Editor’s note: this summer, Ludi attended three different camps at Little Creek Nature Area. She learned survival skills, worked with animals, and all sorts of things. Here are some of her memories:
One day we were canoeing, searching for a certain kind of frogs (I believe it was the American bullfrog). That day Ranger Bob — my favorite ranger — had a fishing hook that looked like a fly. He said it was something bullfrogs were attracted to. We saw several frogs and he put it out in front of them and they would hop around objects and get close to the hook-thing.
We did lots of fun things in the survival camp, like build a fire, learn how to make shelters, and learn what kinds of food we can find in the wild. We went to different areas like the pond, grasslands, and fields. They’d tell us what insects, bugs, mammals we could find, and how to catch/hunt them. I have a notebook full of that stuff so I can carry it with me when we travel.
We learned if you want to cut down a tree, you need to have a sapling to plant in its place.
My favorite day at Little Creek camp was activity day where we played water games, rode bikes, went canoeing, went kayaking, did archery, and made pottery all in the same day. I was really good at canoeing because I had done it before.
When we did archery, the first time I wasn’t so sure I could do it because the bow felt really heavy. The arrows would slip out, so I gave it up the first week. But the second week on the next adventure day, I tried it again. It was the same guy, and he encouraged me to try again with a different bow. It was so much easier. The arrow only slipped out a couple times. When I shot the arrows, one of them was close to a bullseye.
