Scout camp started at 7:00 am in the church parking lot on Monday morning July 17, 2017. We threw our gear in the scout trailer. We were told that we could only have one trailer and one vehicle up in camp at Little Lemhi so we decided to sort it all in the church parking lot and throw it into the trailer so we didn't have to sort it when we went to camp. We left the church around 7:30 and got to the camp a little after 8:00 a.m. Little Lemhi is located in Swan Valley not far below the Palisades Dam.
Those who came this year were, Dalton, Carson, Chase, Kiowa, Gabren, Josh, Zach and Robert. Andrew and I stayed up there the whole week and Aaron came up to help us get set up.
Our campsite was called Acoma and it was up a hill quite a ways. When looking at the map it was not quite the farthest one up and I was thankful for that as it was hard enough hiking up to this one 5 or 10 times a day. We were able to perch the trailer and Andrew's truck on the hillside and carry our stuff up the trail to the camp. We set up our tents and went off to see what we were supposed to do. Right off the bat, thunderheads piled up and dumped buckets of rain into our camp. Josh and Zach's tent flooded so bad they had puddles on their cots. The other boys faired a little better still getting wet but no puddles inside the tent. We got nothing in our good ole trusty wall tent that me and Andrew had set up. (Not only was it very roomy for the whole week there was plenty of room if any other leaders or dads decided to come up and spend the night.
I'm at the parking lot here. Facing the photo, to the right is the Snake River, south is the lake and way south on the left is the road that goes up to our camp site. We were toward the bottom as you will see on another screen shot further along in this blog. Its very hilly and was a long walk up to it.
As usual swim check is the first activity of any Boy Scout Camp and they all trooped on down to the lake after getting our camp sort of set up. They all did good. Most got swimmer and a couple got beginner. Opening Flag Ceremony was next and then after that we got the camp all the way set up. Unfortunately, I did not get any photos of the parade ground and flag ceremonies themselves. Not sure where my head was.
The lake from the parking lot. I'm facing south and am at the location in the GPS picture above
Swim check day 1
They started right in on merit badges after getting camp set up and lunch. They got signed up for things like archery, rifle shooting, leatherwork, basketry, woodcarving, nature and swimming type badges. It was a little frustrating for them at the waterfront because every time a hint of thunder was heard, they had to get out of the water for so many minutes. If there was lightning they had to get out for at least a half hour after the last lightning bolt was spotted. I don't think they accomplished as much as they wanted. It took them 3 days before they could even begin lifesaving merit badge as we had lots of sporadic clouds and thunderheads. I swear sometimes a car door would slam and somebody thought they heard thunder and so the poor boys would troop on out of the water.
The next series of photos are Josh, Carson, Zach and Kiowa trying to get the Lifesaving done. This is one of those times they had to get out due to thunder. They are way over on the far dock
Leaving without even getting wet. Zach in green, Josh in blue, Carson without a shirt and then Kiowa without a shirt
The first night was a flag ceremony and campfire program which was pretty good. One man sung "Tenting tonite on the old Campground" and it was very moving for all the boys. Dalton even said he wanted it sung at his funeral.
As the week progressed we, as a troop, struggled with meals and getting the food on time. We, as a troop, struggled with cooking the food and taking appropriate turns. We struggled with getting the bin back to the lodge. Everybody kept thinking that somebody else should do it and there was more bickering than we've had on any scout camp. Unfortunately, I had a little bit of a temper loss at them about it after a few days of bickering and passing the buck. We did manage to get it straightened out.
Just remember boys, that the food doesn't cook itself, the dishes don't clean themselves, the bins don't get where they should themselves and not always is the other person supposed to do it, and your moms are not there. A scout is helpful and cheerful. Many times those attributes of the Scout Law were not manifested during mealtimes. I think, however, the point got through their heads and the next time around things will go better.
Every day of the week there was an old scoutmaster putting on what he called "Scoutmaster University". Mostly he taught several ways how to build a fire under survival circumstances. Andrew went to his classes. I, for the most part, wandered back and forth up and down the camp just checking on boys and seeing how they were doing. I listened in on a few of the classes and it was quite interesting.
