I must admit that I did not have a lot of ambition to accomplish much on Friday, the day before going home. It seemed like everybody was in the same mood. We didn't play as hard or work as hard on merit badges.
Friday just felt like it should be a nice lazy day. Mostly I just observed the boys and asked if they needed help on anything they wanted to work on. I felt like it would be good to just give them the day and let them decide how to do it. I have the feeling that the other leaders felt the same way. Some of the boys did a little work on merit badges but mostly it was kind of a quiet enjoyment of the area, as I think everybody was realizing it was the last day and that they had to go home tomorrow. Rather than running or boating, the boys were walking and talking. All week most of them did not touch their kayaks but actually a few of them got in and paddled around slowly. I did not take very many photos, unfortunately. I took a nap up in the trees about mid day and felt kind of guilty and selfish that I disappeared, but I got over it. It was probably 10 degrees cooler in the trees than down on the beach.
The activity of the boys was also slower as there were more people on the water, it being a Friday. Their attention was quite drawn away whenever a boat came by with a girl water skier. And if that boat stayed in the area there would be no luck even talking to them.
I am proud of the three boys who stuck through the Environmental Science merit badge. One criticism I have of regular scout camps is that I feel like some of the harder merit badges are signed off way to easy. Environmental Science is one of those merit badges which seem to be almost given away and that is the reason I signed up to be a merit badge counselor. It is a hard merit badge and even though I felt like I was being really lenient it was still hard on them. But they did learn something.
I am also proud of all the other boys that got merit badges. I think they all got at least one and some of them 3 or 4. Its definitely a lot harder to get merit badges doing it this way and so I think next year we should go back to Treasure Mountain. We may want to even consider Island Park Scout Camp.
 |
| Paddling in the kayaks. Tucker helping the little boys. I can't tell who are all out there but Heber is to the right of Tucker and Quinn is in the bright green kayak. I'm sure Alex is one of them and it might be Andrew or Kiowa out there. |
 |
| Andrew L. helping Tucker get out |
 |
| Such a nice lazy day with blue skies and fluffy clouds. |
 |
| Heber and Alex playing on the dock. One of the highlights was catching the minnows that found their way inside the docks. |
 |
| Tucker |
 |
| Looking down the shoreline. Our flags are in sight. |
 |
| Holding down the canopy. We did not want to have another episode of that thing uprooting again. The wind started whipping hard and you could really feel the canopy starting to lift up, even with us heavy weights on there. |
 |
| Brad, Andrew, Mike, Me and Aaron on the canopy. Josh, Andrew S. Carson and Quinn are the boys in view |
 |
| Aaron takes them out one more time |
 |
| This is where I took a nap. The grass was so lush and the shade so nice. What a view. |
 |
| Nap place without my foot in there. |
 |
| Still seeing wolf tracks |
 |
| Notice that this one is on top of some of the boys' older footprints |
 |
| I wouldn't say its a large wolf but again you can tell its a heavy animal. I've seen tracks much bigger than that and I knew they were wolves. But if it was a dog I am sure we would have seen it. |
 |
| Some more boys out in the kayaks. I am unable to tell who they are. |
 |
| I started taking a walk around the shore to an area that looked like a Spring. When I got over there the water was kind of warmish. I have heard there are hot springs in the lake and this could possibly be one. You actually cannot see it in this picture as it is behind me. |
 |
| I should have taken a photo of all the moose, elk and deer tracks over by this spring. And I should have taken a picture of the spring as it was kind of unique but instead you get a view of our camp from the spring. |
After I got back from my walk around the lake we packed up and did clean up. We spent the afternoon getting gear together and putting things away. We loaded things into the boat and took a couple trips to the dock and loaded those things into the trailer. Things such as the canopy, stoves, coolers, and anything that we didn't need for breakfast the next day was taken and packed into the trailer. All that was left was just personal stuff. I should have taken a photo of how the camp looked after having only a few tents and no canopy and cooking areas. It started to feel lonely and sad. I wonder if the land is sad now that there are no longer going to be boys and their laughter. I feel that the earth is a living being of some type that was made to take care of man to allow him to fulfill his purpose on this earth. As we learned in Environmental Science we need to take care of this earth. I do not subscribe to the idea that man needs to stay out of wilderness and not cut down trees and not hunt and not use the land. We just have to use the land wisely as God intended. Use it, enjoy it and not take more than is necessary. We learn this as Boy Scouts.
 |
| Back in camp as evening is falling. We had a gorgeous sunset which was satisfying. |
 |
| Getting dark and we say goodbye to this view. |
 |
| A close up of the clouds when the sunset hit them heavy. |
At the campfire that evening we had a good discussion on diversity. This fulfilled part of one of my Woodbadge goals and one of Andrew L.'s goals as well. Andrew led the discussion and never a finer discussion was had around a campfire. We talked about each other's talents and how each contributed to make us a stronger group. We complimented each other and thanked each other. We went home a stronger and more cohesive unit than we had been when we came. After prayer we went to bed thanking the Lord for all his blessings and being grateful for the experience we had had this week.
