Fish Fry and saying goodbye to Carlos

I just finished back-to-back merit badge sessions for Tracking and American Cultures. Everyone got the former, most got the latter if they could stay awake. Dierauer and Dirk gave the Scouts a tough time tracking them. Those are fun exercises they can do at home.

Camp is pretty much broken down. A few tents are still up, including the leader tents.

Troop activities included Troop Reflection where we review the week, Nuke'em Volleyball where you catch the ball and try to throw the ball near the opponent - if they miss or drop it they are out; and finally, troop sail aboard the two-person boats.

I'll find out who finished the badges later this morning when I pick up the merit badge cards.

Dean Wormer (Peter) had another issue with us at the closing ceremony.. It seems he took on the role of CPS (Child Protective Services) and placed Carlos the plastic baby doll into protective custody. His new evil eye and cracked skull were getting a bit creepy. Maybe CPS can fix him, and perhaps Carlos will reappear next year.

Finally, we had an awesome final dinner featuring a big pot of fish fry caught and cooked by Sabias and Mr. Oas (with others contributing fish including Mark, Jack and Trevor). That, combined with pork chops, red potatos/onions (Sabias secret recipe) and corn and carrots was just an awesome way to end the week. Even the mysterious chocolate wafer dessert substance was pretty darn good.

Thanks to Elliot, Jonathan, Nick a,d the others who did all those dishes and pans, then put it all away for the ride home.

I will post photos when I get back tomorrow.

YIS,

Kevin McGrath

"Double secret probation"

Morning update.

"Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor?". Pictured here is SPL Jon meeting with Peter aka Dean Wormer, reminiscent of Animal House. Jon is getting permission to proceed with the troop skit at the closing camp fire. We've been put on double secret probation after our entrance at the opening campfire due to our troop song and boisterous entry not being well received.

Mr. Dierauer woke us up this morning with an amazing jazz melody using his saxophone. I'd like to wake up to that every morning.

We are starting to break down camp with the goal of having most of the gear packed by early evening. Then we just need Mr. Carson to arrive tomorrow morning to tow the trailer away.

We had our first fire in the new fire pit last night. It is a great location.

The Huckfin Scouts arrived this morning and said they had a great time fishing, canoing and swimming.

Well, the rest of the Scouts are at their respective merit badges now.

I will try to send an update later.

YIS,

Kevin McGrath

18 Fly Swatters, Please

Biting flies have taken over camp, followed closely by Poison Ivy and mosquitos in third.

Weather has been cool but less humid, with some drizzle this evening, but it is now dry. We hope it holds because Nick, Jack, Sabias and Hunter are on the Huck Finn rafts tonight.

I forgot about our ongoing push up contest lead by Mr. Ahlquist with Trevor, Mr. Furlich and Mr. McGrath trailing. I also left out our troop aqua tramp event. Erik Oas knows that sweet spot to launch Scouts. He was even able to launch me about a foot. See photos posted a few days ago for the push-ups and aqua tramp.

Today's troop activities:

Super Troop, fixing the stairs leading up to Voyager (sandy area). Rifle shooting and Water Polo were other events. Finally, we have added a new massive fire pit in that camp site area south of leadership/hammock city. We made benches out of logs and bent tent stakes.

I have also staked out a muddy area in the woods to try to get some good animal tracks for the Tracking merit badge. I am taking the class with Trevor to see how to conduct the class.

No photos of the food today. Jon F and AJ G did a great job making dinner because both of our chefs for today are at Huck Finn. Sabias made lunch and breakfast with Nick.

Elliot and Ryan are helping Trevor do the dishes because Josh, who has dish duty, has a fever and has been sleeping all afternoon after their raging Tree House event last night.

What else ... Since we are not having the massive Thursday night fire, I can see Isaac, AJ, Erik O and others moving all the brush and logs from our huge pile back into the woods. I think we will debut the new fire pit tonight.

Last full day of camp is tomorrow.

That is it for now.

YIS,

Mr. McGrath

Gunnar's Oasis

This is Mr. McGrath filling in for Josh M who is at the Flintlock Tree House tonight.

After 12 years at Many Point, Gunnar Oas will go down in Many Point history due to him scoring a hole-in-one on a par 4 hole.  Disc Golf, that is.  This is an extremely difficult course through dense woods.  He was so excited he bought everyone a round of beers (root) at the Trading Post.  See photos for more about the event.  We’ve renamed that hole in his honor to: Gunnar’s Oasis (because Oas Hole does not sound right).

