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High Adventure Camp at Sycamore Canyon
August 2001
| Participants: Austin Gaylord (illustrious crew leader elected by the boys by an almost unanimous vote earlier in the week at our planning meeting), Chris Southworth, Jonny Valentine, Neal Wright, Kurt Southworth, Dave Wright, Cody Moreash (he joined us on Tuesday night after a long bout with bronchitis), Shawn Gardner, and Justin Reedholm. |
Day One (Saturday):
We arrived into Camp Raymond (base camp) at around noon on Saturday. Once we found where our campsite was and learned that we had "adopted" two other crew-members (you're called a crew as opposed to a troop for some reason that escapes me) that were "dropped off" by their scoutmaster, we set up camp for the first night.
At 4 PM, Kurt, Austin, and I went for our leader orientation at campsite #13. We were given our food (freeze dried meals consisting of gourmet items like beef and potatoes, lasagna, spaghetti, a facsimile of cheese spread with crackers, western omelets, scrambled eggs, (you get the drift by now, right?). We were also given instructions for a compass course called the "Challenge," (which was our last station on our chosen itinerary and is another adventure in this long and interesting experience).
In addition to the above items, we were also given a very important and up to date map (yeah, right), of the entire area of the high adventure camp. Austin was given a highlighter to review all the outposts and to "highlight" the "Legends of the Sycamore" trail in case we were crazy enough to hike an additional 10 miles just for fun. The camp director gave us specific instructions to help us out on our first morning and to orient us to the area (remember, none of us have ever been there before). All three of us specifically heard him say: "Follow the Rim trail around the canyon and you'll be fine………." (Our first outpost was called "Frontiersman" and was the most difficult of all the outposts to find which figures, right?????).
We went back to camp and sat down with our crewmembers to orient them to the map and to go over the week's itinerary, which we had picked out a few weeks earlier. We had our last good supper for a few days at Camp Raymond's five star restaurant prepared by chief chef Wendel (he stayed out of the graciousness of his heart to prepared Saturday night's supper and Sunday morning's breakfast). We also found out that one of our two newest members (Shawn) had never been on a back-packing trip before and his friend Justin didn't have hiking boots, as he preferred Van's instead. We all went to sleep with visions of backpacks dancing in our heads……… |
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Day Two (Sunday):
We woke up at 6 AM (agreed upon the night before begrudgingly by the boys) as this would be our longest hike (9 miles) and we needed to have everything packed and the food for the next 3 days evenly distributed. We also needed to eat by 7:30 (but someone forgot to tell the chief chef Wendel about that time). This was an omen for things to come……….
After our wonderful breakfast we took one last look at the map and took off into the wild, wild, west. We all felt invigorated by the meal, scenery, temperature, our comfortable backpacks which were packed with the most important items such as: blow-pops, lollipops, red licorice, Pringles, snickers, Dr. Pepper, Pepsi, trail mix (wait, that doesn't belong here!!!), you get the drift, right??????
Sycamore Canyon was just beautiful as the "Rim" trail goes along the edge of this wilderness area. We made very good time considering that we had a couple of newbies and "old F_ rts" with us. We stopped for a couple of snapshots of the crew and eventually made our way to a fork in the trail called Sycamore Falls this way, and Sycamore Rim Trail the other way. After looking at the map and realizing that there was no such thing as Sycamore Falls, we made the wise decision to go on the Sycamore Rim Trail remembering the words of the camp director:
"Follow the Rim trail around the canyon and you'll be fine………." The Rim Trail was heading north at this time (we thought we should be turning from west to southwest), but perhaps we weren't quite where we thought we were.
After hiking for an additional hour, we began to have second thoughts, and sure enough, ahead was a fork in the trail that read: Pomeroy Tanks/Overland Trail. After looking at the map again (we did that at least a thousand times), we discovered that we were going in the wrong direction and were almost two miles further north than we should have been. We consulted with each other and made a decision to "bushwhack" cross-country over the "Overland" trail (not on the map but heading due west) to a road that would take us south toward "Frontiersman." After walking over boulders the size of small Volkswagens (slight exaggeration) we came to the road and decided to look for a shady spot to have lunch. We had lunch number one and lunch number two which consisted of swiss cheese spread and cheddar cheese and imitation bacon bits on pilot biscuits guaranteed to feed a total of 8 midgets with the consistency of wet tile grout (which probably would have tasted better).
