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Phyl’s Guide company spent time in the outdoors on picnics and camping. North Vancouver was a popular destination for them because from the Grandview area it was relatively easy to get to – just a ferry ride across Burrard Inlet – and it was physically on the edge of “the wilds.” The Grand Boulevard leading off Lonsdale Avenue was largely wooded and a perfect picnic destination. In fact, the whole of North Vancouver was rural with only a few key roads (with streetcar routes) cut through the forests. Besides the Lonsdale line, another line followed west along Keith Road to the Capilano River and another up the Grand Boulevard to Lynn Valley Road. North Vancouver was incorporated in 1907, but apart from these principal roads that had been laid out through the forests, little residential development existed until well into the 1930s. Grouse Mountain, Mount Seymour, the upper Capilano River, and Lynn and Seymour Creeks, along with many areas that today form part of the Greater Vancouver watershed, existed as wild, undeveloped forest land.

When Miss Elsie Carr, a member of the B.C. Mountaineering Club, became a lieutenant for Phyl’s company, she introduced Phyl and the Guides to organized hiking. Under her direction the Guides undertook more extensive hikes along the lower Lynn Creek and on Seymour Creek. In 1912 they climbed – in their full dress uniform – to the very top of Grouse Mountain and raised the Union Jack flag, as if to claim the mountain as theirs. Phyl recorded the event with her Brownie box camera. At the Bowen Island Guide camp, Miss Carr took several of the Guides up Mount Gardner (elevation 767 metres). For Phyllis, Elsie Carr was an important role model.

Meanwhile, Frank James abandoned all hope of his daughter ever becoming a conventional athlete. She loved tennis, as she told him, “but I love the mountains best.” In reply to her father’s habitual question: “You’ve climbed one mountain, why do you want to climb more?” Phyl answered, “You’ve played more than one game of tennis on the same court. Isn’t it the same thing?”

No doubt about it, Phyllis James was a bit of a misfit. Beatrice James didn’t know what to make of her eldest daughter, who remained an outdoorsy, tomboyish girl despite her mother’s instruction in cooking, sewing, and the other traditional feminine skills. But Beatrice remained ever supportive. As Phyl matured, she came to appreciate fully her mother’s organizational skills and her behind-the-scenes work in both Girl Guides and charitable endeavours. Beatrice James was also a role model, not for Phyl’s physical exploits, but for how to organize oneself and to be self-sufficient in practical life skills. All those cooking and sewing lessons came in handy.

In the days before the First World War, young women, even Guides, did not often spend much time in the hills and forests, so the opportunities to climb the local hills – with an appropriate chaperone such as Elsie Carr – were precious. The Guides hiked in long, heavy serge skirts, often to the ankle, stockings and eyelet-laced boots or street shoes, generally with slippery leather soles. They carried wool blankets or sweaters and wore wide-brimmed hats to protect their faces from the sun and weather. Their clothing was cumbersome to hike in, especially when breaking trail or exploring in the bush, and it was not water-resistant. But none of this mattered to a teenaged girl who came alive when walking in the woods, away from the conventions and social expectations of life in the urban setting of Vancouver.

Early one morning in May 1913 Phyl and her Girl Guides, together with the St. James’ Boy Scout troop, marched in formation to the B.C. Electric Railway station and boarded the train for New Westminster. What excitement! The Guides and Scouts wore their uniforms proudly. They were scheduled to march with their company colours in New Westminster’s Empire Day parade. Each girl carried a pack with a lunch, for it was to be an all-day excursion. Phyl tickled with pride as she noted the girls in step with the boys. It was three years since those first meetings in the church basement. So much had happened since.

In the staging grounds amid the decorations, marching bands, and clowns, Phyl and the Guides did a double-take, for there, across the grassy field, came another group of girls, in uniform just like themselves. As the two groups of Guides spotted each other, excitement overcame them and they waved to each other in acknowledgement. Phyl stepped up to their leader, who looked just about the same age as she was, and introduced herself.

“Hello. What a wonderful surprise this is! I’m Lieutenant Phyllis James and this is the 2nd Vancouver Company.”

“Hello back!” came the answer, “I’m Amy Leigh and this is the 1st Burnaby Company. Say, this is fun, we’ve never met any other Guides! We never knew that you would be here today.”

The two young women compared stories and found that they had much in common, including a love of the outdoors. Amy was fifteen years old when she too became a patrol leader by default. Like Phyl, she was passionate about Guiding and took on an early leadership role. Now that the two Lieutenants met, they schemed to organize activities for both companies.

