I'm a little behind in posting this, but last month Meghann and I decided to attend this class called "Becoming an Outdoor Woman" which was held by the DNR up in the U.P. in a small town called Big Bay.
Our adventure began on Thursday, May 31st when Meghann and I began our 8 hour long drive from St. Johns to the U.P. The plan was to make it to Marquette by night time, where we would stay in a hotel and then drive the 30 miles the next morning (June 1st) North to Big Bay to start our 'summer camp' weekend.
At that time, there was a raging wildfire going on in the U.P. just north of Taquamenon Falls. We never drove close enough to it to see smoke or flames, but we did see the warning signs which were a little eerie.
Since we didn't get to leave St. Johns until around 5pm, we didn't make it to our hotel until close to midnight. Once we arrived, we unloaded our stuff, showered and collapsed into bed.
The next day we had to arrive at the camp between 11am and 1pm, so we took our time getting ready and driving up to Big Bay.
The DNR classes were being held at this place called Bay Cliff Health Camp. Back in the day, it used to be a farm, but the owners eventually donated the land and now it serves as a place for many different types of camps all summer long. Besides the camp that we were attending, they also hold camps for handicap kids and disadvantaged kids. There's an indoor pool, a cafeteria, an auditorium, a gym, and several buildings for dorms.
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| Buildings at Bay Cliff |
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| Meghann and My Room |
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| Entrance to our dorm |
Once we got to camp, we got our registration packets and found out our dorm assignments. Everyone there was so nice! People asked us where we were from, if this was our first BOW camp and if we were twins (we honestly got that about 10 times from 10 different people). And everyone genuinely seemed excited that we were there, which made us really excited to be there.
We dumped our stuff in our room and found that we were sharing a room with two ladies named Jeannie and Charlie. Both of them had been to camp before, so they assured us that we would have a great time. Based on our schedules, there really was not a lot of downtime throughout the entire weekend. After getting our room situated, we headed over to the cafeteria for lunch and then to the auditorium for our 'welcome meeting and introductions'. The only thing that messed up camp a little bit was the fire happening in the U.P. Most of the instructors work for the DNR, so a lot of them had been called on duty to help fight the fire. Luckily, they were able to fill most of the classes with back-up instructors. After our welcome meeting, we didn't have much time before our first class started. Meghann and I both signed up for 'Map and Compass Reading'. That may sound kind of boring, but as much hiking and camping as we both do, neither one of us knew how to use a compass and since Google Maps doesn't always work in the woods, we figured this would be a good skill to learn. It was actually pretty interesting. We learning how to read plot maps, how to use a compass and give directions and even how to find yourself on a map if you get lost in the woods. Of course, I think I have forgotten everything, but at least I tried!
After the map class, we had to attend the firearms safety class. It was a requirement so we could participate in the handgun class on Saturday. They also offered a hunters safety certificate if we wanted to take the test for it. Even though Meghann and I are both animal lovers and couldn't shoot a fly without bursting into tears, we figured that since we were there we might as well get the certificate. Halfway through the hand gun class, Meghann had to go to the boating safety class. I finished up the gun class and then sat with Meghann through the rest of the boating class. We didn't finish up our classes until 10:30 and we were both beat! We headed back to the dorms and to bed as soon as possible because we were going to have a long Saturday ahead of us.
Saturday morning I was off to the Rock Climbing class, while Meghann was going to do the Boating class. Lucky for us, we got to spend the next 3 hours freezing our butts off in rainy, cold weather. I don't have any pictures of Meghann from her boating class, but I have a bunch of pictures of me rock climbing for your viewing pleasure.
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| Ready to Climb |
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| Almost to the top |
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| Made it! |
At noon, after our classes, Meghann and I met up at the cafeteria for lunch. It was a nice to get back inside from the cold and rain and warm up for a bit. We didn't have much time before we both had to go to our hand gun class.