By this time, it was 12 noon and we had to check into Frontiersman by 1 PM. After consulting the map again, we were encouraged that we had "only about 4 more miles to go " in one hour to find an outpost that a crew the week before had been unable to find on their first day out (but did find the next morning). Oh well, things could be worse, oops, we were running low on water due to our miscalculation (the boys called this lost). We hoofed down the road to the Rock Climbing outpost to get more water only to find that they hadn't gotten their 50 gallon drum filled yet and could only give us 3 quarts of water. (I guess that maybe we should have paid more attention to the camp's recommendation to take a gallon per person instead of 2 to 3 quarts).
Anyway, by this time everyone's nerves were just a bit frayed and the scout's were just slightly disillusioned by our first day's escapades and by their leader's map-reading abilities. However, we felt we could still reach Frontiersman before 4PM. By this time, though, we weren't going as fast as we were in the morning due to several factors, i.e., old f_rtitis, blistered feet, leg cramps, sore knees, you get the picture, right??????? After hiking for another 2 ½ hours, and getting "dusted" by several vehicles and a thousand ATV's, we came to the conclusion that a few of us were running out of gas and also low on water and the better part of valor dictated that we find a good place to camp for the night and swallow our pride. We were close to a water supply called "Ike's" Tank and since we had a couple of water filters, Kurt, Neal, and Dave decided to hike up the road to fill all of our water bottles.
After emptying Dave's backpack (loaded with such necessities as a lounge chair, foot massager, inflatable mattress, a case of Budweiser, just kidding…………) we loaded it up with all the empty water bottles and proceeded on our merry way. After finding the tank, we discovered that cattle, deer, elk, skunks, squirrels, horned toads, and every other living animal known to man were using it. Needless to say, it was pretty disgusting! We tried using Chris's water filter and managed to fill only ½ of a quart bottle with water before the filter was clogged. [Anybody shedding any tears yet?????].
We went back to camp and shared the good news with the rest of the crew and set about planning dinner for the night. After pooling all our water supplies together, we had a grand total of 1 ½ gallons to cook, drink, and get us to our next outpost (Canoeing) which was 6 - 7 miles south of our location. We had a "dry" dinner consisting of teriyaki sticks (2 each), a handful of trail mix each, and 8 oz. of Gatorade so we could conserve our water supply. Dave attempted several times to get through to the base camp at Camp Raymond and finally reached Sheryl (chief medical officer/candy lady/assistant to the director) and found that there was an emergency water supply available at White Horse Lake Campground, so we decided to hike there in the morning and eat breakfast as well as replenish our water supply.
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Day Three (Monday):
The next morning saw us with a renewed sense of confidence in salvaging a disastrous beginning to our high adventure experience. We got to White Horse Lake and had an excellent breakfast of freeze-dried scrambled eggs and freeze-dried hash browns (Richmoor freeze-dried breakfast and dinners are much better than their lunches). We replenished our water supplies and head down towards JD Dam Lake (and easy 5 mile hike). We arrived in about 2 hours to find no counselors but a note directing us to camp in "yonder" clearing and not to go anywhere near the lake until they got back.
We set up camp and discovered that there was a different kind of freeze-dried food available at the counselor's campsite (we had been told there would be several varieties available from a donated Y2K supply). We chose the Mountain House Chili Mac with beans that served 8 and boiled up some water and had a great lunch. By that time our counselor (Andrew who was just turning 15) showed up from the lake and told us to be ready around 1 PM to go back down for canoeing. While we were waiting, Dave walked down to the lake with his portable shower bag and filled it so it could warm while we were doing the canoeing events.
JD Dam Lake is a small manmade lake with a large marshy/reedy area on the west side and several small islands that makes for a great canoeing experience. We had a wet t-shirt contest (that perked the boys right up until they realized that the contest involved how far and how accurate could you throw a wet t-shirt), canoe races while fetching floating balloons out in the lake attached to milk jugs, blind canoeing with three scouts (two blind-folded and one acting as guide through an obstacle course), and capture the flag at night in canoes, which was a favorite! Have Austin tell you about his talent at attempting to change canoes in the middle of the lake at night.
Eric Earl, the director of the camp came by and asked about how our first two days had gone and to also tell us that he had made arrangements that would enable us to go to the Frontiersman Outpost on Tuesday in the morning and than on to the Chuck Wagon Outpost in the afternoon so that good news made our day. Dave and Kurt took a luke- warm shower (top half of the body), and it looked so good to some of the scouts that a couple more did the same.
