The Oak"Bourne" Supremacy

The agents: Kristie and her squad of 6 BFFs

The mission: Locate 8 checkpoints hidden in Oakbourne Mansion Park and complete the team challenges before time expires.

 

The girls were split into two teams: Kristie's Krew and Emmy's Army. By days end, we'd know which group has the most Girl Power.

Each team received a map showing the location of the checkpoints and the point value for each checkpoint. The girls planned their routes and then met up for a prologue to split up the teams so they wouldn't follow each other around the course.

 In the prologue the agents searched for information about the trees in the park. Then each team had to complete a relay race through an obstacle course, while holding an egg. At the end of each leg of the relay, the racer tossed the egg to her next team member who then went through the course. By the end of the relay only a small omelet's worth off eggs had fallen victim to the race. Note to file: remember hand wipes for egg tossing events.

Emmy's Army finished the relay first and headed down to pick-up the checkpoints in the woods. Kristie's Krew finished right behind and headed over to pick-up the checkpoints around the mansion first. The Krew quickly learned that running off to where you think you should go is not always the best way to find something hidden. Turns out a little time reading the map helps.

After finally orienting themselves, the Krew located the first checkpoint. But that was only the start. Using clues, the girls had to find a particular Chinese cherry tree across the park. Then the agents worked on team communication while doing the Blind Fishing challenge.

After climbing the tree, Kristin got a “fishing rod” with marshmallow “bait” and a blindfold. Mary directed the blindfolded fish (Christine first then Sophia) to the marshmallows. The fishies had to take the bait and eat the marshmallow without using their hands (they're fish, so obviously they don't have hands). Turns out getting the marshmallow is not as easy as it looks. As they struggled to chomp on the marshmallows one thing became clear: these girls aren't big mouths after all. I know. I know. I was just as surprised.

While Kristie's Krew worked on their first checkpoint, Emmy's Army tackled what turned out to be the toughest challenge: the Balancing Act. Emmy's Army (a.k.a. Bunky's Brigade) set out to walk on a series of fallen tree trunks before conquering the final tree leaning against another tree. The girls carefully negotiated the wobbly leaning tree-- it had just enough bounce to make the balancing act precarious and ended just high enough to feel dangerous. When they thought the hardest part was over, the turned around and had to make the bouncy trip back down the tree. Safely back on the ground, Emmy's Army made it through and dashed off to nearby checkpoint 15..

At CP15 Emmy's Army showed perfect form in how to make an easy challenge unnecessarily difficult. A cache hidden on top of an old entrance gate pillar should have been an easy grab for their team--they had a team member who could practically reach up and grab the thing (although that was against the rules). Taking a page out of the government handbook on how to complicate simple tasks, Emmy's Army came up with this solution:

At least it worked.

Meanwhile, back at the mansion, the Krew also found ways to complicate things. The challenge at CP13: find a larch (the only pine tree to drop it's needles each year). Sophia went west. Kristie went north. Mary went south, and Christine went southwest. No one went east and naturally the larch tree was a simple walk 50 feet eastward. After wandering all over, the girls finally stopped, thought for a moment and found the tree in about 10 seconds.

 

 

Quality craftmanship

From the larch, Kristie's Krew ran off to CP22 by the water tower. If you've never seen the water tower at Oakbourne, it's pretty amazing. It must be one of the coolest water towers in the world—literally. You'd never guess something so ornate was actually just a water tower.

Girls--she can hear just fine.

At CP# the Krew got busy working on their communication skills again at the Blind Builder challenge. This time Mary wore the blindfold. The rest of the Krew gave Mary directions on building a tower using blocks to match a pattern they received. As the girls screamed instructions across the table to Mary, I reminded them that Mary was wearing a blindfold, not earplugs.

Back in the woods, Emmy's Army could probably hear the Krew hollering instructions. Emily, Emily and Amy grabbed the last two checkpoints in the woods: some mysterious old ruins around the creek, and an abandoned old stone bridge across the creek. If you walked the trails through the park you'd probably miss both. But the girls got to stop and check them out.  After wrapping up in the woods, the girls headed up to try the checkpoints around the mansion.

The Emmy fish and her Emmy guide

Ummm . . . not even close

After finishing up the Blind Builder, Kristie's Krew headed to the Balloon Toss. I thought this would be the toughest challenge, but the girls did great. Two girls used a blanket to toss a water balloon across a gravel trail where the other two teammates caught the balloon in their blanket. The first few attempts never made it across the trail. The few that made it landed hard before they could be caught. After five failed attempts, Kristin and Sophia fired a balloon up and over the trail where Mary and Christine caught it. Kristin ran back to grab a few spare water balloons for the return toss, but they didn't need them. Mary and Christine's first try flew softly to Kristin and Sophia who snared the balloon without any drama (imagine that:four girls and no drama).

The Krew left the water balloons and raced down to try to get the Balancing Act by the pond before time expired. Each girl took a try, but small slip-ups forced three of the girls to start over. With time running short, the girls wisely abandoned the challenge to get back to the finish before time expired. The long climb up the hill challenged the girls, but they pushed on, racing to the finish with a minute to spare. They arrived to find Emmy's Army already waiting.

After tallying the points, Emmy's Army got the win. Still, all the girls had a blast and most importantly there was plenty of cake for everyone.

All in all, another great day in the woods.

Double Digits Baby!