The Epic Adventures of Troop 82 the Napolean Dynamites: June 2017

We had planned to go to Horseshoe Lake, originally, which is right up by the border of Yellowstone Park. I had Chase call the Forest Service to see if we could even get up there at this point as there was so much snow this year. He called them and they told us not to come as it was a mud hole. We changed our plans to Horseshoe Canyon instead. Those who came were Chase, Kiowa, Gabren and Robert. Zach came up a little later after his sister's graduation from High School. The Leaders who came were myself and Andrew. Andrew also brought Heber and Henry. Some of the boys had to miss because of family events with graduation.

Me and Andrew first decided to meet at my storage to dump the wall tent and the insulated tarps. We have not been able to get in and out of the trailer very well. Both of us were a little late getting there as my dogs had escaped and it took me awhile to find them. Boy, if they get out they are a pain. We got the trailer a little more clean and then headed to the church and were there by 5:35. The boys were already there waiting for us. We threw in our gear, said a prayer and off we went.

We found a spot on the west side of the road that was nice and grassy with a creek and a lot of willows. We had been donated some new smaller tents so the first thing we did was set them up. Afterward the boys went and attacked ant hills. They would put their hand on one and see how long it would take before they got bit. Robert built a dam in the creek with a shovel. Gabren also thought it would be funny to sit on one ant hill. As they explored they found many many ant hills. Unbelievable how many there were. One time as they all had their hand in an ant hill, (they were also very jumpy when they were doing this) I pulled out my .44, hid behind a tree and shot it at the hillside behind them. They all jumped pretty high. By the way, we are not supposed to have guns on a scouting camp-out but we are also right in the middle of bear (both types) and mountain lion country. A guy was mauled last week in a different mountain range but none-the-less it could happen here.

I had a few minutes before we started cooking dinner so I worked through the trailer and started cleaning it up. I was successful in finding all kinds of food including chips, cookies, chili, graham crackers, marshmallows, granola bars, oatmeal, pancake mix, syrup, ketchup, mustard, tang, hot chocolate and a few other things. I think the Quartermasters owe me an ice-cream as I was successful in making a pathway through there.

Dinner was hotdogs and chili with cheese and sourcream. Most of them just made chili dogs. Later I decided to see if the popcorn was still good. Andrew had a cube of butter so I put some of it in a pan and poured in a bunch of kernels. I shook the pan after it got hot and lo and behold the popcorn popped really nice. It was really good too. I made a couple batches of it.

Going to bed was uneventful, except for the heaviest dew was laying down and covering everything. Things were soaked when we woke up and there was also some frost. Breakfast was pancakes and sausage. Not long after cleanup we packed up and left even though the tents were still soaked. We decided to just let them dry at home.

This was a very pleasant and relaxing camp-out with nice warm weather and sunny skies. We had plenty of time to relax and just explored. I video-d some of the kids and the ant-hills and will try to get everybody a copy of it.