Photos from the 2011-2012 Scouting Year
John (one of the boys\' fathers) took these pictures with his own camera, and E-mailed them to me afterwards (that\'s why they are out of sequence with the other pictures). This one shows part of the camp site with the tents up.
Me watching the boys prepare the foraged wood for a campfire. They were separating out the drier bits, removing bark, and breaking up larger pieces into kindling. In previous years, Scouts had attempted to use bark as kindling, so we made sure to pre-emptively disabuse them of that notion this time.
This picture is quite blurry, but you can see the embers floating into the air. It would have been nice to have a tripod, but that would be an odd-looking thing to bring on a camping trip.
Campfire! There was no firewood at the campsite, so we had to forage in the woods. Luckily, there was plenty of deadfall wood out there, and the forest had shielded it pretty well from the rains of the night before, so it wasn\'t too soggy.
A close-up of our scaled friend.
Another Scout with the same snake. I (Scouter Mike) actually caught this one by quickly jumping on him before he slithered away. He was surprisingly fast given the cold weather and the fact that he\'s a cold-blooded animal, but I suppose he thought he was fleeing for his life. But don\'t worry; after capturing him and posing for pictures with him, we let him go unharmed.
One of our Scouts holding what appears to be a yellow garter snake. We caught this little guy while on a trip to get water. The campsite had no nearby water source, so we had to hoof it a few hundred metres to a water reservoir, and carry the bottles back. To their credit, the boys carried out this task with few complaints.
Milkweed pods!
Inaugurating our campsite by hoisting our flag. We were unable to do this on the first night because it was pitch-dark and raining by the time most people arrived, so we had this ceremony after breakfast on the second day.
Our Scouts beginning our first hike of the camp.
This is Scouter Alex (our Rover) sitting atop the last stage of the Venturer-level obstacle course. We actually found the end of the course first, and then navigated it backwards. The picture has a \"twilight zone\" look to it because the contrast was artificially enhanced, because the light was behind him and you can\'t see his face at all with the original lighting.
This structure was quite tall, and some of the Scouts were too nervous to go on it. But that\'s OK; it\'s good to challenge them instead of always giving them things they can handle easily.
The boys forming a line and checking the campsite for garbage, prior to lunch on the last day of camp. We were already well into the process of preparing to leave at this point. All the tents were already packed up, which is good because it had started to rain while we were at the obstacle course.
Giving the boys a bit of free time in the afternoon.
This is the Scouts obstacle course. You can\'t see it very well because of the underbrush getting in the way, but I like the way this picture looks anyway.
The Scouts standing in front of what we nicknamed the \"Mortal Kombat\" area, so named because its strictly geometric rows of planted trees are reminiscent of a scene in that movie.
Our camp-ending hot dog campfire lunch!
The climbing wall. It\'s not huge, but there is no safety equipment either, so it\'s probably just about the right height.
We also took a few movies:
Campfire
The rope swing