9th – Backpacking
Another step in our preparation for the capstone Colorado Trek, the 9th Grade Backpacking weekend is, for many HATS participants, their first experience carrying everything they need for a night in the wilderness on their backs. Our teams assemble early Saturday morning at the Crosstimbers Trail on the shores of Lake Texoma. We distribute the crew gear, weigh each pack to ensure our campers are not overloaded, and set off for a lovely 3-mile hike to our campsite. The weekend is about training not endurance. The theme of the 9th grade backpacking campout is “ Unpacking Your Emotional Backpack.” This campout is designed to teach dads & daughters and dads & sons low-impact backpacking and allows the daughters & sons to realize how little they need to be comfortable on a weekend backpacking trip. Sunday’s breakout is very special because the dads & daughters and dads & sons talk about unloading emotions that you have been carrying through life in your emotional backpack.
This campout is just one night, but still full of HATS goodness. We teach our campers some essential wilderness survival techniques, including fire-starting and water filtration.