The weather has been awesome. 

Merit badges:  everyone is participating.  The adults are on patrol to make sure they keep it up.  Sabias and others have the clothing exercises in Swimming and Life Saving tomorrow.  Josh has a dig for archaeology while Trevor starts Tracking tomorrow.  Trevor and Josh finished Geology yesterday.  I am getting swamped with merit badges that the Scouts are electing to do on their own that are not offered at Many Point, or brought partially completed to Many Point and are now trying to get them done.  Mr. Devine has taken everyone attending this week through Citizenship in the Nation (Eagle) that did not already have it, so that they only have ONE requirement left, which is to write a politician.  A couple completed Communications (Eagle).  Well, just about every adult is engaged with Scouts in one way or another with merit badges.  Lots of energy.

Troop Activities:

See photos.  We have done a lot as a troop.  I’ll try to highlight key events.  Yesterday of course featured Disc Golf and that shot by Mr. Oas.  Most of us played a second round, while a few toured the Scout museum with Mr. Devine.  We also did Iron Man as discussed by Josh in the blog.  See the pictures just before Erik and Jack were in second place and about to take first, but the canoe capsized.  The Ahlquists came soon-after and Josh powered through the swimming leg to get us back in second.  Then Jonathan and Sabias raced away and secured second place in the running segment and second overall.  It was very fun, and all the adults participated.  We also did a Leave No Trace/Go Green campsite theme and had our site inspected.  Finally, AJ, Jon and Trevor did the older Scout insane mountain bike ride – I can’t remember the name of the hill – something sinister like Decapitation Canyon.  They broke two pedals and had a few spills.

Today was “GMEL” aka Greasy Watermelon and had the addition of Mr. Ahlquist, Mr. McGrath, Mr. Furlich and Erik Oas.  It was very fun until the watermelon broke and sank – but Mr. Ahlquist managed to use that to his advantage and sneak away with the melon and avoid his team being skunked (final score 3-1).  Think of it as water Rugby – lots of scrum action and even the watermelon is shaped like a rugby ball.  Then we took the remains and ate it.  Then Jack took a watermelon shower with the juice.  We did a troop climb, also fun.  They got to end the day in the sauna.  The Scouts had the usual Wednesday beach bash while the adults ate at Buckskin (Erik Oas, Mark Dierauer, Messrs Devine, Ahlquist, Furlich and McGrath).  It was cool to have Mark (our 5-Palm Eagle Scout) and Erik (our 4-Palm Eagle Scout) eat with the adults.  Mark is now 18 and entering his senior year in high school, while Erik starts his sophomore year in college this year.

I did ride my bike out to the tree houses tonight.  It was a punishing ride through root covered narrow trails.  My chain broke and since it was getting dark, I did not have time to fix it.  I wound up walking an hour back.  I did say hello to our Scouts at the Tree House.  Yes, Jon, I made it to the merit badge counselor meeting at Voyager with a few minutes to spare to wash all the bike chain grease off my hands.  I’ll try to fix my bike tomorrow.

Tomorrow is Water Polo.  Five are headed to Huck Finn for the overnight tomorrow night, which has the raft shelters in Flintlock.

Mr. Stamm and Mark Dierauer arrived today.  Mr. Ahlquist leaves tomorrow.  Mark is an Interpreter at the Northern Tier High Adventure Base in Minnesota.  He basically takes crews of Scouts out in canoes.  Sounds incredible.  He wants the troop to go to Atikokan (no way I can spell it) because he will be based there next summer.

YIS,
Kevin McGrath

Iron Stamm!

Today we had a one hundred percent participation from our troop in the Iron Man triathalon. We finished in an overall second with the Ahlquist family in third place for canoeing (with Erik Oas/Jack S, Elliot C/Jonathan K and Mr. Furlich also participating). Josh M came in second for swimming (with Isaac C, Mr. Furlich and Mr. Oas also swimming). Sabias J, Mr. McGrath, Elliot C, Mr. Furlich and Jonathan K came in second for running, giving us second overall.

Also Jack S is now a father of a baby doll named Carlos and he spoke his first words today, he said "help". We will have more updates about Jack and Carlos soon.

