Getting outside with your Girl Scouts troop is a must. Sure, it may seem like there is a big focus on STEM (and there is), but learning how to care for the environment is also still a big deal. What better time to earn the Brownie Trail Adventure Badge than during Girl Scouts Love State Parks weekend?
Girl Scouts Love State Parks weekend happens in September every year, and there is also a fun patch for it.
We are very lucky to have several state parks near where we live, so I chose one not too far away that I knew would be ideal for beginners. The hike you choose will depend on location and hiking comfort of your girls.
Here is what we did to earn this badge and the order in which we completed the steps:
3. Gather Your Gear
Before we set off on our hike, I went over what the girls were wearing and what they had brought with them. For example, the girls were wearing sneakers, sunglasses, shorts, and T-shirts instead of dresses and sandals. The girls (or their moms) had brought water bottles and snacks. I had a First Aid kit, which is something that could be shared among us, freeing up space in their backpacks for more snacks.
2. Plan and Prepare
I also went over the seven principles of Leave No Trace. If you're not familiar with it, here they are:
- plan ahead and prepare
- only use established trails and sites
- dispose of waste properly
- leave what you find
- minimize campfire impacts
- respect wildlife
- be considerate of other visitors
There used to be a Leave No Trace fun patch from MakingFriends.com. I'm not sure if they still sell it, but you could also incorporate that into this badge or do a separate Leave No Trace meeting.
4. Train for Your Adventure
I printed out the Training Tips Comic from the Volunteer Toolkit to read to the girls pre-hike. This went over things the girls could do to make sure they are ready to hike, such as eating a healthy breakfast, warm up, and proper hiking posture. We did some of the warm-ups to get ourselves ready.
I also printed out a blank comic page and gave it to the girls after the hike so that they could make their own comic about the hike.
1. Choose Your Outdoor Adventure
To make things easier, I chose three of the suggested hike types to do during this one hike. (Do you know how hard it is to get people to come to things outside of regular troop meetings? You're a Girl Scouts troop leader. Of course, you know.) We did a "woods hike" based on the setting of our state park. Then, at the first fork in the road, we flipped a coin to determine which direction we would go. We also took some photos to tell the story of why we loved this state park. (The girls discovered frogs in the water!)
5. Go On Your Outdoor Adventure
This is the easiest part of the hike. You just go on the hike!
Something else you can do on the hike is to have the girls walk silently for a few minutes and then compare the different sounds everybody heard.
Has your troop earned this badge? Let me know what you did to complete it!
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