Smoke Leads the Way: My Backyard Campout. Nov. 11-12

Open this picture up on a large monitor and you will see it.  The boys are sleeping in their bags around the fire.  The smoke originates from the fire that the boys are huddled around.  The boys are in a circle around the fire as if it is a life force of some kind.   I set my sleeping bag up in a recliner camp chair next to my house and I watch the smoke raising from the fire.  At first it is all spread out and blowing whichever way as campfire smoke does, but after a little while it condenses and forms a more solid smoke path.  I am also noticing that the big dipper is nice and bright.  After a little while the smoke is arching toward the top of the big dipper, and as most people know the top two stars in the dipper point to the North Star.  That is when I grabbed my camera and captured this.

Sometimes you sit there and in the weirdest times profound thoughts hit you.  The boys in a circle around the fire and the smoke originating from the center of them and trailing toward the North Star.  The North Star is a constant and a direction.  People have been using it since time began because it is reliable, firm, and always shows you the way.  The only time at night you cannot see the North Star is when clouds come in front of it.  In our lives there are a lot of times we let those clouds come in and block the path we are supposed to be on.  This night the stars were clear and the path was clear as was highly suggested by the smoke.  I took two things away from it:  The first, what a powerful reminder to me that God is watching over me and letting me know that I am on the right path with these boys. The second was that it is a reminder to stay on the right path and do my best to keep these boys on it.  When you see things like this you recommit and gain energy.  This is something I needed as I sometimes struggle with keeping everything together.

This was an impromptu campout as I had originally planned to be gone that weekend.  I had filled my elk tag sooner than expected though, and with Kaleb's urging and help we threw this together.  What a fine young man Kaleb is and I appreciate that he feels the need to keep things going.  In some sense, he has been a right hand man.  He was definitely put on and preserved on this earth at this time for a reason.  I hope he can find his calling in life and fulfill it the best he can.  He also just got his Eagle Project finished.  Congrats to Kaleb.


Another funny snapshot video of the boys around the campfire.  If I had enough memory on a card I would record the entire evening but that would take hours and tons of memory.  These snapshot videos are a nice way of catching the essence of what is going on.  Those present were Kaleb, Carson, Chase, Zach, Antonio and Kiowa.  The funny thing is they all showed up to my house on either a 4-wheeler or side by side and parked by my Wildcat.  I wish I would have taken a picture of that.  They also had a lot of fun with glow sticks and at one point wanted to ding dong ditch David K. but they didn't quite make it.  We roasted hot dogs and then in the morning we cooked breakfast on my stove.  Kind of cheated a little but hey it was thrown together at the last minute.  The frost was thick on our bags in the morning but nobody froze.  Another funny thing is Zach and Chase both showed up without a sleeping bag.  Lucky I had a couple.

Horseshoe Canyon Sept. 9 and 10

Andrew L. all bundled up in the morning.  I'm pretty sure I had that same sleeping bag in my outfitting days.  

This is the camp-out we were on before we helped Bridger with his Eagle project.  I'm really behind getting these camp-outs up on here.  We decided to go to Horseshoe Canyon to camp based on Zach's suggestion that we could go help his family go round up cows.  I really don't think they would like a bunch of scouts chasing the cows around but it is a good place to camp.  I got out some butterfly nets so the boys could capture some insects for their nature merit badge.  It turns out they used them to catch minnows in the creek instead.

Those who came were Zach, Carson, Kaleb, Tucker, Antonio, Chase, Kiowa, Beau, Josh, Andrew.  Aaron brought Alex as well.  We camped in the same spot that we had camped a couple years earlier when the 11 year old scouts had freaked each other out so bad that they started singing primary songs in the middle of the night.

The boys had a lot of fun catching minnows and chasing each other around.  We cooked hot dogs for dinner.  Everybody wanted to sleep out so we did.  Zach, Andrew and Josh decided to clear out the floor of the trailer and slept in that.  Carson, Kaleb and Antonio slept on the ground around the fire.  Tucker and Beau had their cots which, since I have known them, have always needed a crow bar to pry them together.  Those cots are tight.  Chase and Kiowa slept in the back of Aaron's pickup.  They also slept on a screwdriver all night which I am not sure how they didn't feel it.  Andrew L. slept on the ground off aways and I slept out in the meadow.  I had brought the cover off my Wildcat and wrapped it over me to keep the frost off.  Aaron slept on the ground on the other side of his truck.  About 11 o'clock Tom showed up to give Andrew some clothes but didn't stay.

I took a snapshot video (at least that is what I call it) of them all before they went to bed.  Its pretty funny.  I will post the link here.  You got to watch it as it is hilarious.  Carson is so cute in the end as well.

As usual, in the night I was awoken a couple times.   One was because some of the boys wanted to brawl with the boys in the trailer.  I guess they feel they are coming of age and need to prove something.  And the other time was because Beau threw up.  What is with all the throwing up lately?

Carson in yellow, then Kaleb and then Antonio on the ground.  Tucker on the right and Beau on the left in the cots.

After eating bacon, eggs and pancakes for breakfast we hustled and packed up and got down the mountain so we could help our good man Bridger with his Eagle Project.  You can read about that in an earlier post.   The next few photos are when we were hustling out of the mountains to get to Driggs.

My favorite picture of the day.  Tucker using my phone to take a picture of the Tetons.  In the meantime he captured himself and Kaleb also taking a picture.

Photobombed by a guy standing by the road.

I'm the driver

Not sure what I'm doing there.

"Mamacita ow ow!!"

Beau in his pj's

What a dirty windshield

Really Rainy October Campout Oct. 14-15

Kaleb, Dalton, Carson, Antonio, Zach, Tucker, Beau, Bowdy, Josh, Kiowa were present.   Me and Andrew L. met them all at the parking lot with the trailer and off we went.  We were a little crowded for space since Aaron had to be at a game for a little while and would come up later.

I was a little bit disappointed that the rain was coming down so much.  We had gotten an invitation from Vern Woolstenhulme to camp by his pond and fish in it.  He has a lot of nice fish in there.   The rain was coming down so much that nobody really tried to fish.

I had suggested we put up the tent before it got dark but I gave them the choice to play now and pay later or get it up and be safe.  As in typical boy fashion they chose the play now and pay later option and boy did they pay.  The rain was even worse when it was dark and they finally started getting on the tent.  It was difficult to set it up in the rain and the dark.  As we were in a pasture there was also some cow pies to avoid.  The tent was also broken in some spots and so we had to fix it in the dark.  Fortunately, Ryan Webster came up as we had been talking about doing board of reviews during the campout and helped us put up the tent.

A few of them fished but Tucker was the only one to catch one.  It was a really pretty Brook Trout and was in its spawning colors.  Dinner was bring our own cans of soup or whatever to cook on the fire.  Tucker cooked his fish and ate most of it which helped him complete his fishing merit badge.

We ended up tarping both of the tents as water was just pouring in.  I had set my little tent up on the bank of smaller pond and was out of the standing water and muck.  Andrew L. had put his tent back in some taller grasses and was safe as well.

We ate some dessert  provided by Ryan and went to bed.  At night I was awakened by coyotes howling and yapping right outside my tent.  I was also awakened by Kaleb when their tent collapsed on one side.  I groggily got up and came out and helped secure it.  Zach had gone home earlier as he was sick and sometime while I was helping Kaleb with the tent Bowdy left.

Breakfast was pancakes and then we packed everything up and went and helped with scouting for food.