Y.I.S., Josh McGrath

Saying Good-bye, Saying Hello

Saturday morning started at 4:30 for me. After the closing campfire, the staff goes into the staff lodge and pulls an all-nighter (or at least a most nighter until 1 or 2 in the morning) filling out completed and incomplete "blue cards". This year, Mr. McGrath printed our "blue cards" on fluorescent green stock, which made it easy to spot ours. When staff is done with this process, they put the cards in our mail box for us to retrieve the next day. A couple of times, I stayed up with the staff until they were done and then sorted our card. I'm getting too old for that, so instead I get up early to retrieve the cards. I went to the lodge about 5, put on the lodge coffee pot, and sort our blue cards in the screened in safety of the staff lodge. It was very quiet and peaceful. I check off the advancement sheet to make sure we have all of our card (we were only missing a few), put the completed (passed) cards in a pile for Mr. McGrath to enter into Scoutnet, and return the incomplete blue cards to Scouts so they know what they completed and what they still have to finish. If your Scout brings home and bright green incomplete "blue card", PLEASE make sure they don't lose it, and remind them occasionally, that they should try to complete the remaining requirements. If they have any questions, they should contact Mr. McGrath.
The rest of the camp started waking up at about 6:15. No breakfast for anyone this morning until all the packing was done. All but six tents, all but two stoves, most of the cots, and all of the Many Point tarps had to be taken down and folded up to Many Point standards. All of the personal bins and equipment were gathered up and the camp sites (especially Two Harbors) were policed. The bus showed up at 9:30 and the preparations continued. Finally at about 11 the job was declared done and everyone got to stop for "breakfast"; Bagels, pop tarts, and juice boxes (no dishes!). Finally, they loaded the bus and the bus pulled out about 11:45. Mr. McGrath and I headed north to admin to check the troop out for week 1 and check the troop back in for week 2, while Mr. Isham and Mrs. Coleman watched the Scouts until Mr. Hundwardsen and Mr. Oas arrived.
Week two we have 12 scouts (we were suppose to have 14, but there were two last minute cancellations) and about six adults.
Mr. McGrath and I arrived back at the site about 12:45. The Scouts had packed up the trailer with all the spare equipment and pretty well secured the leadership area. Scouts started heading off to the showers and a few to Tamarack (a near by resort). I took a shower and relaxed with everyone else. Nick was done with staff activities at about 2:30. As I went off to pick him up, Mr. McGrath went with two of the Scouts to go fishing at Round Lake (the lake our campsite is on). Nick and I went to do laundry in Detroit Lakes and met everyone here at Ice Crackin for dinner (mostly many forms of Thunderburgers and liberal amounts of pop). I decided to take advantage of the wireless to do this last update before I head home tomorrow. As I get more pictures from people (PLEASE SEND ME YOUR PICTURES!) I will post them to our website. That's all for now from Many Point Scout Camp...Jon Yearous

