Last Saturday was our first Outdoor Leadership activity. Outdoor Leadership is a mandatory activity that happens every Saturday morning and it is meant to develop our outdoor skills in order to prepare for things such as backcountry trips and solos. Last Saturday we had a backcountry bake-off. Sounds pretty fun right? It was.

We woke up bright and early at 7:30 am, ready to start the day baking in the woods. There was a fair amount of snow, but it was sunny and warm, depending on how people define warm. Everyone was split into eight different groups and each group was supposed to choose what to bake from a recipe list followed by a list of instructions. Then we were all scattered around Chewonki Neck, where we had to start a fire using our surroundings like wood, small sticks, big sticks, paper birch and leaves. The groups were supported by two faculty: Andrew, our history teacher, or Willard, the head of the Chewonki Foundation. The four groups including mine were around the archery field with Andrew. As we all began to start our fires to bake our lovely recipe, some of us were able to successfully start our fire and for some of us… it took some time. Once everyone had their fires, we began baking. My group decided to bake Congo bars and the end result was immaculate. Let’s just say it was the best Congo bar we’ve ever had, despite the fact that they were a little burnt because we forgot to add parchment paper and over baked it. 

Besides the trials and errors of starting a fire and the results of our recipes, we enjoyed spending time with one another during the process. In the end, we developed some outdoor skills and we were exposed to the beauty and value of teamwork. 

-Milkii Tigro, St. Paul Academy & Summit School, Saint Paul, MN