Trail Life Troop AL 1613

We thoroughly enjoyed hosting Trail Life Troop 1613 out of Whitesburg Baptist this weekend! They were troopers, coming in and setting up camp in the main campground, late in the afternoon on Friday.  

The temps were cool, but not bad ... definitely great campfire weather! They got their "camp kitchen" set up just how they like it.

And were quite prepared to sit and enjoy their surroundings!!

A special shoutout goes to Christian Phillips, who contacted Todd to make the reservation and to organize a service project for the group to complete.  For us it was a no-brainer! Todd needed the limbs and small trees/brush overhanging into the main road to be clipped, trimmed and cleared.

The guys did a great job and worked through most of Saturday afternoon and had it looking real good when they finished up!

We hope to see them back again soon . . . maybe when it's just a tad warmer?!  :)

Mable Hill Spends the Day

Scott Woods brought a group out for a work/fun day and they did such a great job cleaning up the campground area and obstacle course.

There was also a group at the pavilion who were awesome as well. Later there was plenty of food, a little fishing and some exploring. They decided to end the day at the church for a time of devotion.

Brother Mike Clark had intended to come but was pulled away to Louisiana to help with a tragedy. We missed him and I am sure he missed all the great food they had!

Alert Cadets

We hosted the Alabama 3rd Alpha Alert Cadets this past weekend.  This is their third annual Camp MACOBA camp out and we were very pleased to see them!

The guys set up camp in the area behind the pavilion . . . 

And along with some archery skills practice:

They also did some brush hauling to help clean up around the property.  

 

We really appreciate their hard work!

The group had a great weekend and we look forward to hosting them again next year (if we can't get them here in the fall)!

Trail Life Troop 1613 & American Heritage Girls 3110

This past weekend we enjoyed the company from not one, but two groups!  The first was the Trail Life Troop 1613 that meets out at Southside Baptist Church. The guys arrived late Friday afternoon -- just in time to see the end of the warm temps we'd been enjoying all week and to get in some 'polar' camping!  In fact, it was so chilly Saturday morning, it took a while for folks to start stirring.  It was too cold to abandon those warm sleeping bags!

Along with the guys from Trail Life, we also had Troop 3110 from American Heritage Girls who also meet at Southside. 

A lot of the families are involved with both groups, so the guys graciously allowed the girls to piggyback on their reservation.  The guys just stayed the one night, but the girls were working on a badge that required a two-night stay.  Their leader told us that since there was ice on the ground Saturday morning, she'd also be looking for a polar camping badge for the girls to earn!

Friday evening there was some friendly girls vs. the boys camp cooking competition. Each group fixed a dinner and then had judges decide which was best (1) tasting, (2) looking, and (3) most original!  Not quite sure who the winner was, but both groups did an outstanding job of serving up camp grub!

Saturday the groups enjoyed a variety of activities including hiking the trails and some archery instruction.  While they were hiking down near the creek, one of the girls spotted a 'critter' on the ground, so of course they wanted to bring it back to show us . . .

A fuzzy, little tricolored (maybe?) bat . . . whom they named "Cheeseball".  The cold was probably a bit too much for him and he ended up on the ground.  By the time the girls brought him back up to the campground, he'd warmed up a bit and wanted to get moving.  They let him go on an appropriate (?) tree.

The girls also performed a service project and repainted all the electric boxes in the campground.  

They're now a very bright orange and highly visible!  We really appreciate the girls taking care of this.

Despite the cooler temps and a little frozen precipitation on Friday night, both groups had a wonderful time.  We hope they'll make another trip out, and soon!

Alert Cadets

A couple of the Alert Cadets, out of Whitesburg Baptist Church, got an early start to the weekend and arrived at the Camp on Thursday evening.  I'm pretty sure they set up tents in the dark!  

The remainder of the group arrived on Friday and they spent the day helping out by splitting the wood up in the main campground.

They also were able to drag a big tree off of Beech Bottom Trail.  We really appreciate that they took time out of their weekend to do a little work!

Luckily, they had time to kick back and enjoy life around the campfire circle.

I think they enjoyed themselves and we hope to have them back up here soon!

Bethlehem Baptist RAs -- Lacey's Spring

Early in the day on Friday there was rain all over the radar and moving this way. We did get a sprinkle or two at the camp before lunch, but most of the rain went north and south. When Richard Hogan and the Bethlehem crew arrived it was a very pleasant 76 degrees.

The group wasted no time and got to work pitching tents.  Then the cook got to work as the rest went out to do some exploring.

