Winter camping experience

On Friday March 9, the Outdoor Education Program at East Grand School went on an overnight camping trip to Longley Lake in Orient. Dave Conley and Jeremy Durost, educators of the program at East Grand school, took students Bayleigh Rowe, Chelsea Winairski, Cassidy Woo, Kenneth Winairski, Samari Stewart, Kevin Hagerty, Nathan Fox, Chet Knights, James Berry, Mitchell Bartlett, Arthur Russell and chaperone Tammi Matula.
    Upon arriving, everybody snowshoed to their desired camping site on the shore of Longley Lake. Students and teachers set off immediately to start building their shelters. There were various creative and unique shelters, tables and benches made of everything from tarps and rope to canoes, brush and snow! When the shelters were complete, they ate bagged lunches provided by the lunch staff at school, and had some down time where they all had some great quality bonding time, just hanging out around each other’s fires talking and learning new things about each other and the wilderness.
At dinner time, groups of two made their own cooking fire and prepared their own chicken noodle soup! After dinner most of the group congregated around Kevin Hagerty and Kenneth Winairski’s fire — it being the warmest. “We talked, drank hot cocoa and huddled for warmth until dark. Once all of the stars were out, we took on an adventure, a night time bushwhack across the lake and through the woods with just a map, compass and a whole lot of bravery! Halfway through the trek, we stopped to sing happy birthday to Chet Knights, who was turning 16 that day and gave him a huge group hug,” said Cassidy Woo.
When returning to camp we all sat around the fire again being that is was very cold outside. We chatted and sang songs ranging from “Follow Me” by Uncle Cracker to “Fishin’ in the Dark” by The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band. At around 9 o’clock, we got ready to hit the sack, literally, and hopped into our 0 degree sleeping bags for the night, Woo added.
The group woke up Saturday morning at about 6:30 and had oatmeal, pancakes, hot chocolate and coffee for breakfast. They took down our shelters, cleaned up all of our creations, fire pits and trash. They took a minute to share thoughts and experiences on the trip and started the trek back to the vehicles to go to the school and return all supplies to the Outdoor Education Building.
“The East Grand Outdoor Education Class has taught me so much this freshman year, everything from how to build a Swedish fire torch to leadership and healthy competition. This winter camp outing taught me how to fend for myself, make new friends, and think outside the box. I took time to actually unplug from the high-tech fast-paced world and actually look at the stars, explore the uniqueness of nature and have good clean fun. I am looking forward to many future outings with the OE program and its great family of students,” said Woo.