When we chose 5 am as our departure time, the adults believed the scouts would fall asleep during our 3 to 4 hour drive to camp. In fact, they were awake and chattering actively all the way. I then believed that they would succumb to sleep during their afternoon merit badges, but that did not occur either. When they all retired to their tents at 10:30 pm, they we still wide awake and talking.
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Monday's lunch was the first of 15 meals we brought to our camp from the commissary. Each day two scouts would have commissary duty, having to make a trip to the commissary for each meal, sometimes being having another scout or leader sub for them. Two scouts would be assigned to prepare the meal, typically with the help of Spencer Fowers, and two scouts would be assigned to clean up after the meal with my help. For cleanup we'd have a pot of hot water I would use to remove most of the food and from the dishes and utensils, a bucket of soapy water a scout would use to clean, and then a but of water a scout would use to rinse and dry. The commissary would often give us far more food than we would need, so we started storing it in our coolers. For many of the scouts, cookies left over from the previous meal became the appetizers for the following meal.
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During the Emergency Preparedness merit badge class on Monday, the instructor called on Tyler Rife to be carried by two other scouts using the firemen's carry. Like most of the instructors in the camp, this instructor was probably 15 or 16 years old. At the end of this exercise, he asked the class whether the two scouts should be nice or mean when sitting Tyler down. The class of 10 or so scouts voted for mean. I assumed Tyler would nonetheless be let down in some appropriate way, but to my surprise, and Tyler's surprise as well, the instructor told the two scouts to go ahead and be mean, and they awkwardly let Tyler fall to the ground. I was at once amused and concerned.
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|Monday was the first day our scouts made any purchases at the camp's Trading Post. They made numerous trips there during the week. At week's end, I had spent less money during the trip than any of the scouts.
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I had chosen our campsite, Escalante, on the recommendation of scoutmaster from Idaho. Camp Bartlett surrounds a small lake, and this campsite is at the southern end of the lake. The swimming and boat waterfronts are at the southern end of the lake, but the commissary, camp office, flag ceremony area, and most merit badge classes are held at the north end of the lake. We did a lot of walking during the week.
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I encouraged the troop to pursue the Honor Troop award, which is available to each troop at Camp Bartlett. On Monday, when I checked in at the camp office, I signed the troop up for various activities that would qualify the troop for the award.
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Monday night we went to our first flag ceremony, followed by a campfire program. Troop 1599 from Spanish Fork was extraordinarily disciplined in the neatness of their uniforms - - all had the same shade of khaki shirt and pants, all badges and insignias were in order, all wore the same style of scout cap, and to ensure they were standing in a straight line they actually pegged a cord to the ground and stood on the cord. The campfire program was full of funny skits followed by a message from a scoutmaster. In the favorite skit a single scout came out, and sang a short verse while dancing in a very uniform motion, then one by one he was joined by other scouts singing their own tune and dancing with his own uniform motion, which included scouts moving a flashlight, boxing glove, or shovel right where a scout's head had been a split second earlier; ultimately, six scouts were standing side by side, singing and moving in rhythm, and everyone's safety depended on everyone staying in rhythm.
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Monday through Wednesday the troop participated in the 10 pm Astronomy Observations at the flagpole at the north end of the lake, which required yet another walk from our campsite to the north part of camp, and back. The skies were clear each night, and in addition to various stars, planets, and constellations pointed out to us, we enjoyed seeing numerous shooting stars.
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Tuesday night the troop participated in the John Colter Run. We thoughtfully selected each scout for each position in this camp relay: 1) Nathan Hoopes practiced the scout oath and law several times in the day before the race, he repeated both at the start of the race, then ran to tag our next scout; 2) we believed Sam Jensen was best prepared to tie knots, after being tagged by Nathan, he was told which knot to tie, and not knowing the knot, immediately and wisely opted to take a 20-second penalty instead, after which he ran to tag the next scout; 3) Clint Flinders was confident that he could answer a nature question, which he did after being tagged by Sam, and then ran to a waiting canoe where he tagged Tyler Rife; 4) Tyler Rife and Landon Ledingham paddled our canoe across the lake, crossing the lake more quickly than the other troops and passing several troops that were ahead of us at that point, and Landon jumped out of the canoe to tag Morgan Hunter; 5) we regarded Morgan as our “secret weapon,” being both a strong runner and light, and he opened a huge lead as he ran to the next position on the course; 6) Morgan tagged Stephan Dartiguenave and Matt Housley, who then used the firemen's carry to take carry Morgan to the next position, where they tagged Creed Rollins; 7) Creed ran hard alongside members of other troops, and tagged Zac Jarman, who was waiting at a spot at the north of the lake near the spot where the race began; 8) at the beginning of the race Zac and his competitors had been shown how to start a fire using a flint and steel wool, so Zac now went to work with the flint while Creed and other troop members gathered tinder and kindling, and after some struggle Zac lit the fire, the fire burned through a cord suspended above the fire, and Troop 797 had come in second!
I was standing at the north end of the lake during the whole race, and had no idea how we were doing until I saw Stephan and Matt preparing to carry Morgan to the next station. The troop was very excited by this great accomplishment, and each member rightfully celebrated their part in a great team effort.
