Taking girls camping for the first time is an exciting though sometimes harried event. If you have experience with family camping or camping with friends, you are off to a good start. Camping with Girl Scouts is somewhat like taking the family and dividing up the jobs so you don’t get stuck doing it all! Everyone going on the trip has an equal say answering the where, how long, when, what are we going to do, and why questions. One of the biggest differences between camping with family or friends and the Girl Scout experience is the girl: adult ratio. A troop of 10 girls and two adults can go camping. That’s a lot of girls to just two adults!
So . . . the way to make it a safe and fun environment for everyone is to make sure that everyone is fully prepared for the trip. Including a little bit of skill development in each meeting leading up to the overnight is a guaranteed formula for success. The camping skills recommended for a one-night or weekend base camping trip (the troops sets up camp at one location for the entire event) are basic knots, essentials of outdoor cooking, elementary tool craft, fire building, and tenting. Safety and risk management; girl-adult working relationships; and the planning and conducting of activities are all expansions on the things girls and adults have been doing during troop meetings and other outside meeting activities.