Women in the Outdoors - Camp Wapiti - Tooele, UT

Michelle, Taunya, Kat and Dana

My friend Kathryn, my sister Taunya and her friend Michelle had ourselves quite the adventure at this years WITO in Tooele. Man, we really had to rough it. Just kidding, we stayed in cabins so there really wasn't much roughing it. For those of you that have been, it reminded me of Kamp Kenyon.

August 22

2:00 - Got to camp and unloaded.

2:30 - My first class was self defense but the instructor was a no show. Instead I made these cute coasters. Just the night before I was saying that I needed coasters. First klutz alert of the trip - I hot glued my finger. Still hurts...

4:30 - My next class ,which Kathryn and Taunya were in as well, was knot tying. The class was so large that I really didn't get much out of it. Instead Taunya kept hitting me with the rope trying to give me a welt. Then I look over at Kat and she is covered in dust from head to toe. Apparently her first class, handguns, was up the hill and she had to ride in the back of the truck to get there. What a sight. I felt like the disruptive kid in class.

6:30 and on - We had dinner and a pj contest. Afterwards was an absolute blast. I have this game called Werewolves. Some of you may have played a similar game called Mafia. I have never laughed so hard in my life. We had about 9 of us playing until about midnight. There were these two older ladies, Sima and Jenny, that were a riot. They were trying so hard to get the hang of the game.

August 23rd

Bright and early we were up and at em.

8:00 - All four of us had the same morning class of hiking. It was very informative. The ladies teaching it went over things to carry in case you are stranded or hurt. The part that cracked me up was the poo tasting. Actually, they were trying to teach us what animal has been around by the poo they left behind. To demonstrate they brought chocolate that matched the size and shape. For example, we at whoppers as they were talking about deer.

10:00- Off to nutrition. Goodness knows I needed the reminder

1:30 - This next class is one of my favorites. It is called Mountain Womaning which consists of loading and shooting muzzle loaders. There is something about loading a gun with black powder that is thrilling. Okay, here is klutz alert 2 - My hand was smashed between the barrel of the gun and the ram rod. The instructor was trying to show me something and smashed my had in the barrel. It didn't hurt but it cut enough to where I got a tetanus shot once Monday rolled around.

3:30 - My final class of the day was archery. There was only 3 of us in the last archery class so we got plenty of time to shoot. I found myself competing with Kat although she just laughed at me. All in all I hit 18 targets. That is so much better then my whopping zero the last time. The instructor was teasing me the entire time for getting so excited but I couldn't help it. They say things come in three so here is the final klutz alert. Just about every time I let the bow go it would hit my left arm. I had such a big welt when I was done but I didn't really care. It was too much fun.

5:30 and on - More eating, skits and chatting. We had a raffle to raise money for the National Wild Turkey Federation. I won a camping chair and table out of it and Taunya got a sleeping bag. Then Sima and Jenny stopped by with treats and said they were calling for a rematch of werewolves. Again we were up until about midnight. Taunya kept taking me out in the first round. I think she was having a little too much fun.

The next morning we packed up and headed back into town to drop off Taunya and Michelle. Then Kat dropped me off in Sandy and I rushed to get ready for church.

If anyone is interested in finding events in their neck of the woods check out http://www.womenintheoutdoors.org/. I promise there is a good time to be had for everyone. Events usually run early to late summer.