We are on the home stretch now!!!  This morning, everyone was slow to rise, but we still made it flags by 6:30 am.  Our OA Scouts made it back in time for breakfast and they all seemed to have a good night on their OA campout!  Today was a make up day for merit badges and there was also some Eagle required merit badges offered today.  This afternoon we got the Scouts slushies at the trading post, which they enjoyed.  Our swamped canoe Scouts from our Out & About were also the two Scouts that did the Mile Swim… congrats Marcus & Will for going the extra mile… pun intended!  After our last cooked dinner we were able to pack up our Patrol Boxes and stoves, which will help us break camp tomorrow!  This evening was the closing campfire program, which we enjoyed, and the boys had raw s’mores afterward, which they didn’t mind.  We held elections for Senior Patrol Leader and Patrol Leaders for our two Patrols and their terms will start after camp.  Marcus Ochs ran unopposed for Senior Patrol Leader and he selected Mark Dahlgren as his Assistant Senior Patrol Leader.  Our Patrol Leaders are Carson Foster (for his second term) and Madhav Devapal.  Thanks to all the Scouts that put their name in the hat for a Patrol Leader position as there were many qualified candidates the Scouts had to vote on!  I’m also proud to announce that Daniel Menefee earned his Eagle rank this past Wednesday… congrats Daniel on a job well done and we hope you’ll still visit our Troop even after you turn 18!  As far as our departure tomorrow morning goes, we hope to get on the road as soon as we can and we’ll get a text/phone call out when we hit the road so you all can plan accordingly to pick up your hopefully not to smelly Scouts at Salem… but no promises on the quality of their fragrance! 

I’ve been impressed how each Patrol worked together to get their meals cooked, using the buddy system to get to classes, and just the overall energy of the Troop.  We’ve got a bright future and I’m looking forward to the journey!  I’d also like to give a huge shout out of gratitude to Kristin & Nick for all the Scout camp pre-planning and registration work as well as Shane, Mike, and Keith for spending time with me at camp with our Scouts where the rubber really meets the road in the lives of Scouts.  It’s folks like these that make my job easier. This is truly the case where many hands make light work and I appreciate all they’ve done to help our Scouts have a great experience here at camp!

We started the day a bit earlier today since we had Order of the Arrow (OA) elections this morning during breakfast.  Madhav, Mark, and Will all had rock climbing and repelling today and liked it so much, they asked if we could do a Troop meeting at Upper Limits to complete the Climbing merit badge!  During lunch today we had a visitor…. See if you can spot our guest in the photo!  Before I tell you about the OA activities this evening, I completely forgot to add a detail about our out and about canoe trip on Nim’s Lake yesterday…. Will and Marcus swamped their canoe!  Mike Ambrose and I had to do a canoe to canoe rescue in the middle of Nim’s Lake to get them back on the water!  This evening was the OA call out ceremony and the Scouts would like to thank their families for coming out and sorry I missed seeing some of you!  Thanks to Jennifer Brinker for bringing some cool treats too!  Eddie Ambrose, Aidan Christian, Madhav Devapal, and Colin McGrail all got voted into the OA.  Eddie, Aidan, and Madhav are spending the night out tonight, and just like our Wilderness Survival trio last night, we’ll see them back from the trail in the morning!  They will all have the opportunity to complete their OA Ordeal at the Fall Reunion this year, which is my most favorite camping trip each year!

Tomorrow we will be finishing merit badges at merit badge make up day and starting some new Eagle required merit badges.  We will also hold Troop elections for Senior Patrol Leader (SPL) and Patrol Leaders (PL).  We’ll also start getting packed up for the drive home on Saturday!

Hello!!  Had some nice rain overnight, enough to get most of our hammock campers a bit wet.  The morning was nice and we said farewell to Shane Bruder and thanked him for joining us at camp.  His departure was accompanied by the departure of the decent morning weather we had and it started raining… all… day… long… or at least until Keith Voss arrived to bring my raincoat, which meant that the sun came out the rest of the day.  Marcus and Mark completed one of the more difficult requirements for their lifesaving merit badge today at their class during a break in the rain.  Will and Ethan also got their Kung Fu Panda on their Art Merit Badge today!  Eventually all the hammocks got to dry out too with the sun. However due to all the rain, the Scouts got to play in the natural slip and slide created at camp and Ethan just slipped without the slide and got a gash in his knee, which Keith got to head into town with Ethan for a trip to Urgent Care.  Ethan survived!  As the day was winding down, Carson asked, “Who is growling?”  Glad Keith made it to camp to drown out my “growling”!  Also this evening Peyton, Aidan, and Evan all slept out for their Wilderness Survival overnight.  No rain is in the forecast so it will be a much better night than it would have been last night!  Looking ahead, tomorrow morning is our Order of the Arrow (OA) elections and tomorrow night is Family Night and OA callout!  If anyone is considering coming to camp, you can arrive as early as 5 pm, but would suggest arriving closer to 6 pm or even a bit later. 

We enjoyed French toast for breakfast, bacon chicken ranch wraps for lunch and taco Tuesday for dinner and I could see both patrols getting the patrol cooking figured out a bit better than yesterday.  With any luck by the end of the week they will be performing well as a patrol cooking meals so Will won’t have to eat cheez-it’s and syrup again!  Speaking of Will, he completed his horsemanship merit badge today so he is the first to get a merit badge wrapped up this week! At 4 pm today we  went to Huck’s Cove, which is the water park area.  The scouts got a ride in the  pontoon boat over, which they enjoyed.  Today I had Scoutmaster conferences with both Anna Fadlovich and Marcus Ochs, both only needing their Board of Review for their Life Rank… wink, wink, nudge, nudge!  I also got pictures of our three girls from the Girls’ Troop working at camp… Anna at Camp Gamble in concessions, Jessie Ford working with the Wayfinder group at Gamble, and Izzy working at the trading post at Famous Eagle!  We got rain this evening and Aidan, Carson, and Madhav retrieved the colors in the rain with guidance from Mike Ambrose.  Due to the rain our Wilderness Survival Scouts will be doing their overnight tomorrow night.  As I’m typing this the rain is coming down pretty steadily so hoping everyone stays dry tonight! 

Tomorrow is out canoe out and about on the lake, which is also a memorable experience for the Scouts!

The day started out just like any other day… except there were chariot races!  We made breakfast this morning, which tasted quite well for the time it took to make… glad we weren’t cooking over charcoal!  The Scouts attended their merit badge classes and Will got a lot of horseback riding in today!  We had easy lunches to make (sub sandwiches) and then more afternoon merit badge classes!