Youth Conservation Camps: Middle School Camp 2023

Hello,

We were able to attend the WI youth conservation camp in WI Dells July 14-16. We had a wonderful time and enjoyed every minute of camp!

We enjoyed time at the basketball court and met new people as they checked in. We did our swim test. We got to go swimming after the test and we got to make new friends. We had some chill time and then we had pizza for dinner. We had to "kill" a lot of energy, so we played capture the flag. We had a great presentation to watch called "The life of a logger". We followed that up with a fun game of Lumberjacks and trees. We finished our day with campfire and smores! They told us to rest up because Day 2 was going to be jam packed with fun!

We had a really yummy breakfast and then we got to do nature crafts and make fairy gardens. Allison even made a chicken fairy garden. The counselors were so nice in helping us find the perfect items to meet our interests. We then went on a mission to Peanut Butter Mountain. It is basically an obstacle course. We had a delicious lunch of burgers and salad bar. One of the most fun events came next- canoeing!!!!! We got to canoe and stop at a sandbar and have a sandcastle making contest! We made a giant chicken on a nest, but we didn't win the contest. We got back and had a nice snack of cookies and pretzels. We were so tired, but we all decided to shower.

We had a fun rotation and our class was on animal signs. We talked about their tracks, hair, bodies, homes and certain animals. We had a delicious supper. We had dinner cleanup but we made it in time for the carnival. We played water balloon toss and get the water in the buckets and the frozen t-shirt game. We got a little free time so we went swimming! We also went fishing, no luck....just a stick fish. We also got to enjoy popcorn and chocolate ice cream. We also did an optional night hike. We hiked and watched the bat houses.

Today we ate a big breakfast and then we did our favorite activity......archery!!! We were really proud of our shooting. Our dad works with us on archery at home. One of the coolest parts of camp was the hike that we went on next-the Blackhawk Island hike. We had to row over to the island and there were so many sandstone caves and formations. It was so awesome to see! We made sure to take lots of pictures to show our parents. We had to leave early because our group had to do lunch setup. We served a delicious taco bar. After lunch, we had Fish and Aquatic Ecology, we basically fished the entire time. We really enjoyed that! Then we had a 2 1/2 hour free time and we went swimming. My sister and I went back to the cabin and took a long nap-it was super hard to wake up for supper! We had a little free time after supper so they could set up the fire building challenge. We had to make a fire with the provided supplies and get the rope to burn so it would raise the flag. We ended up getting 7th place. It was hard to do! The order that you placed was the order that you got to make pudgie pies, so we had to wait. While we made them, we sang songs and did skits. We also had smores! We went back to our cabin to settle down and played Night at the Museum. We can't wait to see our family but we also don't want to leave. This camp is so much fun!