The Women In the Outdoors held their third annual event at the Webb River Valley Sportsmen’s Club recently. From left learning archery are Becky Tyler, Amanda Tyler and Cindy Blaisdell.

Women learn outdoor basics

DIXFIELD – The Women In the Outdoors recently held their third annual event, including a variety of classes such as map and compass, Dutch oven cooking, outdoor survival, basic shotgun, basic archery, dog obedience, game calling, plant identification, tracking, fly-tying/casting and wildlife identification.

The event was held Aug. 19 at the Webb River Valley Sportsmen’s Club, with classes running for an hour and a half each from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., with an hour lunch break. The Women in the Outdoors registered 16 members, 10 of whom were new.

The Dutch oven cooking class was a hit. The women learned how to make deep-fried pizza, sugar cookies, apple cobbler and apple crisp in the outdoors.

The outdoor survival class taught about staying warm and safe in the outdoors and in the woods if one was hiking or camping. Basic shotgun involved shooting clay targets, and the basic archery instructor, who is a Maine Guide, had participants hitting targets before the class was over.

During the plant identification class, women learned about plants they didn’t know existed. During the tracking class, the women went on a trail in the woods to see if they would be able to track a wounded animal if they were hunting.

Fly-tying/casting involved learning and practicing casting, and for the wildlife identification, the instructor brought several furs to show and presented a slide show of animals in the wild.

The women will gather throughout the year for hiking, archery and fly-tying sessions.

They will also work on planning the 2007 Women In The Outdoors event. The fourth annual event will be an overnight, with the location and classes to be determined.

Anyone interested in joining the Women In The Outdoors may contact Karen S. Murphy at 357-2883 or e-mail [email protected].