Date: 2009-02-10
To: The Skit Was A Success
Miles today: 0.0

Check Six's Notes -The skit we put on for Girl Scouts last evening was a huge success. It was fun, too. We arrived early so we could set up the room. We put out Old Goat's photo albums from his 2006 hike and the scrapbooks our daughter and I made for his 2006 hike, then we put put three chairs up front. The chairs were our "trees" to hang our wet (pretend wet) ponchos on to dry, and the third one to put our packs near for the night. Once we had the room set up, we hid in another room until everyone had arrived. After our daughter finished attending to some Scout business, we came out of the other room hiking. As we hiked around the room we talked about hiking, and we answered some of the questions the girls' had given me at the last meeting. I asked Old Goat if he heard about the baby bear we heard someone saw "a couple days ago," and Old Goat talked about how to be safe around bears, and to not go near adorable baby bears, etc. We were able to cover a lot of the questions in our conversation while hiking around the room.We then stopped and pitched our tent. Our tent can be put up with hiking poles, so Old Goat put it up that way. Neither of us are very pleased with the way that works, so we don't plan to use that method while we're on the AT.Then I started layering my clothing, and took off my boots and put on my Crocs to demonstrate what it will be like when we stop for the day each day. Then we talked about what we'll do when we stop for the day and showed them how we will filter our water, set up our beds, etc., and we showed them three days' worth of food. At one point someone wanted to see how we can remove the legs from our pants, so we did that. (After a while I got chilly, so I put my legs back on and realized that that also was a good demonstration of how they can go back to being long pants easily.)I had bought a small container of freeze-dried strawberries so the girls could try them if they wanted to. Everyone tried one, and before the meeting was finished all the strawberries were gone.It's so much fun to show these things to others. We didn't have enough time to answer all their questions, so I'll go over more questions with them at our next meeting. I didn't get to show them everything (of our gear) that I wanted to show them either, so I'll bring some things back for the next meeting.It was a real fun evening! For us as well as the others who were there. I found one fabulous side effect of doing the skit and demo.....just seeing our gear in a simulated situation showed me that I feel we are quite prepared. Setting up the tent and showing the things I was carrying gave me confidence and comfort about having the right things with us. Another benefit to this was having the time to adjust the straps on my pack while we waited for everyone to arrive. I had put it on in the afternoon and my pack was extremely uncomfortable. Of course that put me into a panic mode...worrying about being able to hike with such an uncomfortable pack. While we were waiting Old Goat made some adjustments - and they made the pack so comfortable that it almost didn't feel like I had the pack on. Yay! What an exciting relief!Since last evening was so much fun, I'd love to do similar demonstrations / skits for other Girl Scout troops after we get back home. Some of the mothers' comments to me at the end of the meeting reminded me that I am a role model for the girls. And thinking back on how Old Goat first got the bug to hike the AT (read his early 2006 AT entries - he explains it) makes me realize this could plant a seed in one of these girls. It would be wonderful to hear of any of the girls in our troop hiking the AT one day!!! 30 days to go . . . . . . . . I'm excited!!