Andrew using a bow and drill at scoutmasters university. Got a little smoke going
Me wandering around all over the camp back and forth. The green pin is the parking lot and the red pin is our campsite
Zach and Robert at camp
The first three days were filled with getting merit badges, campfires, flag ceremonies with skits etc. The boys worked pretty hard and had a few merit badges by the end of Wednesday. Life saving was pretty much accomplished.
On the left sitting and waiting for instruction. Josh, Zach, Kiowa and Carson. This is finally Wednesday and they are able to get in the water. The next few series show them doing the merit badge. They are hard to see but if they look at this it will at least jog their memories.
In the shallow end currently
Gabren watching with me
Kiowa jumping in to start a very long series of laps
Zach's behind Kiowa in the green over by the ropes and now Carson is jumping in
And there goes Josh
Robert in the red and Gabren in the blue on the left of the dock
After doing a lot of laps they get out and have completed the lifesaving merit badge
Dalton in the white as Carson jumps in
a time lapse of them jumping in
When they were in camp and were bored they started throwing knives which is typically what boys do. The only problem is they kept throwing them at the bulletin board which was not their's to throw knives at. I ended up teaching them a game called stretch, where they could throw the knives all they wanted and not damage anything. The next several pictures show them playing the game. Basically, you have to stick a knife in the dirt from the foot to no more than 12 inches away from the foot. Wherever the knife stuck in the ground the opposing person had to place their foot in that spot. You then would take turns and the first person to do the splits lost. Nobody was hurt by the way.
Since they were throwing knives at the bulletin board I decided to teach them a game called stretch, where you throw the knife and stick it in the ground. The loser usually ends up doing the splits. Chase and Josh are currently trying it out. Robert is in the back and Zach is in the back right and you can see Dalton's shoe
Now you can see Dalton better.
I'm sure Josh is kinda screaming here
Fortunately, the game took their mind off the bulletin board and kept them from bickering.
We had some good campfire discussions.
We talked a lot about charity at our evening campfires. We talked about how it related to the Scout Law and the Savior. We talked about the Savior and how he would handle situations. We talked about Paul in the bible and the part where he says, (I'm just paraphrasing here) "when I was a child I acted like a child, I played like a child but when I became a man I put away childish things". This will be the last Scout Camp for a lot of these boys as they will be 14 by the time the next year rolls around and we wanted to impress upon them the importance of responsibility and growing up.
Chase trying to write his name with a flashlight while I do a long exposure
Success, even though its backwards
Tent Glow
silhouette
"Boy you have a panty on your head" I'll give somebody a prize who knows what movie that quote came from.
Yeah I guess I can see some muscles. Josh looks like a dude from the 80's
At camp, Josh, Robert and Zach
Flag Ceremony one morning. The boys are doing a cheer
Camp photo
The wash basin. At least we had running water
The fourth day at camp was Thursday which we had dedicated for a hike. We decided to hike to the upper and lower Palisades Lakes. None of us had been up there before except Kiowa (according to him it was a long long horse ride. I remember those days when I was a little kid when it seemed like forever on the back of a horse and you would never ever ever get there so I wasn't too worried). We started out early around 6:30 am. We had asked the commissary the day before at the lodge if they would give us some food for our hike and we told them we would be leaving at 6:30 am. We ended up waiting awhile that morning for our food and then it was not much other than bagels and bananas. They didn't really have anything for lunch they said. Fortunately, we had raided the scout trailer. The scout trailer was full of leftover goodies from the girls the week before who had gone to girls camp. There were granola bars and gatorade among many other things. We had filled our packs already with this stuff, so it wasn't that big a deal we didn't get any lunch from the camp itself. We made sure everybody had water and left for the trail head. Robert did not come with us as he had to leave the night before so he could go to some therapy this day.
Its fun having a GPS. This isn't everything it tracks but this is all I could get with one screen shot. It is pretty accurate as far as tracking the distance, time and elevation changes. This is going up
And this is going down. Notice it took longer getting down as we had to hunker under rocks for awhile while the lighting struck around us.
The red pin is the parking lot and the green is where I tagged us at the upper lake. You can see the lower lake where the trail takes a little jog.
