Leave No Trace Certification 2010

At 6pm, on April the 17th, 7 Scouts left for Fire Mountain Scout Camp, for the Leave No Trace certification. The car ride was a bit less than two hours, and it was dark by the time we all got there. We unpacked the cars, and walked to the Black Hawk campsite. The campsite was very big, with nice large adirondacks, small wooden, covered platforms, and it was also very close to the training area. We set our things in the adirondacks, and started up dinner. One Scout also used a lantern and bug-net to catch moths.

The next morning, everyone packed everything up, and put all unnecessary gear back in the cars. After that, we all headed over to the lodge, to get oriented on the certification. After that, we all took a test on leave no trace scenarios, and listened to a ranger who talked to us about how she was involved in creating Project Leave No Trace.

Then we started on a virtual campout where we chose a low impact site, set up tents, went on a day-hike, and cooked a hot meal. Then tore down our virtual campsite, and reviewed the entire training. The day hike was probably the most important part. We stopped at pre-set stations with different instructors, along with our group guide, and were quizzed on Leave No Trace principles. Once we were done with that, we walked back to camp to cook the meal, and review. After we had finished, we were notified that we had passed certification, and received our patches along with our Leave No Trace cards. After that, we took our packs to the car again, loaded up a final time and left at around 1:30 pm. - AMG

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