Come Saturday morning they were all ready to jump on the service project before heading on over to the ponds to do some fishing. They made quick work of cleaning up the obstacle course area and then proceeded to try their hand at the obstacle course. It took some time to figure out the best way over the wall but with a little help most all made it. Hey even one of the adults did it! They had some fun and a few needed a break before making the hike to the ponds.

Everyone went back to the pavilion for something to drink and a time of devotion led by one of the men in the group. About an hour later most of the group made their way to the ponds where they spent the rest of the morning until about lunch time.

I managed to get a picture of the group minus one as one of the dads had to leave early. I heard rumor that one of the dads stayed up telling some stories late into the night, I bet that was interesting. No one in this group had ever been to the camp before. Everyone seemed to enjoy their stay and we look forward to seeing them again down the road.

A Little Family R&R

It was Spring Break week and Jeff Whitehead had called and said he and the family wanted to get in a little R&R before Easter weekend. If you have ever been in the ministry--especially as church ministerial staff--you know you work on this weekend; Sunday is not a day off.  Unfortunately Spring didn't cooperate, as the weather switched to rainy and cold for the first part of the week, so Jeff called and said they would wait until the end of the week. 

I have gotten to know Jeff a bit over the last few years and he is one busy man. He is the children's minister at Hillwood Baptist Church and wears many other hats as well including a stint there of preaching every week when the pastor was having medical problem. Well around noon on Thursday, Jeff and the family came rolling in. They unloaded everything at the pavilion and started a fire, mostly for recreational purposes as the day was quite nice. There is just something about a fire going . I went over and spoke with him, met his wife and answered a few questions he had. He has three boys and wanted to know the location of the trees that were down across the trails. I told him not to worry about those things and just to relax but he said they liked doing that kind of work. I told him he could just pick a trail as we have trees blocking all three of them. The boys were on the playground while Jeff and his wife were sitting around the campfire as we left them.

A couple of hours later I saw his truck pull out of the pavilion and the next thing I know the sound of a chain saw was echoing through the woods. Denise and I headed out later that evening to Rosie's to celebrate my retirement but stopped to say a word on our way out. He said they were only staying until about 7:00 p.m. and then going home. He said one of the boys had an appointment in the morning and that it would mean leaving the camp at 5:00 a.m. if they stayed overnight. I said it was such a shame that they couldn't stay longer and he agreed.

The next day as I was walking the trails I saw where they had done such a fine job clearing two of the three trails. A big thank you goes out to Jeff Whitehead and crew!

D-Now to the Rescue!

On Friday morning I got a phone call from Rob Collins, the youth guy at Locust Grove. He told me the church had a big D-Now event going for the weekend and had run into a little problem. He had lined up a couple of service projects for one of the groups and both had been canceled--at nearly the last minute. His question: could we help them out? Oh, and by the way the group--about 22 in all--would be made up of 9th grade girls. I asked Rob to give me a little while and told him I'd call him back with a list. 

The girls arrived in 4 vehicles at about 8:30 a.m. on Saturday morning, raring to go . . .

I had three projects ready for them, so they decided it was best to divide into two groups. Little did I know that they had allotted 3 hours to do the tasks.  

The first two involved cleaning up an area just off Cedar Top Campground which had literally hundreds of old plastic flower pots (many semi-buried) and a bunch of other old stuff . . . 

Forget the forest -- sometimes it's hard to see the girls for the trees!

Teamwork always pays off.

Heave-ho!  Look at them handle that huge tire!

And clearing the Obstacle Course area from rocks . . .

They all had a great attitude and made quick work of both of these projects. 

The last chore was to move a woodpile from down the hill to the pavilion fireplace area. 

They formed an assembly line and knocked this one out very quickly as well, I was impressed. As a matter of fact within a little over an hour all three projects were completed. 

They were so efficient and fast in their work, they had some time to spare!  After hearing there were trails,   they decided to go for a group run/walk. They took off down the Nature Trail for about 20 minutes or so...came back to take  a few pictures and then called their rides to pick them up. 

We really appreciate all the hard work they put into clean-up -- they did a fabulous job! Thanks, girls!! We hope they'll be regular visitors at the camp, now that they know it's here!

Boy Scout Troop 70

For this particular group, this was the very first time several of the leaders had been to the camp.  I noticed that they really had it going on when it came time to setup, as they brought their own gas cook-tops.  I counted three of them.  I am not sure just what all badges were being earned but lots of work was going on.  I did notice, after everyone was gone, at least one service project that had been worked in the Cedar Top Campground area. 

  

As usual with the scouts, they did such a good job at clean-up one could barely tell they had been here.  One of the leaders made mention that they definitely want to plan another campout and also some service projects for over the winter.  We'll definitely be glad to see them back!