The End of One Week and the Start of Another

Well.....
The good news is that the camp ranger Paul was able to run down and repair the leak in the water hose.
The bad news is that when he saw the size of the pile of wood, he told leadership that they had to make it smaller. I did not have a chance to download more pictures from various folks cameras, and I forgot the cable for mine at home. I will be returning tomorrow Sunday and hopefully I will be able to collect pictures from people and get them loaded to the website. There should be some interesting ones.
The campfire was as large as past years, but the wood must have been greener because it took quite a while to get going. They used a bottle of Tiki Torch Fluid and a can of Charcoal lighter fluid on it and it still was slow starting. In addition to Nick and Kurt, Taylor Scharf stopped down on his way to Ice Crackin and a quite a number of CITs and other staff stopped by too. There was quite a variety of skits and songs, followed by a flag retirement ceremony, and refreshments. The flag ceremony did not get started until about 11:30, and as a CIT, Kurt had to be back at Buckskin by midnight, so Kurt, Nick, and I headed up to Buckskin during the flag retirement. I fear that refreshments were a white sheet cake with chocolate frosting (more on that later) and vanilla ice cream. I got back just as they were breaking up from the campfire (after midnight). It was quite a late night for everyone.
In their excitement to have the campfire, leadership left out two bags of garbage, and did not latch the cooler that they were keeping their Arnie Palmers and other drink and treats in. The raccoons took advantage of the situation; they tore holes in the garbage bags, climbed into the cooler, helped themselves to whatever they could, and left a few presents behind. Armed with rubber gloves, the guys took a while to figure out who was going to clean out the cooler the next day. It has been throughly washed out and sterilized. {Anyone noticing a trend here? It ain't over yet}.
Friday morning came WAY too early for just about everyone. Breakfast was Egg & Sausage on an English Muffin. Not surprisingly we were late (again) to assembly. The usual three morning periods and back for lunch; Turkey sandwiches. From 1-4 they had troop activities.
They had some free time during this time, so leadership had the first and second year scouts cleaning up the trailer. We were really surprised that they seemed to be enjoying it. They were singing and having lots of fun. Later, when I was checking out the cleaning job, I think I discovered why. The leftover half of the sheet cake from Thursday night had been store in the trailer to protect it from the raccoons. There had been nearly half of a sheet cake, but when they got done, there were three pieces left. No wonder they were so happy and full of energy. I put the remaining pieces on a plate in a zip-lock bag and saved them for Scoutmaster Fischer (more on that later). The boys went off to Archery and more water polo until 4:00 and then headed off to fourth hour.
At 5:00, they came back to start our big dinner of the week: Pork chops, potatoes, and corn. We decided to add to that, and had Mr. Horst bring us up two dozen ears of corn on the cob to have in leadership instead of canned corn. Chef Ben and some of the other leadership Scouts did a great job frying up the pork chops and the potatoes. They cubed the potatoes, added chopped onions and spices and fried them up. They were terrific.
As a result of all the advancement going on all week, there were all sorts of young scouts lined up for Scoutmaster conferences and Board of Review. Before dinner and after, the adults were popping in and out of dinner to perform these interviews. We left the dishes for the leadership scouts to do, but they were busy getting their skit for the camp-wide closing campfire and many people were gone for free time after dinner.
9:30 came along and we headed off the camp-wide campfire (running a bit late). It was the usual loud fun. As Mr. Fischer and I were bringing up the rear, we could hear our troop engaging another troop in the usual "we've got the spirit" back and forth exchange. It was a fun and full campfire with skits by each troop (some actually good and new) and awards made for many week accomplishments (swimming, shooting, etc.) . Ben received recognition for being the only Eagle Scout (still under 18) who attended Many Point at Voyager with his troop that week. One award caught everyone by surprise: There is an award for any scout that completes the Bouldering wall down at the climbing wall. There was exactly one Scout in camp that completed the Bouldering Wall: Max H.! After the skits and songs and awards, the staff performed the Order of the Arrow call out and Troop 346 had the most scouts being called out for Order of the Arrow. We all climbed the hill back out of the fire ring and thanked each of the staff for a wonderful week.
When we got back, we discovered {can you guess?} that the dishes had been left out, the patrol boxes left open, and the corn on the cob left out. Guess who else figured that out also? There were little footprint ALL over the place.
The Scouts had an excellent TLC, where they discussed what they liked best about how this week worked and what they would like to do different in the future.
I'll  try to cover more on the pack-up this morning later. I'm currently at a Laundromat in Detroit Lakes using the free Wi-Fi while Nick does his Laundry. We will be leaving very shortly to meet the rest of the troop at Ice Crackin Lodge for our traditional Saturday switch-over dinner. Ice Crackin has expanded their building several times, so there is now plenty of room, and they have expanded their menu so there is more than just Thunderburgers. I'm looking forward to a steak. Mr. Hundwardsen arrived today and I will be returning with him tomorrow. Mr. Oas and Mr. Oas (Dirk) arrived today to handle medical and Mr. McGrath arrived last night to assume his rightful role of Advancement Chair. Mr. Furlich will arrive tomorrow to take over as acting Scoutmaster (Mr. Fischer went home on the bus with Mr. Wald and Mr. Gertjejansen) and Jon will be arriving to take over the reins of acting SPL from Trevor's capable hands for the week. This will allow Trevor to take a well deserved rest week two. Hopefully Josh will be taking over the blogging duties week 2 and keeping us all up to date. I unfortunately do not have enough vacation this year to stay two weeks. That's all for now from Many Point Scout Camp....Jon Yearous

If it's Thursday, it must be pancakes.

