A View From the Camp 2007

WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

What a great summer camp we had this year, we had 12 scouts and 7/8 adults (John Paul turned 18 while we were at camp so he gets partial adult status). There were a total of 42 merit badges completed, 4 scouts completed the mile swim and one completed BSA Kayaking. On Wednesday night 7 scouts and 1 adult were tapped out for induction into the Order of the Arrow, so if you see them with a block of ceder (hopefully it will be turned into an arrow) around their neck, congratulate them for upholding the values of scouting that got them voted into this special organization. Now that we have taken care of the boring stuff let me tell you all about the fun stuff we did all week long.

SUNDAY

Sunday was a day of getting settled in for a busy week of activities, after arriving at camp we hurriedly setup our tents, went through a medical recheck and rushed to the pool to take our swimming test and that was just the first two hours. Oh i forgot to mention that we forgot to get Stephens medical form from his mother before we left, she was going to fax it but we couldn't get that to work so Dr. McPherson (always prepared) got to do a quick physical and saved the day. Rule #1 always take a Doctor to camp with you, he also took care of a fever blister, stomach ache, ear ache, leg cramp and put in a couple of stitches (I'll explain that one later) I guess it was a working vacation for him. After supper Sunday night we had our opening campfire which is conducted by the Camp Staff, it is filled with songs, skits and and introduction of the camp staff. We gave plenty of support to three of our own Brandon Hargrave, Jason Rasberry and Zak Vavak who did an outstanding job all week working with the boys. I hope that we can get more boys involved working on Staff in the future, it is really exciting to see them there.

MONDAY

I arose early Monday morning to get the coffee started only to find someone had beat me to it (thanks Jody) and to my surprise I didn't have to make coffee all week long. Monday was the hottest day of the week and we thought we were going to be in for a scorcher however to our surprise a cool front came through that evening and the rest of the week was the best I have had in the last 6 years (no rain). It was in the 60's at night and upper 80's and low 90's during the day, sleeping in the tents was more than bearable with only the sounds of the woods and a few boys to rock you to sleep. Breakfast starts with a flag ceremony each morning and then merit badge training most of the day, with a free swim after lunch, each evening is a different camp wide program and this years was probably one of the best since nothing was rained out and everyone found something to do. Monday evening had an open climb on the tower for the boys, a scout skills test for first year boys and the adults were treated to shotgun shooting at the range. Several of the boys climbed the tower and I have pictures to prove it, Shelia, Jody, Tim and myself went down to shoot a few skeet they told me I hit 12 out of 12 but I wasn't counting.

TUESDAY

Tuesday morning our boys had volunteered to do the opening flag ceremony (but they didn't know it). Anyway we got them up a little early and headed for the flag pole to practice before the whole camp would be there at 7:50 AM and they did a great job for such short notice. The day was more of the same, kids coming and going through camp, we would chase them off to their next merit badge class and occasionally one of the adults would drop by to make sure everything was going OK and all the work was getting done. Tuesday afternoon we had a chance to go to the range and shoot .22 rifles, it was mostly adults most of the scouts found other things to do, except for Travis he made it over to shoot with Tim, Shelia, Jody, JP and myself. I think Tim probably has the best eye but those might have been binocular glasses he was wearing. He even tried shooting left handed and with a little practice I think he could do it. The evening activity was a water carnival with fun and games around the pool, even with the great swimmers we have in the troop we couldn't seem to master these strange games they wanted us to play, but all had fun trying their best, its not all about winning anyway. I don't remember who participated in each event but everyone got to do something, they had competition for swimmer as well a non-swimmers. Just ask the boys if they did the zig-zag race, cannonball toss or the newspaper relay, I do remember we did quit well in the alligator relay and I refuse to talk about the Scoutmaster Overboard competition, but I'm sure the boys can fill you in.

WEDNESDAY

Everyone is up early on Wednesday, we must be up and dressed in our Class A uniform by 7 AM to conduct the OA elections. Scouts who have completed the requirements of 1st class and have at least 15 nights of camping are eligible to be voted on by the troop to join the Order of the Arrow. Scouts receiving enough votes would be selected (tapped out) at the ceremony that night. This is done by secret ballot and the boys do not know until they are tapped out if they were voted in, we had 7 boys and all were voted into the Order. Wednesday is also parents night where the parents can come and bring their son his favorite meal, get a tour of the camp and attend a family campfire and the OA ceremony. I hope all the parents that were able to come had a great time visiting and enjoyed the campfire, we had the Troop 272 choir sing and if you missed our rendition of BUG JUICE, well it's hard to describe you just had to be there. As I said earlier we had 7 scouts and 1 adult tapped out at the OA Ceremony so as soon as we got back to camp we had to pack them up and send them off to the lake to sleep under the stars, which is the first requirement they must do to join OA. I do believe that the lake is probably the worst place to sleep out under the stars, because even with a tarp to use to keep them dry they still came back with wet sleeping bags, maybe we need a training class on how to wrap a tarp around you and your sleeping bag.

