Don't Panic! Well, at least not yet...

Written by Trevor

Thursday, 05 July 2012 11:51

On the first day it was raining at Camp Hahobas when we got there (big surprise), but it cleared up as the weekend went on. We went into the base camp building and met with Dawn, our course director, and received lodging information. We were so happy that we didn’t have to sleep in our tents for this weekend and that instead we got to sleep in these “Chicken Coops.” They didn’t smell like chickens at all, and they shielded us from the rain. How nice is that?

The activities that afternoon were quite fun. We got to throw tomahawks and throwing knives at dead tree stumps and logs. The Instructor had to put bright orange tape on everything we threw so we didn’t lose anything. In the beginning, it was a group of four people were at each station, but after a while that rule relaxed. You can never tell a Venturer to stop throwing sharp objects, so it was pretty lat when we started our hike back to camp. A great day first day was shared by the participants of Powder Horn.

On the second day we got to learn how to make survival bracelets, which was pretty neat. Then we had a speaker who talked about wilderness survival and how he was involved in search and rescue. We learned how to make survival shelters out of almost nothing, along with almost 20 different ways to make a fire. That afternoon, we went kayaking and stand-up paddle boarding. When the guest instructors were talking about being safe when operating a watercraft, it was pouring down rain, but by the time we got out to the lake, the rain had cleared up! We used a brand of SUP called “YOLO Boards”, which stood for "You Only Live Once". The crew found this quite comical. There were many different types of Kayaks as well, like whitewater kayaks, river kayaks, and expedition kayaks. A lot of people in the crew have already gone kayaking, so we most of us did mainly stand-up boarding. These were pretty sketchy at first, but when you got your balance it was great. alt We all tried different way of riding them besides standing up. The next thing we did was go black powder shooting. A lot of the older Venturers in our crew have done this before, but for the new people it was an interesting experience. Afterward we got to throw more tomahawks. It was the last night of our Powderhorn experience, and fellow Venturers had to stop themselves from tearing up.

The last day of Powder Horn involved one last presentation. A speaker came in and talked about the camping equipment and gear that he sells. We had an opportunity to try on packs, learn about different camp stoves and layering for camping. After that was done we went back and packed up. The awarded ceremony brought a certificate saying that we completed the course, we got a Powderhorn pin or dangle and a little bag of coins. After saying our goodbyes, we left Camp Hahobas and started our journey home.