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| Day Four (Tuesday):
We were woke up by a loud noise that sounded like something was seriously ill or dying. It sounded like a cross between a broken bugle and a sick cow. Dave decided that it must be a small bull elk trying out his bugling, but this thought was quickly dispelled when a medium to large young black angus bull came wandering into camp about 40 feet away. He was furious and was pawing at the ground while emanating this ungodly noise. In the distance, we could hear a similar, but older, more defined noise. The camp counselor said that it was a young bull that had gotten chased out of the herd by the larger bull and he was a little upset about the whole thing. He advised Kurt and Dave get the rest of the crew up and he might charge the camp. This made the scouts happy, of course. Finally, he went bellowing off towards the east and the crew decided that they wanted pancakes for breakfast. Ever try cooking enough freeze-dried pancakes with mess kits for 9 people???? Let's just say that we managed to cook one large pancake per person and leave it at that. Anyway, after consulting the map once again and with input from the counselors that had visited us the day before from the Chuck Wagon Outpost, we decided to hike approximately halfway north to Frontiersman and hide our packs by a fence line, take water bottles with us and proceed the rest of the way to Frontiersman (with the intention of hiking back down to our backpacks and bushwhacking east to the Chuck Wagon Outpost by 4 PM). We found the Frontiersman Outpost with little difficulty and "Big Mountain" was expecting us. He then taught our crew safety and proper technique for loading the .44 caliber black power guns and the scouts/adults had a ball trying to hit playing cards approximately 40 yards away. "Deadeye" Kurt nailed a card as well as Justin. "Big Mountain" also put a quarter on the target and had a special "prize" for anyone who could hit it. Needless to say, none of us hit it (nor did anyone else from the other 5 crews that week). We went back down to meet up with "Grey Fox", the archery counselor to find out that he was just starting lunch (apparently, he didn't get the word that we were being worked in and had to be at Chuck Wagon by 4 PM). He rushed through his lunch in 30 minutes and we went to the target range and shot several arrow a piece to get used to the equipment and then went out into the forest where he had several foam animal targets set up as well as "planted" animal signs for the boys to find. This was a point competition and whoever had the highest points from the week would get 1st, 2nd, or 3rd place from all the crews. You obtained your points by hitting the target (the closer to the bull's-eye the higher the points), finding elk/deer droppings, hair, blood (biodegradable red paint), elk/deer/bear/or other critter's tracks, etc. Austin ended up getting 63 points with Neal and Jonny coming in 2nd and 3rd respectively. All the scouts had a good time at this outpost. |
We left Frontiersman and hiked back to the packs. The hike over to Chuck Wagon was rocky and steep in places, but we arrived there before our 4 PM deadline (we later discovered that no one had taken this route to get there before and that "Big Mountain" was planning to hike that route the next morning for breakfast). There we met "General" Rasner and "Colonel" Becker, chief cook and bottle washer (I mean chief cook and dutch oven extraordinaire, according to the General, but then we know better, right Mr. Mikac?). This meal was to be our best meal of the week and we had planned to have it in the middle of our itinerary just for that reason. We were given about 18 chicken thighs, large tortillas, rice, onion, garlic, bell pepper, 1 can of chicken broth, canned tomatoes, about 30 charcoals, lighter fluid, and told to cook up a meal that would be judged by taste, texture, and creativity by the "General" himself. We also had several spices to choose from. The scouts chose to make chicken and rice fajitas. Kurt and Dave decided that we would not participate in this at all and leave it up to the boys to fend for themselves while we rested our weary bones.
The crew worked hard de-boning all the thighs and cutting up the vegetables while others worked at getting the coals started. We got marked off 50 points right away by the "General" for failing to have any fire buckets around the fire ring where the coals were getting ready. We were also informed that we would lose 25 points for each time we walked through the "General and Colonel's" campsite. While our meal was cooking the "Colonel/ dutch oven extraordinaire" gave us some peach pie filling and cake mix and told the crew to make a cobbler that he would judge when finished. The "General" bragged that no one could make as good a cobbler as the "Colonel," but our scouts stated that "no one can match Mr. Mikac's cobbler, and he just harrumphed…
The boys mixed up the cobbler and started it cooking as well, while some of us went and played "wilderness" horseshoes. It was a rocky area with clumps of grass around the poles, which made for some challenging bounces.