This will just be a short update. I'm at admin waiting to pick up Nick Yearous and Kurt Wallgren for our troop campfire tonight. Nick is working at Buckskin this year and Kurt is a Counselor In Training (CIT) at Buckskin this week. Taylor Scharf is also working at Buckskin this year.
This morning started off extra early for the Polar Bear Swim. Mr. Beck, Mr. Fischer, Mr. Isham and I went down (and into the water) with a number of our brave and adventurous boys (sadly no leadership or junior leadership boys were included in that number). We meet down at the beach at 6:15 to hear the story of Polar Bolarinski and to run in (and out) of the lake several times. The first time into the water, the air seems warmer than the water, but subsequent trips into the water are welcome, as the water now seems warmer. The temperature on the thermometer on the tree was 54 degrees when we left for the beach. Everyone survived, with minimal teeth chattering and headed back to camp for breakfast.
It seems that with all the adventurous scouts at the beach, the less adventurous scouts took that opportunity to sleep in a bit and surprisingly, the breakfast (and more importantly the coffee) was not ready when we got back. Needless to say everyone (except the first year scouts) was running behind schedule and pretty much everyone was late for assembly. The first year scouts actually were the first ones done and got to assembly on time. Alex has been doing a great job as a troop guide for the first year scouts.
Breakfast was pancakes, sausage, and juice. When the scouts finally got out of camp, they had the usual classes in the morning, and were back for lunch about 11:30. Lunch was grilled cheese sandwiches and chicken noodle soup. After lunch, they had troop activities. One of them was suppose to be sailing, but there wasn't a breath of wind, so the improvised. The first years worked on some advancement requirements. From 1-4 they played some volleyball, some water polo, and worked on their campfire some more. At 4:00 they headed off to their fourth hour classes. 5:00 it was back to camp for dinner: spaghetti; granny bread; meatballs; salad; and dessert.
While the fire was being worked on someone (who will not be named at this time) cut into the water hose with an axe. The ranger is down there fixing it now.
I have to run pick up the boys and get down to the campfire. I will try to update with pictures tomorrow. That's all for now from Many Point Scout Camp...Jon Yearous

Hello Mudder, hello Fodder, here I am at camp....