THURSDAY

This is sleep in morning when we don't have to be up early, we have a quick start breakfast in camp. However I still had to get up early because it was the day the boys taking climbing Merit Badge had to go to S-F Scout Ranch to do their repelling off of the real rock cliffs instead of the little climbing wall, they would also get to swim at Huck's Cove, which has a water slide, zip line and several rope swings. So I was up around 6:30 AM which was about the time the new OA members were returning from their overnight at the lake. I was told the rest of the day went fine without me since we didn't get back from the ranch until 4:30 PM. Thursday night is the overnight trip to the top of Mount Logan and the younger boys go to the lake for a campfire with games and snacks. Since you have to send an adult with the scouts to these events I was thrilled when Paul T, Tim, John Paul and Jody said they would be more than Happy to go. Since Jody's son Allen was a 1st year camper she was more than happy to take him and Joshua on the lake trip. We packed them off with their sleeping bags for a night under the stars, however after a couple hours of fun the overnight portion had to be cut short because most every one's things were already wet from dew. Our boys had covered their sleeping bags with their tarps so they were not wet but it's no fun sleeping at the lake by yourself so they made the trek back to camp. The trip up Mount Logan was also an adventure, especially for Dr. Tim. We were sitting in camp about an hour after they had left to go up the mountain when a Camp Counselor came up and ask us where Dr. McPherson was, I explained that he had made the trip up Logan. He them told us that someone had cut their finger on Mount Logan and they were bringing him back down because they thought he needed stitches. I assured him that Dr. McPherson surely knew about it already and I figured he would come back down if needed. Indeed Tim was on his way back down and the counselor that came to camp was supposed to be getting his medical bag to take back to the first aid station so they would have it when they got down. After all of that another counselor came and got the bag and Tim was able to put the stitches in so a trip to the hospital was avoided. The only other problem was that now Tim was at the bottom of the mountain and Paul T had the scouts at the top of the mountain. Needless to say there is only one way to the top and that is to hike, so Tim had to make another trip to the top all in one evening. He said they made it back up in 20 minutes since there was only 2 of them, still 2 trips to the top and he slept out on the ground 2 nights in a row, my hats off to him. I almost forgot there was also an extra free swim that night for anyone that didn't do one of the other activities.

FRIDAY

Thank goodness for Friday my fingers are getting tired from all this typing, I should have taken better notes. The boys all made it down from the mountain early and I think that JP got some great pictures of the sunrise. Friday was spent making sure that everyone had completed all of the merit badge requirements and getting ready for the closing campfire that night. Paul T had to leave shortly after they came down from the mountain to do some work. I was shocked at how many trips he made back and forth to take care of work. He would get up and leave most mornings before breakfast and be back in the afternoon to do his 5 mile run and participate in the evening activities. I don't think Jerry Paul ever worked that hard when I worked at Baker Implement about 20 years ago. Friday afternoon they have a competition for the best shot on the range shooting 22 rifles (The Silver Bullet) and Bows (The Golden Arrow). You are allowed one adult and one scout to do each, so Tim and Bryce gave it there best shot at the Silver Bullet, there must have been some tough competition and they came up a little bit short of winning. I had signed myself up for the Golden Arrow competition and Bryce came to give it a try since everyone else was busy. Bryce gave it a good try but not ever having shot that type of Bow before he still needs a little practice, maybe I should give him some pointers, not wanting to brag but I did score 50 out of a possible 54 which was high score not only the week but for the whole summer. Well maybe i did brag a little bit but it's my story. Closing campfire was again put on by the camp counselors and was excellent, we closed out with a song and got to shake hands with all the counselors and thank them for a great week. We made our way back to camp and it was even cool enough that we were able to build a campfire and set up till midnight talking and winding down from a week that we all enjoyed immensely.

SATURDAY

Not a lot to say here except getup, pack up, cleanup and get the show on the road. Everyone was ready to get home and back to civilization. I would like to thank the Seats for providing transportation to and from camp and also the Trouts for coming up Saturday morning and pulling the trailer home for us. I hope that everyone enjoyed it as much as I did and if anyone says he didn't just read this and ask him "Where were you at?"