The weekend started with our future teacher dabbing (a cool dance move) during the name game. Who knew that high school teachers were so funny?  We loaded up in the van and played a hazardous game of B.S. The Angevine Middle School Community Adventure Program class trip to Cal-Wood had officially begun!

When we got to Cal-Wood we scaled a mountain to get to the outhouse and then talked about poop and read the book Everyone Poops.  We learned a few other things about Leave No Trace and then we came down and set up tents.  The girls connected their tents and the boys gave the girls a stick for a peace treaty.  The girls rejected it and snapped it in half!

We had lunch with ham and marshmallow fluff.  Everything tastes better when camping. We built forts made for the democracy that we came up with and we elected our own government. We hiked to a lake, and caught Garretts and fish.  (Garrett is the name of all the backswimmers in the pond.  We know this because they told us.)  After we studied the pond life (including spiders and snakes,) we climbed a peak.  As we came down, we  played camouflage and looked at scat on the trail.

When we came back to camp we used strikers to ignite cotton balls and light the campfire.  Some peeps made dinner. We ate food and a lot of marshmallows, then started playing sardines.  We hiked back up the hill in the dark and did some stargazing. The students snoring competed with the elk’s bugles to keep us up all night and the boys made a Cooper sandwich.

When we woke up on the second day, it was cold.  The Elk would not shut up. But we woke up to AMAZING drinks, Tea, Hot Chocolate, and Mochas!  There were Cala-Rat Race runners trudging up the steep trail by our campsite, so we cheered them on. Later on we did trust falls and other exercises and then we did a sit spot, where we drew what we saw and felt.

The big part of the day was our service project where we loaded firewood with the forest steward Angie and learned about forest careers.  Because of our hard work, twelve more kids can come to camp next year. After the service project we felt exhausted and devoured fluffernutter sandwiches.

Then it was time to go, so we had to take down our forts.  To make it more fun, we turned it into capture the flag. Then we simulated a missing person search so even looking for microtrash was fun.  Before we went home we gathered in the circle of compliments and gave compliments. When we got back to school, we made some fun memes of our favorite photos.

The Community Adventure Program at Angevine Middle School is made possible in part by a grant from Great Outdoors Colorado (GOCO) through the Nature Kids/Jovenes de la Naturalez program. Click here to learn more!

Written by Angevine Middle School Inaugural CAP class

A big thank you to Cal-Wood for their continued partnership!

See more photos from our trip here!