I left off at Monday night, it is Wednesday evening now. The raccoons were very active Monday evening, finding any trash that the scouts left out. Then about 3:00 in the morning the thunderstorms started and did not stop until about 6:00 Tuesday evening. The thunder was very loud and some claimed it shook them out of their cots. We had one tent go down in the third year area, but the boys adjusted well and made room for the displaced scouts in other tents. Several dining flys were knocked down as well; several times in some cases. The wind was heavy off the lake; 10-25 mph. Also the tarps tend to fill with water and sag under the weight. More than one ridge pole broke. During the day, the rain let up several time (teasing us) and we were able to work on the tarps.
There was short sunny window where some sailing got done, but otherwise all aquatic activities had to be cancelled. The staff is great about having alternate activities when it is raining, and there are numerous tarps in the program areas that work equally well for shade or rain cover.
We stumbled out of our tents a little late at about 6:45 and got breakfast going; french toast, sausage, and juice. The morning classes pretty much went as planned. They came back for lunch; breaded chicken patties on bun, carrots, and pretzels.
There were two hours of troop activities in the afternoon: One group of boys headed north to the Frisbee Golf range and the other group went to the beach for volleyball and water polo. I think they squeezed both activities in during a temporary lull in the storm. I stayed back at camp to try and reinforce the various dining flys that kept falling down. At 3:00 they went to their fourth hour classes. At 4:00, they had the Ironman competition which normally consist of canoeing, swimming, and running. However, due to thunder in the area, they could not go into the water. The staff did a great job of coming up with alternate activities to substitute for the canoeing and swimming. After Ironman, the scouts came back to camp for dinner: tacos!
Fortunately, about dinner time, the rain and thunder and lightning stopped and the boys were able to head off for free time.
One popular free time activity to reemerge has been the crazy haircuts. Someone brought up a set of barber shears and various scouts have been getting Mohawks and other "creative" haircuts. I hope to get some pictures up soon.
At 9:00 they all came back to camp. A lot of the boys gathered under the leadership tarp for some very active card playing: poker, 500, hearts, etc. They were up pretty late having a lot of fun. Jason was up late with them too, doing some dutch oven baking (some sort of apple dish). It must have been a good time, they were pretty tired last night.
As for me, I hit the hay about 11:00 and I was out. The raccoons were up. We saw paw prints everywhere, and they seemed to be very happy that Junior Leadership had left their garbage out instead of taking it to the dumpster. In the morning, the Junior Leadership garbage was spread far and wide; it looked like a garbage bomb had gone off.
As we do every year we have slowly been trying to work on the boys about keeping a clean campsite.
This morning, they were a little slow on the uptake; perhaps another sign of the fun last night. Breakfast this morning was scrambled eggs and sausage with juice. Then off to morning classes, and back for lunch; hoagie ham sandwiches. Leadership got creative and made some cheese burgers out of the leftover hamburger from tacos last night. The rest of leadership made warm chuckwagon sandwiches out of the ham and buns. They can be culinary creative when they try.
This afternoon they had a Supertoop project, and filled in some of the hole on the horrible road down to our campsite. Some scouts did Orienteering and another activity I've forgotten.
At 4:00 they had an hour of in site troop time, and they started collecting firewood for our traditional troop campfire on Thursday night. They talked Mr. Lindberg into using his pick-up to go down and collect piece of a tree that had fallen near the camp entrance (it was about 10" in diameter and was cut into 4 foot lengths). Later when they were collecting another log off of our camp road, just as they were putting it into the truck, a swarm of bees came out and several were stung. Fortunately, none were allergic and were treated by Ms. Roberts (Chris and Jackson's mom) who is handling medical for us. We'll have to see how much Poison Ivy was picked up during wood collect. We have sent a number of scouts to the showers already to wash down, in addition to the showers we have been "encouraging" some scouts to take.
At 5:00, the first year Scouts headed off with the Voyager staff and Mr. Wald for a five mile hike to family camp, where they will rest and have dinner. This fulfills one of their requirements. Most of the scouts went to their fourth hour classes and then to the beach for a beach bash (tacos in a bag and fun activities), with the Voyager staff and Mr. Beck. The rest of the adults; Mr. Fischer, me, Ms. Roberts, Mr. Lindberg, Mrs. Coleman, Mr. Isham, Kris Scott, and Milo Gertjejansen; headed to the Buckskin dining hall at the north end of camp for the adult leader appreciation dinner: sliced Pork loin, new potatoes, broccoli & carrots, Granny bread, cole slaw, and a chocolate pudding dessert that is heavenly (but I had a banana instead).
After the dinner I came over here to update the blog while the other adults headed back to camp so the boys could go to free time activities.
When it was raining ALL DAY yesterday, I think you might have had a LOT of volunteers to come home, but like that old song, Camp Granada, any thoughts of escaping dried up when the sun came out. Today it has been sunny with temperatures in the 70's and the rest of the week is suppose to be the same.
A big thanks to all the parents and young adults that have been volunteering their time: Besides the one mentioned above, Mr. Horst came up with us Sunday and will be back at the end of the week, Mr. Dutton and Mr. Bothun just left today, to be replaced by Mr. Lindberg, Mr. Beck, and Mr. Wald. Mr. Fricke is due soon, Mr. McGrath has been popping in with his family from Family Camp, and we're expecting visits from Mr. Rutkowski, the Oas' and other adults that will be here for the weekend and week 2.
I will try to update at least one more time this week, so keep checking back. For now, that's all from Many Point Scout Camp....Jon Yearous

