Wild Women Weekends, or,
Adventures in BOW

For all the times your brother teased, "You run like a girl," for every time your father feigned interest in your physical abilities, for the many times your significant other spent the weekend fishing or playing golf without you -- you now have a way to catch up on a little revenge. I have found the answer: the Becoming an Outdoors Woman (BOW) program, where women teach women outdoors skills, away from it all, in nature.

Every spring and fall, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) hosts the weekend workshop for women who want to learn about camping, birdwatching, paddling, fishing, hunting and survival skills -- from other women (mostly). No more being teased, talked down to or left out by the men in your life who don't have the patience or the interest in your quest for adventure.

Held at the Everglades Youth Conservation Camp at J.W. Corbett Wildlife Management Area near West Palm Beach and the Hunter Education Camp in Ocala National Forest on Lake Eaton, the nationwide program lets women 18 and up choose 4 classes for the weekend: typically 1 on Friday, 2 on Saturday and 1 on Sunday. In between are cafeteria-style meals, presentations about wildlife, contests, night hikes, campfire stories and maybe even an outdoors-wear fashion show.

One Weekend Fits All

And lots of camaraderie.

"It's kind of like grown-up Girl Scouts or summer camp," one participant said.

I found that to be a great description, not only for what goes on over the weekend, but for the way it's so easy to make new friends. Women of all ages and all walks of life come for the adventurous weekend. You're as likely to see a retiree dressed neatly in walking shorts and a tennis visor as you are to see a 40ish woman in camouflage or a college student in low-rise shorts and a tank top. ("They're not a bunch of, you know -- man haters -- are they?" a friend asked me after I went. No.) I met an accountant, lawyer, teacher, retail manager, firefighter and a mother-and-daughters group, to name a few of my new comrades.

"I was really surprised at the mix of backgrounds people came from and how friendly and helpful everyone was," participant Karen Perez said. "One of the classes that I took was kayaking and canoeing. I liked the fact that I could learn something like that without my husband having to show me. I was actually able to show him a thing or two afterwards. I highly recommend it for anyone young, older, athletic or not athletic."

And then there was myself. The daughter of a turkey hunter, I'm familiar with hunting, but not a participant. Although the BOW program offers hunting-oriented classes, I was there for the boating, survival skills, nature observation and biking (which apparently isn't being offered anymore). I came away with new skills and knowledge not only for the times when I'm outdoors, but for everyday life as well.

Life Lessons

I got lucky on my first class, boating, because one of the instructors was a woman wildlife officer. With confidence, wit and an easygoing manner, she made all of the class members relaxed -- even those of us who had never piloted a boat before.

After operating a boat, I had to learn the real tricky part, which was backing up a boat trailer to a ramp. Although none of the few male instructors talk down to women, my male trailering instructor did tell me in the end that if I ever had to back up a trailer to a boat ramp, to get someone else to do it. Hmph. All I needed was a booster seat in his oversized pickup.

Lesson #1: As much as possible, surround yourself with things (like vehicles) that are a good fit for you.

A husband-and-wife team led the survival-skills class. It wasn't what I had feared -- sort of a trial by fire in which all of us in the class would be blindfolded and led into the woods, then forced to find our way back to camp -- which was a good thing. We mostly sat and reviewed some handouts, but we got to practice the basics of orienteering and learn about some nifty gadgets you should never leave home without. We learned first hand how to trust water filters by drinking water right from the lake, and we were challenged to come up with ways of catching water from rain and dew if necessary.

If there were a final exam, it would have been to start a fire. Working with partners, we struggled against the wind to get our pile of kindling to ignite from sparks of flint the instructors provided. My partner, Karen Perez, and I tried and tried to get the sparks to do something on our little pile and watched as other pairs of women produced flames -- roaring bonfires, even -- but blamed our failure on a bad block of flint. Once we borrowed another team's flint and started a fire, we were as happy as cavewomen seeing blazes for the first time. ("Oog! Fire good!")

Lesson #2: Always, always carry what you need (like waterproof matches or a lighter) wherever you go, and you won't need to depend on others.

In another class called Reading the Woods, our instructor was a woman well-versed in the ways of the woods, being a longtime outdoorswoman and having her own 30 acres of undeveloped land to live on. Taking a walk down a short nature trail, we all covered basics like using field guides to identify plants and wildlife (mostly birds), looking for evidence of nests and dens, and stopping to just listen and observe for a while -- the most restful 5 minutes of the whole activity-packed weekend. We also quizzed one another on wildlife tracks using the instructor's castings and a bucketful of sand.

We students also overcame any squeamishness by picking through animal scat. That's right -- species feces. Giggling and glancing about, we took turns examining doo that the instructor determined was from a raccoon. It's amazing that you can look at a dropping's shape, amount and contents to see who left it there. If you care to.

Lesson #3: Don't take everyday life (and its aftereffects) too seriously.

A Good Time

Aside from the classes and the friendship of the other women, a BOW weekend is fun for the after-hours events. Like the time a night hike around the lake had a group of us peering into bushes to look for an unidentified animal rustling the leaves. Suddenly, there was a scream from one of the hikers, and -- WHAM! -- the animal in question slammed into my leg. A red-filtered flashlight revealed a stunned possum running for its life away from the crowd. A bonfire attracted a group of us another night, when we made s'mores and listened to a Seminole native tell folk tales. Then there was the rescue of a rattlesnake from the washroom (unscheduled), the appearance of a barred owl outside the cafeteria (also unplanned), a talk by a herpetologist and the spectacle of the Leonid meteor shower very, very early one November morning.

As I overheard one participant proclaim, a BOW weekend may just be the most fun a woman can have in Florida without a man.

Try It!

BOW programs in Florida are scheduled for Sept. 12-14 and April 23-25 (Ocala), and Nov. 14-16 and March 5-7 (West Palm Beach). The cost is $150 for the weekend, which includes food and housing. (But you may also stay in a tent.) Please call the FWC Hunter Education Section office at 561-625-5126 for a registration form.

Written By

Miranda Malone is a freelance writer in southern Florida. She has taken BOW workshops twice and proudly wears a BOW T-shirt she won in a contest.