While dinner was cooking, we were informed that Cody would be joining us that evening for dinner. Sheryl (chief medical officer/candy- lady/assistant to the director) showed up with Cody and a supply of pop, juice, and candy. Of course, the boys bought all the juice she had (yeah, right………). While we were just getting ready to eat, the "Colonel" came over and said it was time to play horseshoes for points. Kurt and I looked at each other and thought, "is this guy nuts?" We have nine people that missed lunch and he wants to play horseshoes when dinner is ready?????Anyway, fortunately, the "General" pulled rank and allowed us to eat first. The chicken and rice fajita mixture was finally ready and we all enjoyed a hearty and tasty meal. While the cobbler was cooking, we played horseshoes for points. By the time we finished, it was dark and we went back to camp to check on the cobbler. The boys judged it to be done and so we all had dessert. We invited the "Colonel" (dutch oven extraordinaire) over for a taste test and he declared it was the best cobbler he had tasted all week. The crew was pretty proud until he said we were the first crew through that week.
As you can tell, these guys didn't have much of a sense of humor, but the highlight of this outpost was when Neal asked "General" Rasner if he had ever hiked from the Chuck Wagon Outpost to Frontiersman, and he grabbed his beer belly and stated, "Do I look like I hike?"
We then were told that we would be playing night horseshoes. Kurt and Dave looked at each other with glee that we would be doing another activity, instead of soaking our poor little doggies. O'boy, when do we start???? This actually turned out to be quite fun and took our minds off our aches and pains. Glow sticks were attached to the poles and to the horseshoes so you could play. It was very dark as the moon had not even reached ¼ status and the sky was overcast. Again, the "General" added up our points and emphatically stated that we had the highest score of the week, and yes, again, we were the first crew of the week. Nice guy, huh??????
We all went to bed anticipating the next day's breakfast as we were also being given "real" food to cook.
Oh, we also got our second delivery of the Richmoor freeze-dried food for the rest of the week and were allowed to dump our trash at this outpost. The second batch of Richmoor food had other varieties like: Lasagna, spaghetti, and, I believe some kind of tuna mixture. |
Day Five (Wednesday):
We woke to a nice sunny day and went to the "General's" motor home to retrieve our breakfast. We had eggs, sausage, flour, oil, and water from which to make it. The "General" gave the crew instructions, but we knew we had an "ace in the hole" as this was Chris's specialty. Chris used the dutch oven to cook the sausage and gravy while the rest of the crew mixed up the biscuits and eggs and cooked them. Again, another success for breakfast and at least the "General" didn't judge us for this. We actually picked up an additional 100 points as Neal used some nylon rope he had and fixed one of the cabinets that needed support.
After bidding "General Rasner" and "Colonel Becker" a fond farewell, we headed north to the Rock-climbing Outpost. When we reached White Horse Lake (halfway point), we consulted the map and took a vote about whether we should bushwhack to the rim trail and hike to rock climbing or take the road to rock climbing. Dave, Neal, and Austin (the fools) elected to bushwhack to the trail while the rest of the crew stuck to the road. So, off we went on our merry ways. After about 30 minutes, Dave, Neal, and Austin came to the realization that there was no rim trail on the west side of Sycamore Canyon, even though we were led to believe by our esteemed camp director (Erik Earl) that there was. So, we just kept heading north and kept our fingers crossed. We did startle about 4 cow elk, which made our morning. After consulting the map, we decided to stick close to the rim until we came to a part of the canyon that looked like the area for rock climbing.
After another 45 minutes, we came to a large sinkhole like depression that was approximately 200 feet across and 60 feet deep. Again, after consulting the map, we determined we were exactly east of the Rock Climbing Outpost and so off we headed. Sure enough, we were at the road and walked into the outpost just behind the rest of our crew. We all high-fived each other for a successful map-reading experience.
