Update 5

Update 5

Friday Morning

It’s clear that we are nearing the end of our Many Point experience 2013. A few more scouts have taken the initiative to sleep a little later than usual, and conclude that 8:05 is “close enough” to 8:00.

Thursday was a day of preparation—for “the fire”. All the first week scouts know what I’m talking about! On Thursday, the troop builds a massive bonfire. Wyatt led the lumberjack crew in constructing a two story behemoth. How they continue to find dead trees and dry deadfall is beyond me.  A few staff members came down to the site to watch the inferno and entertain us.  Ted and Brody manned the fire pumps to prevent the burning embers from torching the site (they were over 100 feet in the air). We sang songs, celebrated birthdays for Jack “Westy”, Jack P, and Noah. We had a never ending version of the  “…don’t wear no socks” song. Oh…and I told the TRUE story of the Many Point Yeti. It was a memorable event!

Thursday was also a day of preparation for the future of Troop 346. When I left for camp last Friday, I had no way of knowing that I was going to encounter a very personal and profound sign that has pointed me back towards Scouting. I shared my story with the Scouts and adults in camp as the fire turned to embers during the Scoutmaster’s minute. I would like to share that story with all the remaining parents of Many Point campers at the Many Point follow up meeting on Monday at Spasso (back room) from 7-8:00pm. It’s a cool story and will have a long term effect on our Troop. Plus, it’s important that ALL many point scout parents attend this meeting.

As Friday dawned, our final preparations for departure are starting to take place. Our goal is to leave camp about 10:00. Cars are estimated to return to the church sometime between 2:30 and 3:30. All Scouts that attended Many Point (including week 1) should plan on showing up at the church to unload the trailer, and take equipment home for a good cleaning). Remember…there are bikes that will need to be picked up.

If you are planning on picking your son up at camp, please understand that nobody can leave until we have been given clearance from Peter, our commissioner.

This is the last blog posting from Many Point 2013. It’s been a special week.  I’m already looking forward to Many Point 2014. Thank you for putting your trust in the adult leaders, and for allowing your son to experience Many Point and Scouting at its finest.

Yours in Scouting,

Greg Sanderson

Update 4

Sorry that I have not been able to keep up the blog with the regularity of Mr. Bassett.

We are down to 18 scouts and 6 adult leaders spread out over two large campsites.  I presume that week 2 is a little quieter than week 1. All Scouts and leaders eat in one patrol—which has made for some challenging cooking and cleaning issues. We’re working it out. SPL Drew, and his ASPL’s have done a terrific job of making sure that we eat on time, and are (kind of) cleaned up on time.

Monday Morning: In my nearly 40 years of scouting, and countless numbers of morning wake up calls involving bugles, banging pots and pans, and an occasional tent being dropped on the scout(s) who has taken it upon himself to grab a few extra minutes of sleep, I was awakened to a far cooler, and profoundly more pleasant wake up call; Cal plays his acoustic guitar in front of each tent. So far, we’ve been awakened to “Vertigo” and “In the Name of Love” by U2, and by Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit”. It’s a great wake up, with my kind of music, and the results are better. The result is a VERY happy Scoutmaster, and far less of the shockingly un-Scout like language that can spew from a tent when metal spoon meets metal pot inches from a sleeping Boy Scout. BEST. WAKE-UP. EVER.

Another great addition to Many Point for week 2 is BIKES! We don’t have to leave 10 minutes early for everything.  Biking around camp has been great. On Tuesday, we took an 8 mile Bike Trek up to Administration on the “old road”, that goes directly through Flintlock, Yeti Swamp, and Ten Chiefs beach (the program camp immediately to the north of Flintlock). Scoutmaster Greg took the trekkers to see Gaylord’s lodge, built in the 20’s as a hunting lodge. Robert Gaylord was a lumber baron who donated the land to Scouts that is now Many Point. After a short time at Gaylords, we started back towards Voyager after a short stop at the Tents In The Trees outpost to look at the Robinson Caruso style treehouses. Scouts can sign up to spend a night in the trees. VERY COOL.

On Tuesday all members of Troop 346 participated in at least one leg of the Iron Man competition. The Iron Man is Many Points version of a triathalon: It’s a ¼ mile canoe, 100 yards swim, and approximately a 2 mile run. I’m still waiting on official results, but Troop 346 was well represented at the finish line.

Also on Tuesday night was the special party that we host for the staff every year. We made dutch oven desserts and funnel cakes for the Voyager staff. As a former staff member, I can tell you that the staff loves to get Troop invites like this. They entertained us with songs, and we entertained them with massive volumes of sugar and fried doughy goodness.

Wednesday greeted us with a stringer of Walleye from Mr. Oas, Mr. Westerlund, and David Beck (of course, the scout caught the most and biggest fish).  Delicious!

Thursday we have 3 Birthdays (what are the odds?) Jack Westerlund, Jack Peters, Noah Goset. HAPPY BIRTHDAY

Here is a list of things that the adult leaders apologies to parents in advance

• ·         Texas Hold’em.
• ·         Uncontrollable urge to sharpen your knives
• ·         BEGGING you for another pocket knife
• ·         Perfect square knots in all your mini-blind pulls
• ·         Moldy socks at the bottom of their dirty clothes
• ·         Using the large tree in your backyard as a bathroom
• ·         Little curls of wood (from whittling) on your front porch
• ·         That smell
• ·         Those shoes

Until next time.

Greg Sanderson