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Immediately after the John Colter Run our troop participated in a service activity in which we worked on a small stream that feeds into the lake. We removed grass and weeds, gathered large rocks from the nearby flagpole area and lined the sides of the stream with the rocks, and also spread pebbles evenly along the bed of the stream. The troop worked very well for about an hour, showing the same teamwork and enthusiasm that yielded success in the John Colter run.
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Wednesday morning the troop went on a five mile hike to Hope Rock, from which Bear Lake can be viewed in the distance. Braden, the troop friend assigned to us by the camp, was our guide, along with two other members of the staff. Along the way they told us five stories: 1) the history of a fall tree where we rested, the tree having been struck by lightning numerous times before it fell; 2) the story of the giant legendary grizzly Old Ephraim that roamed Logan Canyon and surrounding areas until finally being killed by a sheep farmer; 3) the story of the Colby Family, all of whom except the mother were slaughtered by American Indians, how the mother went made, and how the Indians would then leave her food as they regarded her as some sort of God; 4) the story of Mountain Man John Colter who was caught by Indians, stripped naked, given the chance to live if he were able to outrun the Indians, he outran all but one, killed that one, and then hid until he was able to escape (an account is on the Internet at http://www.legendsofamerica.com/NB-JohnColter.html); 5) the legend of Hope Rock in which an Indian princess believes her fiancee has died, but standing on Hope Rock she happily sees him emerge from the trees walking toward her.
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Wednesday evening the troop participated in a troop rifle shoot and also a troop archery shoot. Afterward we had the option of doing an inter-troop activity with other troops, though the camp-organized activity had been canceled this week, or to do activities ourselves. We went back to our camp, where Zac Jarman led the troop in preparing a skit from the Friday night campfire program. Earlier in the day, at the camp Senior Patrol Leader meeting, Zac had been taught a game called Ninja. After preparing the troop skit, Zac taught the troop how to play Ninja, a game the troop enjoyed so much that they played it into the dark of evening and numerous times thereafter.
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Thursday night the troop took a guided walk on the camp's Honor Trail, learning more about the Scout oath and law. Member of the troop then had free time, which many used for to canoe and boat on the lake. At about 8 pm those working on the Wilderness Survival merit badge met at a camp lodge, and 8 members of our troop joined in a short hike to a spot where all would have to build a temporary shelter from logs, and stay in that shelter overnight. Spencer Fowers and I accompanied the troop, offered no advice on the construction of the shelters, and went back to camp at about 9:30 pm. The troop quickly broke into two teams, the older scouts building a very nice shelter, the younger scouts building a larger but less complete shelter. The older scouts settled into their sleeping bags in their shelter, only to realize that they had build their shelter on a spot infest with ants that would bite ferociously and tenaciously. The older scouts abandoned their shelter and moved in with the younger scouts.
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Friday afternoon the scouts participated in the camps Rendezvous Games. This was not organized competition, but there the troop simply tried numerous activities such as the tug-of-war, rope pull, caber toss, ninja, leg-wrestling, stick pulling, “Pirates of the Caribbean,” and a troop canoe race.
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Friday night the troop participated in the campfire program and was recognized with the Honor Troop award and for placing second in the John Colter Run. Tyler Rife was also recognized for completing the Mile Swim Thursday afternoon, which required him to swim 7 laps from the swimming area to the boating area and back. The troop also performed a skit in which Zac Jarman was on stage, welcomes Spencer Fowers to the Echoing Forest, and asks Spencer to suggest words to be yelled at the forest; scouts from our troop were positioned at 2 to 3 stations at increasing distances from the stage. Here was the dialogue:
Zac: Hi, traveler, welcome the echoing forest. Is there a word you would like me to day?
Spencer: Echo.
Zac: Echo!
Echoing Forest: echo . . . echo . . . echo
Zac: Another word?
Spencer: Computer
Zac: Computer!
Echoing Forest: computer . . . computer . . . computer
Zac: Another word?
Spencer: Baloney
Zac: Baloney!
Echoing Forest: [no sound is made]
Zac: That's funny. Would you like to try something else?
Spencer: Sure. Try this: Brother Fowers is the greatest.
Zac: Brother Fowers is the greatest!
Echoing Forest: baloney . . . baloney . . . baloney
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After the campfire program we had a troop meeting around a fire at the camp. I shared a scoutmaster's minute in which I shared the thought from President Monson's General Conference talk from the Priesthood Session of the most recent conference. The talk featured a story about a young man who ate an egg salad sandwich that he had left in the sun, grew sick from food poisoning, and was able to call on two young men in his band to give him a blessing - - they had recently received the Melchizidek Priesthood, and had lived worthily, so they could give him a blessing. I said that this camp and scouts and the Aaronic Priesthood program help the young men prepare for life, and reminded the young men of thoughts I had shared earlier in the week - - President Uchtdorff's talk on the “Story of the Light Bulb” which should have reminded us to have fun at camp but not to neglect the things that matter most, and President Eyring's talk about “No Man Down” which reminds us that we are part of a team and need to be loyal to each other. The scouts and leaders then each told of things for which each is thankful.
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Saturday, after a night of rain and wind, we packed up and headed back to Provo. On the way we stopped at a Pepperidge Farm cookie factory in Richmond, Utah, and a Carl's, Jr. restaurant north of Salt Lake City.
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