Trail Life Troop 1613

This Trail Life troop out of Whitesburg Baptist made visit this spring and they do camping *right*!  From tents . . .

To hammocks . . .

Well, one hammock, anyway.  These guys know how to camp it up!

They also have some great leaders, teaching them proper techniques in wilderness/survival skills . . .

It's always hard to tell who's having the most fun . . . the leaders or the boys!!  Whichever the case, we're glad the Camp gets to be a part of it!

Three Days, Three Groups!

This past weekend (the last in October) was packed with groups and people enjoying wonderful fall weather at the camp!  The first arrivals were the fellows from Boy Scout Troop 8, who were here for wilderness/survival training.

They came in after dark on Friday and got their tents sent up quickly in the main campground and spent their first night around the camp fire.

Saturday morning brought daylight and an opportunity to check out their tent village . . .

 Everyone was busy doing something.  Chopping wood, collecting water . . .

 Working on and in the "kitchen" tarp.

Already water was boiling for Saturday night's dinner!

Which we did come back for!  By that time, all the work had been done and everyone was kind of kicked back and enjoying a lovely Saturday afternoon.

 We took the opportunity to check out the shelters that the boys had gotten set up.

They looked pretty good -- and I daresay, out in the middle of the woods, they'd have been near impossible to find.

One of the utilitarian chests in the kitchen area:

Everything the outdoorsman needs to cook up a tasty meal!  Speaking of which, the spaghetti served up that evening was from an old Italian family recipe and was very, very good!

While we enjoyed our spaghetti, the guys were preparing dessert in the Dutch ovens . . .

 We had some of that, too.  Peach and blueberry cobbler in one bowl and strawberry cobbler in the other.

YUM!

This was the first time Troop 8 had been out here (Cub Scout Pack 8 had visited several years ago) and they were all so impressed with the Camp, the beautiful setting and how perfect it was for the kind of camping they enjoy.  One of the men mentioned that his favorite part of the day was sitting around the camp fire, after all the boys had packed it in.  Several men agreed!

Talk about opposites . . . our second group arrived on Saturday morning, full of giggles and laughter!  It was the GAs of Hillwood Baptist Church, who were here for the FIRST EVER campout!

First thing they did was get their sleeping quarters up and in order.  They camped out around the pavilion.

Saturday afternoon they enjoyed some great crafts (painted frames and pillowcase prayers), a nature hike, and even some small group Bible study out in the field.

Come dinner time, the girls had really worked up an appetite!  They had roasted hot dogs over the fire and had baked beans and chips and s'mores to round things out!

It was fare fit for a queen!  Or lots of princesses!  And their Children's Minister (Jeff Whitehead), too!  He'd come up to share dinner and a time of worship with these beautiful faces.

 And after dinner was the perfect time for a couple of rounds of checkers, in front of the big fireplace!

 The braver girls sat around the camp fire and did Bible drills from their lessons earlier in the day:

We were so pleased with how excited all the girls were to be camping and how much they each enjoyed it.

And as a service project bonus, they planted a lovely bed of pansies to help us get through the fall and winter with a splash of color!  We certainly look forward to their return and appreciate all their hard work and kind words!

Last up was Cornerstone Baptist Church with their annual church picnic on Sunday afternoon.  By that time, both of the other two groups had already headed out and CBC had the camp to themselves.

We'd asked the GA group to not douse their fires, so it was nothing to re-kindle them both.

And so it didn't take long for the group to congregate around the fire!

 The children headed straight for the playground!  Love this sweet smile!

 And this smile too .... who says swings are just for littles???

And of course, the day was perfect for a little football tossing.  And a little attitude tossing, too!

It would seem that a church picnic is also a good spot for a little church business discussion?

They had a great afternoon and enjoyed the ponds, trails and creeks.  Not to mention a great feast of hamburgers, hot dogs, and loads of home made goodies!

It was a hugely busy weekend ... of the best kind -- filled with lots of happy campers!

Survival in the Wilderness

The weather could not have been any more perfect for a weekend of survival training. Boy Scout Troop 633, led by David Smith, made their first visit up to the camp to do just that -- survival training in the wilderness. 

The boys were split into three groups of four, each with an Eagle Scout 'counselor'. The groups were each put in three separate spots in the camp and, with minimal supplies, had to use their training to set up camp.  The first night's objective was to set up shelter and make a fire.

The group at the bottom of the hill made short work of putting up a shelter and thought that the long grass up in the meadow might make a good thatched roof.

The second group down near the Hidden Path trail fared well, though they were down in the swampy low-grounds. Their evergreen thatching was smart looking!

The last group went down off the hillside past the obstacle course. They used an uprooted tree to help provide shelter (and it made a great windbreak, too).  They were a little tougher to get to, so there aren't any closeups of that group!

Let's make one thing clear ... this was NOT training for the adult leaders of the group!  They made their base camp around the pavilion camp fire ring and had a mighty fine little setup . . .

They had mighty fine food, too . . . the smell of which I'm sure was quite tantalizing to those in training.  The first night, while the groups got their shelter and fire situations figured out, the leaders sat around a great fire and swapped stories.  Darin Lightfoot (who had been up here before with his youth, from Morningside Baptist) happened to be up there for the first night, so he pulled out his guitar and strummed for a bit.  It made for a most pleasant way to spend a Friday evening!

On Saturday morning the small groups had to pass some training in order to 'find' some eggs to cook and eat.  At lunch time, provided they'd passed off on their fishing skills, they got some trout to prep and eat.  

I came up on a group of guys on the dock and they showed me their lunch . . .

Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime, right?!

The group at the bottom of the hill decided at some point that their thatched room wasn't quite going to cut it, so they switched it out.

The smart thing about their setup was that it was so close to water ...

Which definitely made the water-fetching a LOT easier.

The afternoon was fairly quiet.  I'm not sure what skills they were working on, but I do know that all the guys earned their supper ... a skinned rabbit and a couple of cans of vegetables!

Rabbit stew was what each of the groups decided to cook and serve.  All of them told me their dinner was quite tasty!

Saturday night was a little warmer than Friday night -- a fact I'm sure the boys all appreciated.  Troop leader David did relay a great story about their group camp fire time from that night.  Evidently at some point in the evening they had a little UFO encounter.  As they sat in the dark, they watched about 15 glowing globes of light flying up over the hill.  At first, because the globes of light were in a loose formation, the guys thought perhaps it was helicopters, but there was absolutely no noise.  Then, as they watched them climb higher and higher, they globes simply disappeared!

David said the guys were all a little stunned and very curious about the lights ... until one of the other adults remembered seeing something on YouTube about Japanese Floating Lanterns . . .

And they decided that was what they'd seen.  The guys had heard voices and music in the distance and had figured there was some type of party going on.

It just so happens that friends of ours own some of the property that backs up to the camp -- and they had hosted a wedding and reception that night ... where Japanese lanterns were let aloft.  UFOs, indeed!

The guys of Troop 633 made terrific guests and we hope this was just the first of many visits for them.