Pack 565 Families and Happy Campers,

 

The past weekend was exhausting, wasn’t it?  But I bet it was the time of your son’s life.

 

It started off inauspiciously.  Many of us were stuck in traffic for hours on Friday night and then arrived only to have to attempt to pitch a tent in the rain.  My scout pants are still on their third dryer cycle as I write.  Surprisingly, there wasn’t too much dampness inside the tent when we finished.  Item to add to the Cub Scout camping checklist: old towel.  Right about 8:00 PM, the rain stopped and we were treated to a dry weekend the rest of the way.  Camping is much more fun when it doesn’t rain.

 

On Saturday morning we were treated to a fantastic breakfast by our wonderful cook, MarKay.  MarKay put in so many hours this weekend making sure we were well fed.  Thanks to all our volunteers who pitched in and helped, in particular our Webelo Chefs.  I might go in the kitchen right now and make me some eggs and bacon because I’m getting hungry all over again thinking about that breakfast.  We definitely needed the energy for the day to come.

 

Our campsite was perfectly situated between many of the activities.  We had a short walk to flag ceremony on Saturday morning.  Pack 565, Dad, Lou Q. treated the Foothills District to quite the show at the conclusion of flag raising.  600 boys watched as a Black Hawk helicopter swooped in low over the trees, circled the large field in a steep bank and then landed about a couple hundred yards from the flag poles.  I think many of the boys didn’t get that it was actually going to land until right at the end.  Then they went wild!  Our Pack got first dibs in the activities rotation and after a short safety talk from Lou, mobbed the helicopter.  I’m not sure what constitutes a better stress test for a piece of military hardware – actual combat or a mobbing from a group of wildly ecstatic boys.

 

After the Black Hawk, we had a couple hours of free time, so many ventured down to the lake for some fishing.  I’ve never seen anyone catch anything in the Bert Adams lake (except for pro fisherman Nicholas A.), so imagine my surprise when I learned that both Anthony S. and Drew M. caught a fish.  The fish were so large that they easily fed the entire Pack for lunch if you also include the 250 hot dogs.

 

I forgot to mention.  We had the best turnout for Family Camping that I know of.  There were exactly 101 people that attended from Pack 565.  That included 42 Cub Scouts and 15 siblings.  Those are amazing numbers, folks!

 

Another of the free time activities was our own little flag raising ceremony in camp.  It is just amazing how hilarious it is to raise a pair of old underwear up and down a flagpole over and over again.  This kept many boys occupied for a good portion of the weekend.  I am still looking through the handbook for any credit that can be taken.

 

While we were waiting for archery right before lunch, we ran around wildly in a grass field.  Then we learned how to make a pyramid.  Then we played Duck Duck Goose.  You can never run and wrestle enough if you are a boy.

 

In the afternoon, we shot BB guns and made some rockets.  Because it was the end of the day, not everyone got to shoot off the rockets that we made.  Pack 565 will make good on that debt and we will shoot off our own rockets during one of the Pack meetings coming up this Spring.  Todd P., Ian B., and Britta S. took good notes on what it would take, but we have to wait until it gets a little lighter at 6:30 PM.  Todd has plans for a multi-rocket shooter that we can use for rocket firing competition!  But back to camping:  I was very proud of how hard the boys worked on both the archery and the BB firing.  There are some pretty good shots in our Pack.

 

Dinner was the best spaghetti I’ve ever had.  MarKay will not divulge her secret ingredient.  She keeps saying that she used Andy’s recipe, but I know there was something else in there.  I’m afraid to ask.

 

After dinner, we rehearsed our skit one more time and then we went on the long march to the campfire in Jameson.  A leader from another Pack said that the amphitheater was the fullest he’d ever seen it.  We watched a bunch of skits.  Then it was Pack 565’s turn.  Our flight attendant, Aidan D., and our two blind Scout Airline pilots, Alex C. and Thomas K., boarded the airplane full of our scouts.  Soon screams filled the night air.  Then we received the biggest laughs of the night at Thomas’s punch line.

 

The flag retiring ceremony was a very inspiring and touching end to the campfire.  I’ve never witnessed a crowd of Scouts be so silent for so long.

 

After another night of cool sleeping weather, it was get up, eat breakfast, pack up, leave no trace, and then say goodbye to friends and to another fine weekend of Cub Scout family camping.

 

We’ll see all of you in April at Woodruff this time.

 

It was fun,

Carl