The Guides worked towards earning badges for proficiency demonstrated in a variety of specialities including the more traditional gender-based skills such as Cooking, Sewing, Laundress, Child’s Nurse, Hospital Nurse, Florist, and Needlewoman. Athletics was an important component of Guiding. Badges to be earned included Swimming, Cycling, Gymnastics, Boatswain, and Horsewoman. Outdoors abilities led to badges for Naturalist, Pathfinder, Pioneer, Rifle Shot and to such nontraditional skills as Interpreter, Ambulance, Fire Brigade Work, Electrician, Telegrapher, and Signaller. The badges reflected the goal of the Girl Guide movement to make girls useful and self-reliant, and to develop those qualities of character that make good women and good citizens.

The First World War brought changes in daily life, but Guides adapted. Like many civilians and service groups, Guides were passionate about “war work,” the volunteer labour devoted to works intended to aid the soldiers fighting on the front lines in Europe. In this “war to end all wars,” Canadian soldiers, sailors, and airmen fought alongside their “Allies,” the English, French, Russians, and others, against the aggressive German forces that threatened to take control of Europe. On the home front, the Guides contributed their part to the war effort and embarked on sewing and knitting projects to provide warm winter scarves, hats, mittens, and socks for soldiers fighting in the trenches of France. They sold candy and home baking, collected paper and postage stamps, and took on many other war relief projects. Enormous quantities of both second-hand and new winter clothing and shoes collected by Guides during the war years made their way to England for civilian use.

Each Christmas Phyl’s company volunteered to sponsor one or two families, often soldier families. The Guides thought of everything the family might need for the festive season and went ahead, planning and organizing until all the little details were taken care of. They purchased a turkey from the butcher and bought vegetables and made plum pudding. The Guides also coordinated donations of special items for gift hampers and collected fruits, candies, nuts, and toys for the children. One Christmas the company sponsored a family whose mother was ill and away in hospital. The Guides cleaned and decorated the home, entertained the young children, and also cooked the family’s Christmas dinner.

One of the earliest locations for Guide camps was on Bowen Island, in Howe Sound just off West Vancouver. Fifty-six square kilometres in size, Bowen Island was just far enough away from urban Vancouver to remain rustic and undeveloped. The island was a perfect retreat for Girl Guides because it was not too far for them to travel, yet it felt isolated. By the early 1900s coastal steamer ships regularly plied the waters between Bowen and the mainland. The Guides walked on to the steamer as foot passengers. They carried all their supplies with them and sometimes were so loaded up it was amazing to witness. At the Bowen terminal they marched off the ship, along the pier, and up the single-lane dirt road that wound away from the water.

The Guide camps on the island began quite modestly. Initially only a handful of happy, enthusiastic, and untrained girls shifted for themselves. It was remarkably unstructured. For many of the Guides, Bowen Island was their first introduction to living in the outdoors and they didn’t know what to expect or what they might need to take with them. So each brought what she thought would be needed, and everyone shared food and tents. Luckily the weather was generally fair, and the food, although it lacked variety, kept them filled and happy. There was no cook, no nurse, no lifeguard, no formal organization at all – just girls who bravely ventured out on their own. In 1910, at fifteen years of age the oldest in her company, Phyl undertook responsibility for the girls on their first camping trip.

Eventually the Vancouver District Committee of the Girl Guides assumed organization of the camps and assigned each company a specific two weeks for their camping experience. In 1916 the Vancouver Province, in its regular Girl Guides column on the social page, reported on the arrangements for the camping season and listed the camp days assigned to each company. This year, the Province stated, “each girl would learn to row a boat.” As the organization of the camps became more sophisticated, the campers’ experiences changed from just rough-and-ready living to structured days and opportunities to learn new skills for badges.

The Burnaby Company, as Phyl learned, was very industrious and prepared everything from scratch. Amy Leigh told Phyl about how her Guides purchased second-hand canvas fabric to make their own tents. They drew paper template patterns for the roof, sides, ends, and door flaps, then placed them on the heavy canvas and cut the patterns into the fabric. It was difficult work that required sharp knives. They then tacked the canvas together with loose basting stitches and took these pieces to a local shoemaker, who double-stitched the pieces together and cut eyelets in the fabric for the ropes that, when anchored in the ground, would hold the tent sides taut and support it. The tents required uprights and a ridgepole for assembly, so at each site, the Guides cut down saplings to make these poles. “Doing it yourself” was to become a basic precept for Phyl in her mountaineering days. Camping equipment was too expensive and scarce to come by, so everyone just created home-made solutions.

The Guides packed all their food in with them, and each year they learned a little more about what quantities and varieties of foods worked best, were within a budget, and could withstand the time outdoors. One never could predict the weather. It could be cool, and therefore the milk might not curdle before camp ended, or it could be hot, without a breath of air, and meat would putrefy. Camping taught the girls to adapt to all aspects of living outdoors. Perishables such as butter, milk, and eggs they kept cool by placing them first in boxes, and then wedging the boxes safely in the stream by piling rocks around them. The meats, fruits, and vegetables they kept in larders – mosquito netted platforms – suspended in the air by ropes anchored over tree limbs, out of reach of animals and insects.