At the hand gun class, we got to try out many different types of guns and ammo. Meghann was a little nervous because she hadn't really ever shot a hand gun before, but she did great. Actually, I thought both Meghann and I did great compared to the targets of the other women taking the class. As I watched Meghann take her time and line up each shot before pulling the trigger, I noticed that every other women there was just pointing the gun and firing bullets as fast as humanly possible. I should have taken a picture of their targets so you could have seen how their targets, backboards, and presumably the surrounding ground, woods, and maybe small animals were strewn with bullet holes. Good grief....
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| Our targets :) |
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| Meghann shooting a 9mm Glock |
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| My unibomber shooting attire |
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| Meghann shooting an automatic machine gun |
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| Me shooting an automatic machine gun |
Our gun class was going just great, but the afternoon would not have been complete without me doing something stupid or embarrassing. During class, I had to use the near-by port-a-john. As I approached it, I thought I could hear someone inside. But when I looked at the door, it wasn't locked. So, I swung the door open wide to step inside and there stood one of the guy instructors using the urinal. Luckily, and for some odd reason, he had a metal folding chair inside with him, which conveniently blocked my view of his junk. I quickly shut the door and said 'Sorry!', but the embarrassment had already set-in. When he got out, he said he forgot to lock the door. I used the bathroom and then headed back to the group. To my horror, he told everyone that I had barged in on him and everyone was teasing me. I would have thought that he would have been embarrassed more, but I guess it pays to be the first one to tell the story instead of the second. You would have thought I had learned my lesson with that by now....lol
After the long afternoon in the rain and cold, we headed back to camp for dinner. During our meals, each instructor would give out an 'award' to the person who excelled the most during their class. Meghann got the award for the hand gun class and our instructor even showed off her target in front of everyone. Great Job Momo!
After dinner, we were beat, but we decided to learn how to clean guns with our instructors from our class. They needed to clean all the guns we had used during the day and they needed several volunteers to help out. It was funny, because as we were walking towards the gym where we were meeting to clean guns, we saw 3 of the women all dressed up and looking like they were heading out to the bar for the night. Really? I mean, since this is Michigan, Big Bay has a bar like every other small town, but seriously did these cougars actually think that they were going to pick up some hot mens at a bar in Big Bay which literally has a population of about 50 people? And then what is also funny is that they must have actually planned on going out because they had brought all their bar clothes with them! Well, I'm sure they whooped it up in Big Bay that night! lol
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| Gun cleaning |
Sunday morning was our last class, which was backpacking. We just talked about different equipment and then we walked a couple of miles with packs. At first, our instructor went around and asked everyone why they were taking the class. Most people said that they had never backpacked before and they wanted to learn more. When it came to me, I said that I had backpacked before but I wanted to hear their ideas about equipment and maybe get new tips and tricks. Then, Meghann blurts out that I had gone backpacking up to Isle Royale all by myself and had hiked across the island. Our instructor looked at me like I was insane. She couldn't believe I had done that, which oddly enough is just about the same reaction I get from everyone. After our class, we had one final lunch in the cafeteria before heading home. During our final lunch, when the instructors hand out awards, our backpacking instructor went up in front of everyone and started to tell the tale of the girl who hiked across Isle Royale all by herself, but yet still was open to learning more about hiking. Then she presented me with the backpacking award. Another embarrassing moment to be proud of!
After lunch, Meghann and I just headed back to our room to grab our stuff and start the long 8 hour drive home. We had a lot of fun and hopefully we both can do it again next year. :)
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| Camp was fun. See you next year! |
Lastly, this may be more of an inside joke between Meghann and me, but I leave you with a few great memorable "Meghann quotes" from the weekend:
Meghann to Ryan. On
the phone when we were going to drive by our old house:
“I have
to go, we have to go be sad now”
Meghann about Ryan and his new iPhone:
“He has
had this phone for 24 hours! The kid is
outta control!”
Meghann to me while I’m driving:
“You do
everything BUT drive!”
Conversation about Meghann winning a BOW ‘award’ for
shooting hand guns and me winning an ‘award’ for taking the backpacking class
and discussing my trip to Isle Royale with our instructor.
Me: “Gee, you won an award for actually learning
a skill, I just won an award for….”
Meghann: “Being a dinkus!”
Meghann talking about their campground annual luau party.
“I
became Fun Meghann!”