Having Fun, Despite the Rain

The drive to Many Point (MP) went well. We made a quick pit stop in Sobeka and drove on to Park Rapids for lunch. The Scouts scattered to the four winds (or at least Burger King, McDonalds, Subway, and Pizza Hut), got lunch and got back on the bus for the last hour drive into Many Point.
We arrived at Ft. William at about 1:30. After we got the bus unstuck from between two trees (pictures later), we unloaded the bus. I headed north to admin to get us checked in, while everyone headed on down to swim qualifications. The boys are divided into Learners, Beginners, and swimmers.
After swim quals they headed back to camp and finished setting up their camp sites. Tents must have been wet when the previous troop checked out, because some tents were still standing around the camp site. We got things set up just in time for dinner: cheese burgers, chips, drink, and Little Debbies. There was a camp wide tour at 7:00 while the Scoutmasters met with camp staff. At 9:30 we had the camp wide welcome campfire (pictures on the website); songs, intros, and skits. After that, we headed back to camp and the Scouts headed off to bed, while the adults and leadership had a TLC (Troop Leadership Council) to talk about how things went, and what was happening on Monday.
Monday morning we were going to call revelry at 6:00, but for some reason, that didn't happen until 6:20 or so. Everyone got up and got breakfast going. Wayne the food delivery guy has retired, but Little Joe has been taking good care of us and we got trays of Granny Rolls with our usual food delivery (the rolls are a treat given to troops that help unload the truck). Breakfast was pre-cooked waffles, sausage, and juice.
Two of the second year scouts had a tent set up near a raccoon nest, so they had quite an adventure with the raccoons Sunday night, and ended up moving into a spare tent for the rest of the night. To hear them tell it, the raccoons had glowing red eye, were chasing them, and had knives. We're pretty sure there was some exaggeration in the description.
We had a troop assembly at the flag pole and headed up to the Voyager Lodge for camp wide assembly at 8:30. After more introductions, songs, and announcements, the scouts headed off to their merit badge classes. The first year's had Fish and Wildlife Management & Mammal Studies (two merit badges, one class) and the older Scouts had various other merit badges. During first hour, Mr. Fischer and Trevor (our SPL) met with our commissioner to get some of our troop activity assignments and our Flintlock (older Scout high adventure) activities.
Second and third hour, the new scouts had First Class Adventure (where they work on Tenderfoot, Second Class, and First Class requirements), while the older scouts had various other merit badges. That took us up to lunch; hot dogs, beans, fruit cocktail, and drink. After lunch, the troop split into two groups: one group did Ethics (group dynamic class), while the other did Outdoor Cooking. After an hour, the swapped places. At 3:00 they came back together for a big game of Greasy Watermelon (kind of like water polo with a watermelon covered in Crisco). After playing to a surprisingly (not) tied score, we all cut up and shared the watermelon.
At 4:00 was fourth hour merit badge and swimming classes (the first years had First Class Aquatics).
At 5:00 they headed back to camp to get ready for dinner; ham slices, mashed potatoes, green beans, cookies, and milk.
The leadership supervised the scouts performing clean-up of their sites before they were allowed to go to free time. At free time, they can visit the trading post, or most of the activity centers around the camp; the beach, the archery range, the climbing tower, the rifle range, etc.
At 9:00 it was back to camp, a closing troop assembly, and off to bed for most of the VERY tired scouts. The scouts that had raccoon troubles the night before, moved their tent and had a much better night. The adults and leadership had a TLC and headed off to bed also.
It was a very active night. The raccoons are very big and very active this year. The were crashing around and talking to each other most of the night.
I have to head back to the camp for lunch, so I'm going to sign off now and I'll try to pick it up again later from camp via my Blackberry.
For now, that's all from Many Point Scout Camp. Be sure to watch for pictures on the website. Jon Yearous

Many Point 2010 - Two Weeks and Counting

It seems hard to believe that it is only two weeks until Many Point! I know I can hardly wait.

Actually, I didn't wait....

The first weekend in June was the annual Many Point Work Weekend, and I went up to Many Point to help work on projects to get the camp ready for Scouts.

I helped to build a new Trading Post for Ten Chiefs, while other people fixed up the Voyager Lodge & Trading Posts, and other people built new Radio Stations for the Radio Merit badge class.

While I was there, I decided to walk down to the Fort William and Two Harbors campsites where we will be staying. (You can click on these pictures to view them larger).

It is always weird to see the sites in the spring, before they have been mowed or trampled by Scouts.The road into the site is familiar, but strange. No cars, no tents, no Scouts; just long grass blowing in the breeze.

This year, leadership has decided that the Scoutmaster, Advancement, and Medical tents (and adults) will be staying in the big field in front of Two Harbors, so the old main assembly area should be devoid of tents this year.

This is a view of the Leadership area, as viewed from the Leadership dining tarp. You can see the outhouse in the background (in the center of the picture).

The majority of the adults (other than SM, Adv., & Medical) will be staying at the campsites down the path to the back right of this picture. They will be down near the lake, where the Second Year Scouts stayed last year.


This is the Leadership area as seen coming from the small fire ring.

Here is the small fire ring, just waiting for us to come to sing songs (anyone for the sock song?) and tell stories.

Leadership has decided that the Second Year Scouts will be staying in the small fire ring area this year.

The First Year Scouts will be staying in the campsite between this campsite and the lake.

The open field leading to Two Harbors is just long grass, with a scar that shows where our Troop campfires will be.

The Scoutmaster, Advancement, and Medical tents will be here, and I believe we will be having our troop assemblies here.

The Junior Leadership and Third Year Scouts will be staying in Two Harbors, beyond this field and down by the lake.