The Guides dug their own latrines in the forest soil, often making stick fences to create privacy; they also dug grease pits to receive grey water from cooking and washing. Over the grease pit they lashed stripped branches together to form a woven grid supporting freshly cut bracken fronds. As the grey water was poured onto the bracken, the ferns caught any errant spoons or solid pieces when the liquid passed through the fronds and down into the pit. The Guides then retrieved the spoons (important implements for their daily porridge) and buried the solid pieces to avoid attracting rodents.

At camp the girls divided into groups of six to a tent, and each group was responsible for the good order of their tent and campsite. The canvas tents did not have floors, so it was important that they be tightly pitched on a well-drained site in case of rain. The Guides dug trenches following the perimeter drip line to take away run-off rainwater from the sloping canvas roof. They created wash areas behind each tent by building camp furniture of sticks lashed together with twine. Rickety tables held enamel bowls for face-washing, teeth-brushing, or laundry. Pocket mirrors hung suspended from forked twigs, and towels flapped in the breeze from clotheslines stretched between trees.

Part of the fun for girls at Guide Camp was creating their own special home-away-from-home. Competition was fierce as the tents underwent daily inspection by the leaders, who gave marks for cleanliness and good order of the sleeping bags, clothing, and personal items in the tents. Guides swept the platforms or dirt floors of the tents, straightened guy-wires and tent posts, and rolled the tent flaps with precision.

Inevitably each Guide camp had its own special dynamics and events. One year the girls experienced an unwanted tension when a nearby farmer’s field became home to Boy Scouts camping for the week. Not only was mischief in the air, but the girls felt they had lost their privacy and freedom. Having Boy Scouts camped so close managed to spoil the spontaneity at Guide camp because there was always just, the chance that the boys might be watching.

Above all, Guide camps stressed real camping. Phyl bragged to some friends: “You know we don’t wear white shoes and fancy dresses, we live and work hard in the wilds. You can’t imagine how free it feels to sleep on a dirt floor under a canvas tent, warm and cosy, hearing the rain as it bounces off the canvas and slides down into the trenches. We stay warm and cosy because we know all about pitching tents and keeping dry. We are prepared as Guides should always be.”

Understanding the environment and learning wood-lore was an important part of Guide camp, but not all Guides felt as comfortable camping as Phyl and her friends did. Camp could also be a time for fears and for homesickness. Night was difficult for some girls who missed their homes and families and felt that the days until camp closure seemed to stretch on forever. At times girls consoled a weepy tent-mate, snuggling closer for companionship and security. One night, as a girl moved closer to her friend who had woken with a nightmare, she slid her arm beneath her friend’s pillow and to her surprise, she encountered a cold metal object. Curious, she asked, “What’s this?” only to be told, “It’s my revolver. Don’t touch it! It’s loaded and might go off. I’ve got it in case of bears. Mama said I should always keep the gun under my pillow for protection. Don’t tell Captain, please! She’ll think I’m a ninny for being scared.”

Guide camp was also a time to test oneself physically. Swimming was an important activity for the girls, many of whom did not regularly swim. In 1914 at the Bowen Island camp Phyl won her Swimming badge. She did this by swimming within a specified time a distance of over fifty metres wearing what was considered appropriate swimming garb of the day, a brown serge skirt with a huge hem down to her ankles. Manoeuvring in the water with such a heavy, clinging fabric around her legs was a challenge. The fact that the swim took place not in a warm island lake but in cold ocean water with a tidal pull made her accomplishment even more impressive.

At her first camp, Phyllis was already a leader both by virtue of her age and position as she moved from acting patrol leader to patrol leader. She later became an acting lieutenant and then lieutenant, and in 1915, a few months before her twenty-first birthday, she was granted a warrant certifying her as captain.

Beatrice James supported her daughters’ Guiding activities in many ways. She herself was not athletic, but Beatrice believed that Guiding offered both her daughters unique ways to prepare for life and to develop independence of spirit. She remained active for several years on the Ladies’ Committee for the Vancouver District. This committee supervised and encouraged the movement generally within the district, nominated suitable persons to act as captains, registered all companies and patrols at headquarters office in Toronto, and was responsible for granting of all badges and awards issued by headquarters. This committee also had the power to suspend officers or disqualify any company, patrol, or Guide in certain cases. In short, the Ladies’ Committee was the interface between local and national, and the regulatory overseeing body for the district. Later, as Phyl entered adulthood and undertook more administrative work with Guiding, Beatrice continued her support.