Making a Pirates Treasure Map - Hiking Fun

We did an ocean, pirate, ship, anchor, under the sea theme for girls camp this year. 
 
We did a hike on the first day that we walked a week before and laid out where we wanted our cute pirate items to decorate and what lessons we wanted taught at each spot. I found some cute pirate stuff at a yard sale and posted about that here.

We had Jr. Leaders give little lessons at each stopping point. We also had them dressed up as pirates. Check out my blog on what we did to make the costumes inexpensively here. 
 
We also gave out something at each spot. The first was a eye patch. We gave out charms and snacks at other points with a treasure chest at the end with a pearl charm and a picture of Christ in a jeweled frame as he is the "real" treasure. 
 
I made the pearl charm from some broken pearl beads. I had to repair the treasure chest hinge that split the wood and that is posted here. 

I made a video on how I made the pirates map, just click on the video above to view that. 

I also wanted to share that walking the hike or treasure hunt ahead of time, so that you can detail items on the hike that you can highlight, on the trail, in the map makes for great fun. 

Also you can find areas that are good for a snack or take a rest and "name" those areas so the kids can be on the look out for those. 

We had a few people go up ahead of us and use ATVs to put up the decorations before hand and then once we passed that spot walking, they followed us and took them down.

They were cute signs and pirates, talking pirate heads, pirate buckets with treats etc. so we didn't want them to get taken by other hikers on their way down so having a team of people to help works well. 

After taking the hike and taking notes on the best place to stop or put treats etc, it is good to name them so they can be put on your map along with a drawing of the place. 

Basically, to make the map, rip up (not cut) a brown paper bag or wrapping. Crinkle it up to make it look old. Burn the edges of the "map" making sure to be careful to not let it "get away on you." Do it outside or over metal. Have a way to put it out quickly at hand in case it does get away. 

Decorate it with stamps, markers, colored pencils or crayons. Voila, you have yourself a treasure map! 
 
We also had different Jr. Leaders give little lessons along the way at each of the stopping points. I took a picture of our notes on it and what lessons we taught at each stopping point. I will probably post pictures of the decorations and hike if I can get them from those that went on the hike. 

I had to decorate the cabin during the hike so I just did the "pre-hike" the week before helping them to decide which decorations went where etc.  

We were lucky on our hike as there were mine shafts, log cabins, waterfalls, landslides, and murky mud holes and some goose neck winds, there was even a lightning chard tree! 


We gave them names like "Captains Hook" for the goose-neck switch backs. "Black Beards Cabin" was fun and the mud holes were "quicksand" and the mine was "Dead mans Drop" so naming the spots was all kept within the Pirates theme. 


I borrowed a little foot stamp that my sister had to use for the foot prints on the map but I think the girl I had draw the map actually just drew them on. 

I gave her the list of names and the map we used to scope it out and her sister had actually gone on the hike so she could answer any questions but I thought it would be good to include this girl in the preparation since she was going on the hike but hadn't been able to go with us on the prep hike. 


She did an amazing job. At first, we were going to rip the map into pieces and have them piece it together but after seeing how cute she made it, I decided I wanted to keep it to use with my pirates stuff for halloween so in the end, we didn't rip it up. 

It was a great hike, the map, decorations and treats at each stop made it fun. I had one girl "lead" the hike and give instructions on what they needed to look for as their next stopping place so they wouldn't go ahead. It worked out well. Fun day for some awesome girls!!