Girl Scout Camping Makes Lasting Memories

Think Girl Scouts, and what first pops into your head? For nearly 100 years, Girl Scouting has helped girls learn and grow in all sorts of ways, but it's probably most closely identified with nature activities — and most especially camping.

At my first meeting ever as a Girl Scout leader, I asked each girl why she had joined, and just about every one of them exclaimed, "To go camping!"

It took a couple of years for us to get on that first overnight, due in part to the multiple training classes I needed to become "camper certified." My last class was actually an overnight weekend at the Girl Scout Oval in South Mountain Reservation. Leaders spent Saturday afternoon in training while their scouts enjoyed some basic camping skill activities involving knots, hiking and correct use of a pocket knife. That evening all the troops gathered together for a camp-wide sing-a-long.

Since then I've led numerous camping trips, most of them at the Girl Scout Oval. The Oval gets its name from the large oval-shaped field at the center of the camp, surrounded by nine rustic cabins built in the 1930s and 40s. Its convenient location and amenities such as electricity, kitchens and flush toilets make it a great first step into camping or an easy getaway for older girls.   

A few weeks ago, I helped out the leaders of Junior Troop 20280 from Blessed Pope John XXIII Academy on a weekend stay. We arrived on a warm, sunny Saturday afternoon. After settling into Natalie Kipp Cabin on the west side of the Oval, I showed the girls how to build a fire in one of the outdoor fireplaces using kindling, tinder and a few home-made Girl Scout "firestarters"  (egg carton cups filled with lint and candle wax). We cooked hot dogs in a cast-iron pan over the open fire and later roasted marshmallows and made s'mores, that yummy campfire treat. 

While the girls crisscrossed the field during a game of flashlight tag under the stars, I shared with the other adults some memories of my first overnight at the Oval as a member of Junior Troop 558 from Our Lady of Lourdes School:

The fifteen-or-so of us stayed in Cherokee Cabin on the east side of the Oval, next to the brook that runs on the edge of camp.  I still recall how we bounced around and chatted well into the night on the bunks in the cabin loft, while the leaders —including my mother — smoked incessantly downstairs. (Today, fire safety laws prohibit any use of the lofts and smoking in the cabins.) The highlight of that trip, however, came the next morning, in what would now be totally forbidden under current Girl Scout policy. We awoke to a heavy downpour, and the leaders sent us outside in our rain gear to work off some energy. Unsupervised, we found our way into the nearby brook. We followed it, splashing all the way through the culvert under South Orange Avenue to the top of Hemlock Falls. I remember being fascinated at how the water looked cascading over the edge and splashing into the pool below me. Thank goodness no one was hurt that morning. Certainly, things were different back then.

Early Sunday morning, the current Girl Scout troop welcomed the sunshine as we set out along marked trails to the very same Hemlock Falls. While hiking the Lenape Trail, we came upon a "teepee" made of large branches in Pine Grove and one of the "ex-closures" designed to help reforest the reservation by keeping the deer away from tender tree saplings. 

A short time after crossing the pedestrian bridge over South Orange Avenue, we came first upon the smaller Black Rock Falls, and then around the bend saw Hemlock. The sunlight sparkled off the pool beneath the falls, whose walls have been scrubbed of nearly all the graffiti that once scarred this natural gem.

The girls insisted on climbing the steep steps to the top of the falls, and from a lookout bench I shook my head at the thought that once I'd been so bold to stand at the edge of the 25-foot cliff. While these young Girl Scouts didn't have quite as daring an adventure as I'd once had, they were thrilled to catch a glimpse of a family of deer on our trek back to the cabin.

Another Girl Scout camping trip complete, another group of girls taking away with them another set of great memories.

Additional information on South Mountain Reservation can be found through the Essex County Parks Department and South Mountain Conservancy.  Girl Scouts Heart of New Jersey can provide more info on the Girl Scout Oval Camp.

Clare Silvestri Krakoviak is leader of Girl Scout Troop 20723 at St. Joseph's Church/Blessed Pope John XXIII Academy.