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!

Boy Scout Troop 8

This past weekend the camp played host to Boy Scout Troop 8.  This was a repeat visit for this troop and these scouts are hard core.  They stuck to the main campground, using their wiles, Dutch ovens and the campfire to do their cooking. 

 Both the main course *and* the desserts (especially) look terrific!

This three-day weekend was all about training, skills, and dexterity . . . and the guys had a blast.  There were tent-raising contests:

Carrying an 'injured scout' races:

Foot races:

Runs through the obstacle course:

And even sack races!

Both teams had fun and worked their hardest.

We so appreciate this troop and especially two of their members, Dow and Ethan Canup.

Ethan is working on his Eagle Scout and has undertaken the "Nature Trail" at the Camp as his project.

All in all it was a successful weekend, with the scouts learning a lot.

This group always has a good time and we look forward to them coming back soon!

Willowbrook Father-Son Camping Weekend

The Camp hosted the annual Willowbrook Baptist Church Spring Father-Son camp out this past weekend. It was one of the biggest groups they've had up here . . . over a hundred dads and sons enjoying God's good creation!  There were so many that the tents filled up the main campground . . .

And even spread into Cedar Top campground . . . 

The guys had a full weekend of activities, worship and Bible study.  And food . . .

Breakfast, anyone? 

They also played flashlight tag and wielded bamboo swords. That's always good fun!

 

We're always happy to have this group enjoying the camp!

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!

Boy Scout Troop 663

We always enjoy having the Scouts up at the camp. For this particular weekend Drew Prevost, who was one of the scouts, was the contact person and made all the arrangements. The day before they came we had a pretty good rain at the camp but during their stay the weather was nice. 

Five or six of the boys were here to earn their Wilderness Badge which involves them making their own shelters and providing their own food for a night. I was not able to get a picture of their shelters before it got dark as they were still in the process of completion. 

One of the instructors did build one as an example and went ahead and slept in it himself. 

They invited me over for dinner which was very good and plenty of it. 

There were demonstrations of building fires and various other things taking place during the day and I did manage to get a picture of one such time.

Farley Men Adopt the Obstacle Course

We would really like to thank Ben Langford, Shawn Reed and the other men who came out from Farley Baptist Church to the Camp and help with the Obstacle Course. Mostly this first trip out was to get a better idea on what needs to be done to improve the area, though they did get some things accomplished while they were here.

One of the guys brought a leaf blower and removed the 3-inch leaf mat that had built up through the Fall and Winter. 

Next on the agenda was to build a step-up to the horizontal ladder, which would make it easier for the smaller kids to participate. 

They had tools and made quick work of that project. Ben said they would be back again and make this area a focus of their men's ministry. We look forward to and appreciate all their help.

Wood-stacking Work Day

It wasn't the coldest day of the month, but it was close!  Thankfully, that didn't stop our volunteers from the Disaster Relief Team at Willowbrook from heading up to the camp to chop some wood!

Due to weather, the past three or four work days have had to be cancelled and the available fire wood had taken a huge hit.  So we got the fire roaring in the warming station, put on a pot of coffee, and got busy.

Volunteers from New Market Baptist Church, Wells and Gordon, manned the tractors, hauling downed trees up to the cutting stations.

These guys were professionals!

As the logs got cut, a couple of the camp's neighbor's, Susan and Amelia, help stack the wood.

The coolest part of the whole operation was watching the log splitter do its job:

No matter how big the log, the splitter had it handled.

And the warming station certainly got its fair share of traffic . . . 

And rightly so!

Chili was on the menu for lunch -- nothing like a hearty, hot meal after a morning of chopping wood.

And the chili was great -- Chris Wilson did a great job with it -- there wasn't a drop left between two crock pots.

We so appreciate all the help and the great stacks of wood we have now. May the name of Jesus be proclaimed many times over around the camp fires at the camp!

Troop 96 Weekend

Our first campers of 2014 were the great folks from Boy Scout Troop 96 and Cub Scout Pack 391 out of Epworth United Methodist Church. We've had the pleasure of hosting this group several times and always enjoy having them here.

The weekend was bright and sunny but incredibly cold, so for their first night, they "roughed" it up by (and under) the pavilion.  

As scouts joined the group on Saturday, they made their way up into the main campground.

Saturday, we were privileged to watch the bridging ceremony as boys from the Cub Scout Pack advanced up to the Boy Scout Troop.

It was a touching ceremony and we caught a bit of it to share:

Here's a closeup of the arrows he talked about and handed to the boys, too:

And a closeup of the newly-bridged Boy Scouts of Troop 96. . .

As always, we enjoyed having this group up at the camp.  They do a fabulous job of cleaning up and leaving things looking better.  We hope they make plans to visit again soon.