We were directed to an area north east of the counselor's camp (this outpost had 5 counselors) and set up camp. We had another Mountain House freeze-dried lunch and went up to the counselor's camp at 1 PM for instructions. The sky was pretty overcast by this time and looked threatening. They went over safety and rules and for some reason they decided that Kurt and Dave needed to go through some calisthenics to make sure their feet, legs, and backs were in more pain. The rest of the crew also did this with us, but we did discover that every crew was required to do calisthenics (still haven't figured out the point in this). We put our harnesses on, which was quite an ordeal since there was another crew of about 12 there with us. This took about 45 minutes until we were ready and then we had to hike about ½ a mile to the area for climbing. It started drizzling about this time, but we still went as you know how fickle the high country can be and the counselors still held out hope we might be able to climb. By the time we got to the cliff area called the "Obsidian Wall," it was raining very hard. |
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Mind you, both Kurt and I had told all the crewmembers to bring raingear before we started for the climbing area, but you know boys (adults have lower IQ's than 14 year olds) and so, Austin, Jonny, and Cody decided they didn't need raingear (Real men don't get wet, right?). For some reason that escapes me, the counselors felt compelled to wait from 2PM until 3PM to see if it would quit raining and dry up sufficiently to climb. Mind you, it had already been raining for approximately 30 minutes at this time. So, after standing, sitting, and running in the rain for 1½ hours, they finally called off rock climbing. Austin, Jonny, and Cody were soaked to the bone while the rest of us were wet from the knees down. We trudged back to camp very disappointed. Oh well, at look at the bright side, none of us got struck by the lightning that was hitting all around us. |
We had another great Mountain House freeze-dried dinner plus Mountain House freeze-dried corn and Mountain House freeze-dried pineapple, yep; they plump when you add water! If, by this time you haven't figured out by now that most of the Richmoor freeze-dried was less than palatable, than you're dumber than that poor young Black Angus steer was.
I had forgotten to mention that several of our scouts had graduated from sleeping in tents to the "manly" art of "sleeping under the stars." They had gotten away with this up until now, so Kurt and Dave informed everyone that they must come up with plan B in case it rained, which was extremely probable. Austin was going to run to Neal's tent; Jonny was going to run to Cody's tent; and Justin was going to run to Shawn's tent. Needless to say, that did happen around 1AM. |
Day Six (Thursday):
This was the day that Kurt and Dave were looking forward to: The Cope Outpost!!!!!! That meant a nice hot shower back at Camp Raymond since that's where Cope was. We had a nice healthy breakfast of reconstituted dry milk and granola cereal which all the boys were thrilled about and waited until around 8:30AM to see if any of our rock climbing counselors would wake up and confirm yea or nay about climbing that morning.
Oh, I forgot to tell you that the second crew that was there with us had agreed to let us go first this morning if rock climbing was allowed, which was very kind since they had gotten there first on Wednesday. That crew was a very senior Venture Crew from Mesa. In fact, one of them fascinated our crew. His name was Derrick and he had running bets with the rest of his crewmembers. He would eat insects for money. Depending on what type, i.e., a small worm was only worth $5.00. We saw him eat a worm, but that was all anyone was willing to risk their candy/pop money for. Seriously, this crew was a great group of young men. |
Anyway, we finally saw life up at the counselor's campsite and Dave went up to confirm that, yes, climbing for the day was canceled for safety reasons. So, we took a look at the map to confirm our directions and started towards Camp Raymond, a nice easy hike of approximately 5 miles. Our boots were soaked and we sounded like a bunch of sponges walking through the woods. By the way, the day before, we found out where Sycamore Falls was (remember, this is what threw us for a loop on Sunday when we came to the fork in the trail). It made perfect sense that Sycamore Falls was the beginning of the canyon now that we had seen it, but we couldn't figure out why they weren't shown on the map or why Eric Earl hadn't told us about them.
By this time, we had several scouts that had a lot of blisters on their feet and the combination of wet boots and socks didn't help matters. Those scouts without blisters, i.e., Austin, Jonny, Neal, and Cody insisted on walking faster than everyone else, so we had to put them in the back, much to their dismay. We made good time into camp and arrived around noon. We set up our camp again and had lunch (yes, you guessed it, another Mountain House meal). While the boys were getting lunch ready, the leaders went down to the Cope Outpost counselor's camp to find out the agenda for the day. We talked them into giving us an extra ½ hour to eat, etc. and would meet up at 1:30.
After lunch, the crew gathered around the counselors while they all explained what Cope was about. This was a great group of guys, definitely the best we'd seen all week. Neal Wright was especially pleased as the director of Cope also had the name; Neal spelled the correct way, according to Neal W. The other guys were Phillip and Michael. We had to do some teambuilding exercises first, which, actually, were quite fun. There were four different games/exercises, two of which were favorites; the spider web (which consisted of a maze of string with little bells attached that you had to crawl through, over, and under without making the bells ring. If the bells rung, you had to start over again). The other game was a triangle made up of a thick steel cable that two scouts had to start at the narrow end (approx. 3 feet wide) with attached hands and finish at the wider end (approx. 8 feet wide) without touching the ground. After several tries, Dave volunteered to partner with Neal (counselor) so he could show us how to do it.
