For the first time since the onset of covid overnight trips finally returned to the Outdoor Education calendar in the form of the Skills Night campout. Given the busy holiday weekend this trip took place at a new location of Tamihi Meadows Campground. Students learnt how to set up a tent, cook on a camp burner, and the importance of packing efficiently. The night was spent skipping rocks on the river and enjoying a campfire both on the riverbanks and back at camp. And yes, just to clarify for the international students, Mr. Rahe does cook his oatmeal before he eats it. Lots of smiles and memories at the end of this one and excitement for the upcoming multi day backpacking trip! Outdoor Education students (and anyone else who wants to) leave a 100 word response below.
Mouat Extreme Outdoor Education 
On April 14-15, we packed up our bags to camp at Chillliwack river. Packing my bag for the trip was tough because I don’t have small compact backpacking gear. Instead I have big clunky camping gear. On top of that, I was in charge of bringing my tent for me and a couple of my friends to share. In the future, I’ll get one of them to at least take the rain cover and the pegs. I was reminded of the 10 essentials and the thing I was missing was my medical/hygiene kit. Also I wished that I had brought oatmeal for breakfast, but instead I enjoyed some delicious ramen. I had fun hanging out at the river with everyone and cooking my own meals. I’m looking forward to the next backpacking trip!
It sounds like you were quite successful on skills night as you have taken away some valuable lessons about what to pack for bigger trips!
I learnt so much on this trip. I learnt how to properly and efficiently pack a bag, setting up a tent and how to prepare food in the wilderness. We had enough freedom out there to experience the ultimate camping and learning experience. We had multiple campfires over the span of those two days by the river rapids which was an amazing experience. My best memory of this trip is cooking beans while everyone prepared full meals that actually tasted good and were less of a mess. If i could go on this trip again i would pack better food. Overall it was an amazing trip.
Sounds like a valuable experience with many good takeaways-don’t hate on your beans as they kept to going 🙂
On this trip we set up tents played man hunt made s’mores cooked delicious food and sat by the river doing interesting things. On this trip we learned to pack efficiently which I obvious did so well 🙂 and we also did some hiking to get there and back and on the way back we were happy to be on the bus. The weather was great and it was a really fun experience and a rare one
It was great to be able to go on overnight trips again!
it was a terrific trip. we all learned a lot I believe especially on how to pack and what to pack as some kids way over packed. there was fantastic food to be shared and amazing campfires to be shared. the competitive side of us showed the big time as we skipped rocks across the river and had a bet that whoever missed the far side had to dunk their head in the river ( it was cold) however it was also very refreshing. after we ate and sat by the fire we played a game of manhunt around the camp area. we did get stopped and were only allowed to play in a small area because we were having too much fun and were a bit loud at times around the other campers in the area. sorry.
All good Atticus. A good lesson to be learnt there that part of your adherence to Leave No Trace is acknowledging that we share outdoor spaces with others and we need to always be aware of that.
On the Skills night trip I have learned how to properly wear one of the big hiking bags we used and various other tips and things we should do on the multiday backpacking trip. I learned that though I don’t like exercise that much hiking all that way to see some of the things at Chilliwack river was worth it, I have wanted to see everything I could and all the beautiful things and sights. I wish that we had stayed a bit longer at the Chilliwack river or gone to a new location. What I wish had gone differently is knowing what to pack, and I now know, so on the multiday backpacking trip I’ll pack things more condensed compared to this time.
I’m glad you enjoyed this experience and it sounds like you’re ready for the next adventure where you will get to put your new skills to the test.
Great experience!!
Mic drop…