SAIL Senior unit Camping Report

The SAILs held their final campouts of the year at the end of May. The Junior Unit traveled to Colorado Bend State Park, the Senior Unit went to Monahans Sandhills State Park, with side trips to Odessa, TX and Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico. We now review the Senior Unit Campout Report:

The SAIL Senior Unit headed out Thursday on the long drive to Monahans Sandhills State Park to camp by the dunes, sled down the dunes, and explore the geology and biology of the dunes. (Yes, the Senior Unit even worked on the Dunes honor). Setting up in soft sand required different tent stakes, but with the clear, warm weather, the unit also was able to leave the rainflies off the tents and enjoy sleeping under the stars.  

On Friday, it was off to New Mexico to visit Carlsbad Caverns National Park (just a little larger than the Junior Unit cave…), exploring the cave formations, as well as the New Mexico landscape. We saw butterflies and birds (to match the Pathfinder year theme), as well as guano (to get our bats in), and looked at how plants and animals adapt to a desert environment. 

Saturday it was off to Odessa to visit the local church and meet their Pathfinder Club, as well as a visit to the Odessa Meteor Crater (the second largest known meteor crater in the country), where we learned about impact craters, and again had a chance to observe adaptation to xeric environments. Although the ground squirrels remained hidden, we did see some more lizards.

Back in Monahans, throughout the weekend the Senior Unit explored the dunes, how they formed, what lived on them, the variety of tracks, the night life, and of course took some time to go dune sledding and surfing. More information on their exploration of dunes will be loaded on the soon-coming Dunes Honor page. 

Sunday morning it was up before the sun, packing up and heading back to Austin.