit on where they got their town name from. After the skits, we went outside to do campfire and then mug up. Then we had the girls start getting ready for bed. The Girls were in bed by midnight and asleep by 12:30am.

The next morning we got up and got washed and dressed. The Leaders had a cup of well-deserved coffee and then started on morning chores. For breakfast we had baggie omelets, toast and juice. The baggie omelets were another "first" for some of the Girls and Leaders.After clean up was done, we went on to do camp hat crafts and trading traders. We got to make these cute little ski poles. We had wet in slide, a ski race, sled race..etc.

We used our buddy burners at lunch to cook our grilled cheese on. This was so awesome to the Kaslo Leaders and Girls - A real experience to be able to do this.We had an afternoon snack around the campfire of melted chocolate and fresh fruit to dip in it. This was a wonderful treat.Then the Girls had some free time to go and do what they want.Saturday night for dinner we had pizza for supper. The Girls were all thrilled with this meal.Then we did clean up, some more free time, campfire, mug up, and bed.

We woke up, got dressed, rolled up our bed rolls, and took camp down. Then we went up for breakfast and coffee. For breakfast we had apple crisp, muffins, cereal and oatmeal.

All in all, we had a wonderful weekend. All of the Kaslo and Creston girls were all well behaved. It was wonderful to get together with a new group of Girls and Leaders. Thank you to Guider Leanne and Jackie for the wonderful camp. I hope this is a tradition we can start. Thanks to the Creston Girls for the wonderful Guides Own at closing, it meant so much to me.

Submitted by Melanie MacMillan