Swimming and Camping at Green Canyon

Feb. 17-18, 2017

Those present were Carson, Antonio, Chase, Dalton, Kiowa, Zach, Gabren, Josh, Kaleb and a friend Gavin.  Leaders, were myself, Aaron and Andrew.  We left on Friday night at 5:00 and quickly set up the tents at our designated spot that I had reserved earlier.  We had decided previously to either eat before, or get something at the snack bar there as there would not be a lot of time to swim if we took the time to cook.  The pool opened up at 6:00pm and would close at 9:00pm.  They would not let us set up camp earlier than 6:00 so we didn't want to waste any time.  We were actually able to get everything up by 6:45 and go swimming.  Everybody had a good time and basically we just let them do what they wanted.  Dalton was able to pass off his swimming merit badge and Josh finished the swimming stuff for the First Class rank.  The campground had rules so we had to be quiet at 10:00.  We had to hush them a few times, but for the most part the boys did fine even though they did not go to sleep as usual.  We had oatmeal for breakfast to make it simple to cleanup as we needed to get on the road soon.  

By helping Dalton with his swimming merit badge Andrew was able to finish his last goal or "ticket" to complete his Wood Badge training and to receive his beads.  Congratulations to Andrew.  The Wood Badge training has been a great thing for this troop.

Scout Camp Day 5: Its Hot and We are Tired

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.

Day 3: Norming and Bonding

Day 3 was Wednesday.  We woke up bright and early, had breakfast and did the flag ceremony.  We had a very nice flag ceremony and had a good discussion about a painting by Norman Rockwell.  I can't remember the name of the painting but it showed an Eagle Scout saluting.  He was the model for what scouts were supposed to be like back in the 40's.  The discussion led on to talking about what older scout in each of the boys' life had the most influence on them and best exemplified what a boy scout was supposed to be.  Kelton Kearsley left on his mission a week ago (thats how far behind I am in writing this).  I believe it was Carson or Chase who pointed to Kaleb and said, " Your brother is the best scout I've ever seen".  Now that we had a person whom all the boys knew and could relate to, the realization hit them and the seed was planted in their minds how they should be.  I would echo that Kelton is a dang fine scout as well as many others in our ward and the valley.  If everybody chose to live the Scout Law and Oath, I don't think we would have the problems we have today.  I think when they swear in a President of the United States, they should have to swear to live by the Scout Oath and Law.

The day progressed on and we worked on our merit badges. We played in the water on the boats and the tubes.  Some of the boys were braver and were able to handle the tube, but mostly because I slowed it way down.  We were sitting out there in the water just talking and it was dang hot.  I started bantering the boys to jump in, because they were getting a little smelly.  Fortunately, most of them did.  I finally decided to jump in and like a dummy forgot to take off my super expensive sunglasses.  I hit the water, (and it does this to me every time), and felt all the wind leave my body from the cold.  Its like my lungs turn into a plastic bag with a vacuum sucking them inside out.  I'm not sure why it does that but I think its stupid.  And then I look like a gulping guppy with a broken back stuttering how cold it is.  The good thing to this story is that despite all my thrashing, the sunglasses stayed on my face.  I lumbered onto the back of the boat and flopped like a turtle on its back for a minute or so.  Dang, I'm getting old.  At least I was cooled down and felt a heck of a lot cleaner.

At some point, me and Aaron were in the same boat with a bunch of boys.  I think we were filling up the water jugs at the Calamity entrance and were headed back to camp.  We saw a couple of huge planes swooping down and skimming off the surface of the water.  We determined they were planes gathering water for the fire that had recently started in Bondurant.   One would come in first and swoop down and skim on the surface for quite aways and then the second one would swoop down right after it.  They would then lift off and fly into the distance.  About a half hour later they would return again.  We decided to bust over to where they were scooping water so we could get a closer look.  I drove the boat up around the corner of the lake from our camp and we found a good spot to wait.  Pretty soon they came again and I videoed it with my phone.  I think the boys thought it was cool.

That night after dinner we had skits and a campfire.  It was a lot of fun and the boys came up with some super funny things.  We played the game called Zulu toss, which is where you have a circle of between 5 and 6 boys.  They have to toss the balls to another boy while I kept feeding them more balls into the circle.  They had to see how many balls we could keep going in the air without dropping them.  We had two groups and I think each of them got up to 5 balls in the air at once.  It was pretty funny.

Bedtime came and Andrew tried to play Taps but alas his lips were done for.  I went to my bed thankful for the time I got to spend with these young men.  The boys are coming together better as a troop hence the title. It certainly makes one closer to God while doing a trip like this.

Sunrise on the lake

Kiowa and Carson having an early morning staring contest.

Sleepy heads

Looks peaceful.  I had gotten up before everybody else to take these photos.

Might be a buck

More sunrise

Andrew enjoys the quiet stillness before the day starts.

The Pelican track is almost as big as my hand.  Is this a wolf track?  At first I thought not but as the week wore on I kept seeing new tracks.  We had not seen any stray dogs around.  The animal is awfully heavy as you can tell by how deep the track is compared to the pelican track.  Later when I saw these tracks on top of a boys footprint I decided that yes this is a wolf track.  If it was a dog, I think the dumb thing would have showed itself.

There's a bald eagle clear up in the dead tree on the left.

This morning Kaleb came back from a doctor's appointment and brought some aloe vera.  The boys were very grateful and immediately started applying it.  I think they learned a really valuable lesson about sunscreen.  The next day when Kaleb woke up he had huge blisters on his shoulders the size of an apricot.  Most of the boys got super red and burned but I think Kaleb wins the trophy for the biggest blisters.

Sorry to use you as a kleenex Kiowa

Does Kiowa know there's a huge slimy thing on his neck?

Zulu toss younger boys.  Brad came up this day to stay the rest of the week.

Zulu toss older boys

Getting ready for the skits and campfire

The motorcycle gang skit where they keep beating up the same guy

planning on how they are going to make fun of the leaders

Waiting for the next skit

The invisible bench skit.  They also did the Peanut skit which I don't think I got a photo of.  The poor kid who was the volunteer.  I think it was Tucker but I am not sure.  I wish I had taken a photo of every skit but I did not.