As expected, the format of scout camp and how is was organized brought a lot bak to me from when I attended scout camp as a boy at Camper Gerber: Most of the boys' morning and afternoon schedules were filled with merit badges, anything from swimming to climbing to leatherwork to swimming. We met with the rest of the troops 3 times a day for meals and flag ceremonies. And I was pleased to see that this camp had a well functioning trading post, being a regular stop for boys needing to buy camp supplies, merit badge materials, and of course… treats!
We stayed at the Cumorah campsite, which was big enough to house two other groups besides our own. The best thing about the site was that it was really close to the lodge where we went for flags and meals multiple times every day.
Most of the days during the morning and afternoon classes I spent either shadowing boys to make sure they knew where to go and that everything was going smoothly, or I went exploring around the camp to learn its layout and hiking on trails around and north of the lake.
Having heard of some hiking trails around and past Lake Sterling, the main camp serving our waterfront, I set out to explore a little to scout out a possible troop hiking excursion for later in the week. My first hiking adventure on Tuesday led me west from camp around the lake first to a dam. Already I was greeted to a beautiful view of the lake with its surrounding granite rocks and pine trees. I followed a trail to continue about half way around the lake to a remote campsite with well formed fire pit and sitting logs. Instantly I knew where I wanted to bring our boys for an evening hike and off-site campfire.
Because of the threat of rain on Monday night, the camp-wide campfire was moved to Tuesday night. The staff put on skits and we sang some songs. Although I don't have many concrete memories of my scout camps as a boy, it did bring back feelings I remember having while attending campfires at those camps so long ago.
The next day I was curious about a "13 lakes" trail loop I'd heard about and saw markings for during my hike the day before. Designated with blue and red markers for each side of the loop, I followed the blue ones up the east side. I was eventually treated to a series of small glacier lakes interweaved in different ways with rock formations and forests. At this point the trail markers became harder to follow, and several times found myself a little lost as I searched the myriad of small paths for the next marker. Despite my wanderings, I was still impressed with how much the paths were marked up and thoroughly enjoyed the variety in terrain and views as I followed the orange path and then the red path on the west side to complete the hiking loop. I was out on the trail from 9:30 am to just before 12:30, where I arrived barely in time to grab and eat lunch before meeting to help out with the climbing merit badge.
Wanting to change things up a bit half-way through the week, after dinner we prepared for a hike to the campsite I had found the day earlier on the other side of the lake. It was important to me that all of the boys participate and we have a unique troop activity to help us bond together. And that surely happened in an unintended way. Everything started off great, all of the boys seemed very willing and even excited to go on a hike. Before we reached the dam, we passed a ridge area between two valleys and the boys were quick to climb on the rock formations close to the edge. It was an even better view of the valley than I had seen before, and was pleased the boys were already excited about where we were hiking and what they could see. In fact, to test their limits, they even wanter to tighttrop a pipe leading out away from the dam.
Finally we got to a shoreline that we followed past a small campsite until we got the bigger campsite that was our destination. Everyone seemed very impressed a site like that was along the trail and pleased to use it for a troop campfire. Jerry made the fire while some boys skipped rocks at the beach and others explored up a steep hill, finding shotgun and rifle shells and broken clay pigeons. We had s'mores and oreos around the campfire while Jeff shared a spiritual message about citizenship and Captain Moroni.
Then the real adventure started. We cleaned up from the campfire and armed with our flashlights, we started on our way back to camp the same way we had come. I was designated to lead the group as I was the only one who had been out on this trail before. However, for some reason, I hadn't anticipated before how difficult it was going to be to find the trail back in the dark. After some milling around for several minutes, it became obvious that no one knew where the trail was. Some of the boys started getting upset that we were lost. Jacob took it especially hard, as he characteristically is less able to adapt well when unexpected problems come up. I think I was more embarrassed than worried, knowing that the others had been counting on me to guide them back. While it must have seemed to the boys that we were hopelessly lost in the dark, as adults we were knew that at worst we just had to follow the lake shore back to the dam over rocks and hills where no path had been cleared for walking. Having a better sense of direction than me, Jerry took the lead as we stayed as close to the shoreline as we possibly could, stepping gingerly across lakeside rocks and up hills through bushes and trees. Quickly a new mood came over the boys and the whole group in general. Everyone seemed to come together more to help each other out as we became focused together to find a way back to camp. Trevor and Abram often held back branches to help keep others moving along. Once the dam finally came into site, all of the boys ran towards it eager to see a familiar place that guaranteed we could find our way back. While losing the path back home was an unintended kink to our plans, it was amazing to see how much more memorable it made the outing. It was interesting when returning to camp to find out that a search party had almost been sent for another of scouts that had been hiking on the mossy pond trails relatively close to where we were just a little earlier in the evening.
Thursday night was another camp-wide campfire, this time the troops were to put on skits, followed by some music sing-a-longs led by Bro. Abbott, and then a fireside message by Bro. Gillespie, the stake president of the Fairfield Stake. Only two troops were prepared to do skits, including ours (most troops did skits on Friday night before the testimony meeting. Levi, Kyle, Jacob, Jerry, and I did a skit called "The Fortune Teller". Levi had the main part as the fortune teller, where he would ask a few boys to come up, smell their shoes, and then predict that scoutmasters would come by and give them money. The punchline was when he asked the "Commish" to come up, told him to take off his shoe, smelled it, threw it off to the side a ways, and then "predicted" that the Commish would have a long walk. The Commish then through a curve ball when he told Levi that he predicted Levi would have an even longer walk, and had him fetch his shoe instead. The audience responded well to the skit and I was proud of the boys for pulling something together. After Pres. Gillispie's words, he led anyone interested out on a star gazing trip, just a short walk up to Falcon's Crest where some of the climbing instruction would happen. It was neat to learn about so many constellations and see how they make sense with each other.
Friday night was another campfire, this time with more troop skits, a flag retiring ceremony, and a testimony meeting. All three were handled in succession to each other and handled well in the proper spirit. Right after the testimony meeting, however, the night took an eventful turn. One of the junior staff members, Giovanni, a large Polynesian young man, fell over and had a seizure. The timing was odd as Giovanni had been the first to give his testimony, bearing witness of prayer and talking about how his dad had been at the hospital in a coma and had just recently woken up. Another staff member later talked about how scouting first aid helped him know what to do while helping a young child recover from a seizure. Giovanni's seizure seemed to be severe, going on for as long as 20 to 30 minutes. Kyle Rossi was with me and witnessed the seizure when it started, which was really hard for him to take and he needed a bit of calming after we returned to camp. A life line helicopter and ambulance later came to camp. Giovanni fortunately regained conscientiousness before being loaded in the helicopter, which was a relief to us when we heard about it. And it was neat to see a helicopter land in the dark in the large meadow in the middle of the camp.
Saturday we broke camp, had breakfast (mostly leftovers from the week), and headed home, stopping by at a Fenton's in Vacaville for lunch.
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