Personal Narrative: Joining The Middle School's Girl

In thinking back, this weekend of backpacking for obvious reasons has always stood out in my mind. My twin daughters, Kim and Susan, wanted me to join their Middle School’s Girl Scout troup, which really was a Father/Daughter backpacking group. Having backpacked with my twins many times before, of course I said yes. The first thing I noticed was obvious, where were all the other fathers? With twenty-five young girls, there were only four fathers and no other leaders. Mario is our leader, which he has always been. He designed all of our trips. Since all of the girls were from the same school they all either knew each other or they were classmates. For some of these girls, it was obvious had never been away from home or had never camped out. We knew this because a couple of them brought along their teddy bears. That was settled easily, their friends teased them about it. We were situated at Blue Jay Campground next to the Chiquito Basin Trail. This was an orientation weekend camp out. Here we taught all the girls how to read trail maps, use a compass, how to set up a tent and stuffing sleeping bags etc. Most of this teaching was by the girls who had

She did not seem to care, for she was singing out loud to herself all along the trail. So periodically, we had to stop her since her sleeping bag was oozing out its restraints on her backpack. However, there was a real incentive for the girls to get to the end of the trail, at the parking lot. There was a Candy Store across the Ortega highway, The Ortega County Cottages, Candy Store & Gift Shoppe. The twins and I hiked for three years with a couple sisters, Teresa and Betsy, and did all the hikes. Each of them had around four hundred and twenty-five miles of hiking, in that period of time. On this trail hike the Lion Canyon Waterfall in the winter and spring is worth the hike to