It was a pretty neat experience. After the four teambuilding exercises, the counselors told us to eat dinner and be back at 6PM for the more difficult/scary portion of Cope. |
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After dinner (again, another Mountain House meal, thank God for the Y2K donation), we headed down to the high adventure Cope course. There were three portions of the course. A 30-40 foot high walk across a pole, a 50-60 foot high walk across a cable, and a 50-60 foot high ride off a platform on a zip line back to earth. After putting on our safety harnesses and hardhats we were ready. Neal W. had volunteered to go first, so he climbed a swinging hanging metal ladder up to the 30-40 foot pole and Kurt was the belayer for the crew while Dave took pictures with everyone's camera. With all the crew shouting encouragement to Neal, he got over his initial fright about balancing with nothing to hold onto and managed to quickly walk across the pole. From that point, everyone else relaxed a bit and enjoyed the three activities, and, in fact, wanted to go again, but there wasn't enough daylight left when we were all done. |
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That evening we looked at the map and determined that the last item on our itinerary; the Challenge Outpost, which was 6 miles to the northwest was probably doable in one day if we dropped about the third of the weight from our backpacks and only carried the necessities (bedroll, water, food, 3 tents for nine people, and medical kits). So, we all voted and it was unanimous. We would head out from camp on Friday morning with the intention of hiking a total of 12 miles in one day so we wouldn't have to get up so early Saturday morning for the return trip as the closing ceremony started at 10 AM.
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Day Seven (Friday):
We woke up and had another good breakfast of freeze-dried scrambled eggs and freeze-dried hash browns, packed up, and headed out for KA Hill and the Challenge Outpost. We made excellent time and reached the outpost in about 2 hours and 15 minutes. Another excellent map reading, but unfortunately, about a quarter mile from the outpost, Dave realized that in his glee to lighten his 50 lb. Backpack, he had left the instructions for the Challenge Outpost back at camp. The Challenge Outpost (no staff at this outpost) consisted of compass orienteering to find the water supply for the day, a fire-starter, rope and poles to build a shelter, and a disposable camera to take a picture of the fire and shelter.
We certainly weren't going to go back to camp six miles and get the directions, so we decided to just spread out and see what we could find. The water supply was easy, fortunately. We also found some rope and the fire-starter, but couldn't find the poles and the camera. After searching for two hours while Kurt cooked up three of the Richmoor freeze-dried Lasagnas, we decided to call it quits and ate lunch. The crew had built a shelter out of branches and pine needles so we took a picture with our own camera and also of the crew starting a fire. We left the outpost around 1 PM and took a different route back over KA Hill (a climb of about 700 feet to the summit of around 7300 feet). Again, we had to hold back the fast climbers since this was a hard climb for the old f_rts in the group. We made it back to camp by 4PM, another good day, except for the forgetfulness of Dave. Oh well, I'm sure there'll be some great Alzheimer's award awaiting him sometime in the near future……….
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Day Eight (Saturday):
We let the crew sleep in until 830AM as we only had to pack up camp and be down at Camp Raymond's campfire area for the closing ceremony at 10AM. The scouts had decided that they didn't want to eat breakfast and save their appetites for some "real food" in Flagstaff, you know, stuff like Jack in the Box, McDonalds, etc. After we were packed up, Austin and the crew checked for litter in our base camp and we went to the closing awards ceremony.
We were surprised to hear that we qualified for the Trail Blazers of the Sycamore award and we got patches, which are quite unique. We also qualified for the 50 Miler Afoot Patch. Austin ended up placing second overall out of all the scouts in the six crews on the Archery portion of the Frontiersman Outpost. "Grey Fox" made him an arrowhead neck ornament to wear. Shawn Gardner (one of our adopted crewmembers) placed second overall in the accuracy portion of the "wet t-shirt" contest at the Canoeing Outpost.
In looking back at the week and talking to each of the scouts in our crew, we feel that this was well worth all the aches and pains. It was a definite learning experience for both the youth and the adults. This will be something that everyone will remember for a long time. Kurt and Dave both recommend this high adventure camp for future consideration by the planning committee.
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