Starting the hike to Upper and Lower Palisades Lakes. The time on the GPS said 7:23 am. We are heading mostly East
Josh, Chase, Zach, Andrew, Carson and Dalton
I'm signing the register here
Palisades creek was fast and rushing
One of the many bridges
We stopped for the first break. We are about 2 miles in. Zach, Gabren and Chase
Kiowa and Dalton
Dalton finds he has a friend riding along
Sorry friend but you got to go. This is the only tick we saw fortunately.
Kiowa
Dalton and Carson
Zach, Gabren, Chase and Josh
Andrew and Zach
Great scenery the whole way up. Unfortunately it was a different story on the way down
Zach, Andrew and Josh. At this point we are not too far from the lower lake. The lower lake is about 4 miles.
Now coming up to the Lower Lake. We have 2.7 miles to go to the upper. Shouldn't seem too hard right? Some of the boys really struggled with having to go beyond this sign.
Dalton, Zach, Gabren, Chase. We decide to eat a snack and take a 10 minute break. We are still at the entrance to the lower lake.
Gabren, Chase, Kiowa, Carson
Josh
The lower lake was a beautiful almost emerald green color. I would have liked to have stayed and try to fish it, but we just didn't have time if we wanted to see the upper lake and still get back in time for supper. The bishopric was planning on cooking us dinner so we had to be back in time to get them to camp and help them set up.
Now heading around the lower lake, on the northish side. Such an awesome color. My little point and shoot camera does not do it justice but I did not want to lug a big camera the whole day so this will have to do.
Josh, Gabren and Chase. Kiowa is behind me talking away about his last trip here and being on the back of a horse, then talking about hunting, then back to the last time he was here and then guns and back to hunting and so on. It was thoroughly enjoyable to talk about that stuff. I shared a few of my adventures as a kid as well. I sure like it when the boys want to tell me stuff. It must mean I'm not too bad of a leader.
This is a really cold and clear pool. There must be a spring coming out of it at the bottom there. Above us on the trail is another spring which turned out to be fortunate on the way back as I had run out of water, due to my life straw breaking.
Josh. We have now been past the lake by probably a mile. We are still heading east.
The bridge crossing the creek which veers to the south from the trail. I think its Chase and Zach just across the bridge and Andrew at the front of the bridge waiting for me and Josh. After crossing the bridge there is probably another mile left with mostly switchbacks. They were large and easy switchbacks and it wasn't difficult at all for a fat guy to get to the top and to the Upper Palisades Lake.
We are now at the Upper Lake and the water was a deeper blue than the lower lake, although this picture makes it look green. Again, a better camera would have pulled the color out but I would be quite a bit more tired lugging that weight.
Andrew heading down to the water's edge
I was sitting here taking my shoes off to let my socks air out. What a beautiful lake.
Andrew, Chase, Dalton, Kiowa
At this point I started fishing. I wish I would have taken a picture as you would see cutthroat trout cruising along the shoreline. I had brought with me a Tenkara Rod to save weight. If you don't know what that is, its a 13 foot long pole that telescopes down to about 12 inches. It is super light weight as it does not use a reel and has no guides. Essentially the string is tied to the tip and you flip it sort of like a fly rod. Your range is a little bit limited in a lake, but in a river they work really good. With the length of the pole, the line and the leader you can get the fly out about 30 feet max. Not very far, but just like leaving the big camera, it saved me a lot of weight.
I was the only one who brought a fishing pole and nobody wanted to stay very long but I fished for about a half hour, catching two or three. I cannot remember but they were really pretty cutthroats. The first one to hit my fly pulled the fly right off. The tenkara rod leader has kind of a dumb ring and its really hard to tie the leader on to the fly. If you pull too tight to tighten it, the friction makes the line really weak. You have to spit on it and pull it really slow to reduce the friction.
On the way up I noticed that one of my feet was starting to get sore. Like a dummy I had not chosen to put my nice hiking boots on instead just wearing the shoes I'd been wearing all around camp. I wear these shoes everywhere because they are comfortable. They are kind of a light weight hiking shoe but they do not have a tough sole, like my good hiking boots. Choosing comfort was a bad decision and when we stopped at the upper lake, I took my shoe off and noticed I was getting a blister. I rarely get blisters, let alone one as big as this. Walking around in New York City was the last time I had gotten blisters. That trip was only a year ago and I remembered that I had been wearing the same shoes. I guess it takes me two times to learn better. Years ago my right foot had gotten smashed while playing football on a beach in Spain. It is now a half inch longer than my left and I've always had to be careful about which shoes I buy. So it was a double whammy.
