Hello again from Many Point. It is 4:15 Sunday evening and I’m sitting in the Voyager Lodge (Staff Office/Dining Area) typing this while we wait for the Sunday evening food truck. By now the scouts that only stayed one week have made it home and had a night in their own beds. We started the week with 59 scouts and 42 went home (I think that many left; I know we’ve got 17 here and I don’t think we lost many).
In general, the weather up here has been great (except for the storm Monday night); generally in the low 80’s and cooling down at night.
Dinner Thursday was Spaghetti with meatballs and Granny Bread. The only thing better than Granny’s rolls is Granny Bread. Deacon Tom came and showed the new scouts how to cook spaghetti without having it stick together and how to spice up the sauce beyond what comes out of the can. The new scouts seem to have a good time with it and I know some other scouts (that will remain nameless) that could use the secret for not turning spaghetti into an overcooked mass of starch.
We have had two visits from Deacon Tom (the Catholic Chaplin) and one visit from Father Dennis (the Protestant Chaplin). I don’t know if they just enjoy our company or someone had told them something about Troop 346. They are both great guys to talk to and we really enjoy their visits. I know that Deacon Tom is an avid fisherman and he is anxious to go fishing with Gunnar this week.
Not much happened Thursday night, just the usual free time activities where the scouts can go around the camp and experience many of the program activities such as climbing, shooting, archery, etc. Some of them took the opportunity to make up work on merit badge classes also. It was a little bit quieter because about 10 guys were off to Flintlock for the Huck Finn Overnight (on rafts in Flintlock Bay) or the Tree House Overnight (in, of course, tree houses at the north end of camp). They all returned safe and sound in the morning.
Friday was somewhat the same program as usual, except that everyone knew this would be the last full day of camp for the scouts staying one week. At the beginning of the week it seemed like camp would never end to some of the boys and now they were wondering where the week went. Scouts that were looking glum and asking if they could go home were now asking for Scoutmaster Conferences and Boards of Review and telling us they would be back next year. It is really a neat transformation.
Breakfast was Egg (Mc)Muffins (English muffins, eggs, sausage & cheese) and lunch was chicken patty on bun. Dinner was pork chops and fried potatoes (from real potatoes). The scouts had their last round of morning classes, their last round of afternoon activities, and their last fourth hour class. In the evening everyone made their last round of free time activities and tried to make up any merit badge classes they could.
One evening activity, that went on all week, wrapped up on Friday. That was the BSA Mile Swim (and Many Point Mile Swim). The scouts that participated did 100 yards on Sunday (as part of Swim quals), 150 yards on Monday, 1/8 mile on Tuesday, 1/4 mile on Wednesday, 1/2 mile on Thursday, and a full mile swim on Friday. Those that completed the whole week of swimming will get the BSA Mile Swim patch at our next Court of Honor (September) and those that swam just the mile, will get the Many Point Mile segment. I will try to list the boys later that did Ironman, Polar Bear, Many Point Mile, and BSA Mile (try is the operative word).
The last camp activity was done at 9:00 and the closing campfire was held at 9:30. Our troop joined several other troops in performing skits. We sang songs, recognized Eagle Scouts at Many Point, Mile Swimmers, Polar Bear participants, and the Scoutmasters. Our camp director AC (Aaron Christensen) built off of the turtle story he told at the opening campfire and told some history of Lord RSS Baden-Powell, the founder of Scouting in England. We finished, as always, with the Ballad of Many Point and then had an Order of the Arrow callout, which only seemed to consist of Troop 346 scouts, which is odd, since we told them we had already done our callout. Hopefully, it inspired other troops to be more active in OA. As we exited the campfire area we all shook each an every staff member’s hand.
As we do every year, the scouts began breaking down equipment that would not be needed the second week, and many scouts slept out under the stars (or their dining fly) on their last night at Many Point.
In the morning, we finished packing up the bus trailer (which they kindly left with us), had our “hearty” breakfast of bagels, peanut butter, and apple juice and waited for the bus. The bus arrived at about 10:30, we loaded the trailer on the bus, the kids on the bus, and the excess equipment on the bus and they were off at about 11:00. I understand that everything went well and they arrived home at the appointed time. A big thanks to Craig the bus driver, who drove all the way down to Ft. Bill, coming and going, which saved the boys a LOT of time hauling themselves and equipment up to the lodge.
Once the bus was out of sight, everyone divided up in cars and headed off to the big city for laundry, shopping and fun. Nick, who is working at Buckskin this year, and I headed off to Detroit Lakes to do laundry and catch a movie. We all met up again at Ice Crackin Lodge for our traditional Week 1 survivor’s dinner of various styles and sizes of THUNDER BURGERS. Ice Crackin was VERY busy and crowded, but we all managed to get fed. Jim Elliot (former Advancement Chair) and Dr. Hoffmann (former Scoutmaster) flew into Detroit Lakes and were able to join us for Ice Crackin and stayed for breakfast.
We all headed back to camp and settled into a much emptier (and quiet) camp for a good night’s sleep. Adults started rising about 6:30 and worked on several pots of coffee until we could pick up our breakfast food at about 8:00. Most of the scouts still weren’t up, so we went ahead and had an adult breakfast shift and a scout breakfast shift. We had Pancakes (from rescued mix), bacon, eggs, and juice. The scouts finally rose about 10-10:30 and had their breakfast. As soon as they got done, they were anxious to run off to Detroit Lakes to see Batman and have Pizza. Four scouts stayed back with me and rode their bikes to Tamarack resort. They came back and played cards while I worked on some projects in the campsite that I couldn’t get to last week. We picked up the food (as mentioned above) and retired to the campsite with food for 24 to feed 5 (we ate well). The movie crowd came back about 6:00. Our new SPL, Ed Beck, headed off to an SPL meeting at 6:30, and Acting Scoutmaster Tom Devine headed off to an Adult meeting at 7:00. I headed north to get this BLOG entry posted, and here we are. I will try to post a few pictures and get some more up later this week.
I hope that all the first week scouts had a good time. I know I am looking forward to a much lighter paperwork load this wee with only 17 scouts. If you think you left anything up at camp (I think we have at least one pillow and Mr. Devitt’s swimsuit) email to troop346 at troop346 dot org and we’ll see if we can find it.
Voyager is full this week, although with a lot of small troops. Two Harbors and Savana Portage both have troops staying there this week. Perhaps we’ll invite both to our Thursday night campfire. That’s all for now from Many Point Scout Camp (Voyager sub-camp, Fort William Campsite)…..Jon Yearous
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