Going down turned out to be a lot harder on my feet and I got blisters on my heels, as well as behind my toes on both feet. You will see why after reading on a little bit.
This is on the way back. It was hot and dry and my water was gone. Fortunately, we remembered this spring coming right out of the mountain and so on the way back me and Josh filled our water bottles and drank up. It was incredibly cold and tasted super good at the time. When we got back to camp I drank some more of it and it tasted like clay. Funny how things taste really good when you are hungry and thirsty.
After hanging around at the upper lake a little while, some of the boys wanted to get started going back. I had not yet put away my fishing stuff so Andrew decided to take them and start down. Chase, Josh and Gabren wanted to hang around a little while, so I packed up my stuff while they threw rocks and goofed around. We then started down around a half hour later than the other group.
We moved down the switchbacks fairly quickly and then just before the bridge, we ran into another group of boys from a different Victor ward. I didn't recognize all of them but Stewart Marshall, local dentist, was with them with a horse and pack mule. There were some other men as well that I recognized but did not know their names. It was an older group of boys backpacking up to the lake for a high adventure outing. We stayed off the trail until they had all passed and then moved on.
This brings me to mistake number two. That morning I had put two small water bottles in my pack thinking I wouldn't need much more because of the life straw in my pack. I figured as we were following good sized streams and hanging around lakes that I could just sip as we went. Turns out my life straw had seized up. You could not suck any water through it. Both me and Chase tried at the lake with no success. I was a little worried as I now had no water. Once we got down the switchbacks and to the creek I decided to try the straw again. No luck, it was like trying to suck a giant boulder through the straw.
It was now hot, and we had been sweating not to mention we had traveled around 10 miles at this point. I was having a little bit of a hard time. Chase and Gabren had moved off up the trail and only Josh remained back with me. We were both thirsty. Then I remembered the spring not too far from the lower lake and we high-tailed it down. We got to the spring and filled our empty water bottles. It was really tricky as only a bare trickle was coming out and it was hard to fill the bottle without getting a lot of dirt in. It was really cold and fresh as it was coming right out of the mountain from some cracks in the rock. (note that it is only safe to drink from a spring if it is coming right out of the ground. Most mountain streams are potentially contaminated with giardia downstream of the source so if you got to get water from a spring, find where it comes out of the ground). The cold really perked us up and gave us energy. We kept talking about how we had never tasted water so good. I drank and drank and when I was full made sure my water bottles were filled to the brim. Josh filled his. When we caught up to Gabren and Chase we gave them some, but they commented that it tasted nasty. I was surprised as it sure tasted good to me. Later, I would disagree that it tasted good though.
By the time we caught up to Chase and Gabren we were just about at the top end of the lower lake. By the time we got around the lake and were just starting down the trail, thunderheads started looming. Before long there was a sprinkle. We kept walking hoping that it would not do more than that. Suddenly, lightning cracked right over our heads and a down pour began. I told everybody to get on their raincoats. Chase (I think) did not have a rain coat and so we poked a hole in a garbage sack and stuck his head through it. Before long the trail was just puddles and we were splashing up to our ankles as the water had no opportunities to leave the trail. Since it is a high traffic trail, it is beat down and deep which made perfect reservoirs for the water. Josh had new shoes and so was trying to not get them muddy, while the other two were just splashing through all the puddles. They were a muddy mess. For the most part I walked up on the sides trying to keep my feet from swimming, but I could tell the blisters were doing a lot worse. My feet were becoming downright sore until they hurt really bad.
Maybe a mile after it started raining we started getting into a lot of lightning. It was hitting a little higher than us, but still way too close for comfort. I did not want to stop under a tree or any other potential dangerous spot. We finally came to some rock walls overhanging the trail. I told everybody to stop and we'd wait next to the cliff walls until the worst of the lightning went away. At this point it was hitting above us not very far. You could see the reflections on the canyon wall opposite. Josh was about 50 yards down from me under another wall and every time lightning would flash his yellow rain coat would light up like a light bulb. One time a guy on a horse was moving down the trail really fast and just as he got to Josh, Josh's rain coat lit up and spooked the horse. It took a big jump and made the guy cuss a little. You could not see Josh until the lightning lit him up, that's how dark it was. We didn't get quite as wet under these small cliffs.
We finally got down to the trailhead where the other guys had been waiting for 45 minutes. They did the usual call us names thing for being slow and then we piled in the trucks and went back to Little Lemhi. They had moved down the trail faster because they did not have to stop and hide under rocks. Some of them didn't have raincoats and so they took off their shirts and just ran down shirtless in the rain. I'm glad we had the trash bag because the opportunity for hypothermia was much less than for those who went down without a shirt on in the cold rain.
After getting back to camp my feet really hurt and it was all I could do to help the Bishopric get set up to cook us dinner. I then just sat in a chair the whole time dinner was being made. Bishop, Steve, Scott and Brent were there. Ben had come up the day before to visit us as he could not be here this night. I'm sure thankful they came up to cook as my feet were toast. They made us a good dinner. If I remember right it was fajitas.
Friday which was the day of contests and events. Kiowa, Zach and Dalton waiting at the waterfront.
Watching the Iron Man competition for scoutmasters. They had to swim, run and canoe I think. Kind of like a triathlon event.
Starting now to assemble the 3 man teams for the Battle of Little Lemhi Lake
Friday, the last day, was the day of events and competitions. The boys weren't interested in competing in very many of them except for the battle of Little Lemhi Lake, where you try to swamp each other's canoes. Three boys from each troop are allowed in a canoe and they have to splash water with their hands until they sink another canoe. There were 5 or 6 canoes packed in tight against the dock, and held by the staff so they could not go anywhere. If they stopped splashing the staff would sink the canoe. At least at Treasure Mountain you have some mobility and can use buckets and shields. Here it was just splashing with your hands. The three canoes in the middle kind of got the short end of the stick as there were boys splashing from all sides. The canoes on the end only had one canoe splashing them on one side. Chase, Kiowa and Gabren chose to represent our troop.
Andrew, Robert, Dalton, Josh and Zach
Almost lined up
Splashing away
It was hard to get closeups from way up by the lodge but I got a few. Here's Chase in the middle.
Kiowa
Gabren in the back
Sinking the first canoe.
For some reason the staff think they have to sink our canoe
and its now sunk and they are in the water
Chase's head
Kiowa starting to head back
Kiowa Chase and Gabren
Hauling out their canoe
Drying off
Another round starts
Hauling up the bin for dinner. For every meal somebody had to go down and haul up the bin with the food in. It was quite a daunting task since everywhere you walked here was hills.
I'm walking up ahead of the boys trying to show you how much hill they had to climb. It was almost a half mile to our camp from the lodge
Looking up, you can see a boy standing by one of the nasty outhouses. We still have a ways to go.
I'm now past the nasty outhouse and looking up the hill. Not much further and you will see where our trailer is parked.
Now you can see the trailer
This is me turning around from the last photo. Come on boys almost there. Once we got to the trailer then we still had to climb a small hill to the camp. Somewhere I bet I have elevation gained on a GPS and will look it up.
Now back at camp. Resting. You can see the bin only made it to the fire pit.
Andrew, Zach and Josh start cooking while the boys rest.
I'm sitting here wondering why Kiowa needs such a pile of sunscreen.
and now I know. Apparently they missed having the flour fight from last year and decided to use sunscreen this year.
Kiowa runs off laughing while Gabren spits out sunscreen.
Gabren trying to wash it off
In the meantime, somebody (probably Chase) must have gotten Kiowa for Gabren as his back is all smeared. Now Kiowa is laying one on Chase
Chase and Kiowa walking away enjoying their new prizes.
Robert and Dalton have yet to become targets. Meanwhile they are plotting against Zach
And they got him. No sunburns for weeks. Dalton looks worried
After Gabren again
Kiowa leaves as the other victims are ganging up on him
I wonder how many times we have seen Zach with a white face??? 3 maybe? This one, flour from 2016 and paint from building the canoes at least
Zach making a puddle. Chase on the left and Robert on the right.
The last day at camp Kiowa finds an old shoe. Wonder how long its been growing moss.
These videos are basically the photos I took with some dialogue right before snapping the photo. I like doing this because the videos are not overly long but you get a sense of what is going on. You can hear some things said just before snapping the photo.
