Troop 1131:

Only a 70% chance of no-rain is what we were told at breakfast yesterday. By the mid morning, however, all of the other 30% spent its fury on the camp. We got thunder, lightning, and a downpour of several inches, I estimate, in about a half an hour. Amazingly, all our tents held up, our boys' gear stayed "dry," and we really didn't have a problem. Scouts were at their various program areas, and all have shelters, so the boys just watched nature take her course. The rest of the day was fine.

We conducted four Boards of Review last night. Matt Robb earned his Star Rank, TJ Farrell, Daniel Schmoker and Patrick Spahn earned their Second Class Ranks. Other new scouts are very close to earning their next rank too.

At noon, James Tiffany took our new scouts and several adults "up-the-knob." They hiked to the rocky out cropping that the camp is named for, and were rewarded with a great view of the raven shaped lake below. The boys returned sweaty, but proud of their accomplishment. The camp has installed a couple of ladders to help people on the last and steepest part of the climb.

At 10:00 p.m., the people taking Nature merit badge and those taking Reptile and Amphibian Studies merit badge went on a Frog Hunt. I am not sure if they actually got any frogs.

Each year, I bring funny and interesting stories and poems to camp to read to our scouts at one of our troop campfires. I did that last night, and it's amazing how many of the boys remembered the Cremation of Sam McGee and Reincarnation for past years. We built the campfire using some fire starters as the wood was very wet, but once lit, the fire burned well. The troop's oven was out to good use too as we cooked Pizza and roasted marshmallows, or made some leftover s'mores. Of course, we have many chess sets available, and some of our scouts are excellent chess players. Some of the boys brought cards and poker chips so sometimes our campsite looks like a little Las Vegas.

There's another troop, T-1350, from the National Capital Area Council in camp with us this year. They are from the Dumfries area in Prince William County. Some of their scouts visited our campsite and had pizza with us last night while some of our scouts visited them and had some "pies" that they made. Mike Tiffany and Gary Klinger also visited their campsite to talk to their leaders.

This morning, breakfast included biscuits and gravy. I went around to each of our tables and encouraged the boys to crumble the biscuits into the gravy and to at least taste the dish. Many of our scouts had never seen biscuits and gravy before, but enjoyed the meal; however, a few scouts would not have anything to do with biscuits and gravy. Wesley Barnhill, brought his favorite cereal, cocoa pebbles, to camp because he thought he would not like the food here. In fact, he has enjoyed almost everything they have served, and until this morning has not touched his cocoa pebbles. This morning however, cocoa pebbles rescued him from having to eat biscuits and gravy. One of our adults, Dave Stearrett, Nathaniel's dad, said he loved the biscuits and gravy. We're going to miss Dave as he heads home this morning. He was a big help in camp.

Speaking of dads, David Sevier, who left camp Monday, returned to camp with his younger son, Christopher yesterday. His older son, Caleb, one our new scouts, is reported to have said that he didn't realize his father and brother weren't in camp. Caleb was having too much fun, to notice his father and brother were missing.

Tonight, the families of scouts from the local council, the Old Hickory Council in Winston- Salem, will visit camp. Many bring chicken dinners for their home troops. Our troop will create our "world famous" Taco Bar. To create our Taco Bar, I bring soft tortillas and hard shells, refried beans, salsa, and spices from home; we get ground beef, lettuce, tomatoes and onions from the camp dining hall, and we buy sour cream in town. The scouts cook the ground beef in our Dutch ovens. Generally, our scouts consider this the best meal of the week. This year, our new scouts will prepare this meal as part of their cooking requirements.

I think yesterday was one of the best days in camp. At our PLC meeting at the end of the day, all the boys seemed in high spirits and agreed that camp was going extremely well. Even some of the home sickness seems to have worn off. Because the troop is so large, we have many boys in the PLC at camp. Each new scout patrol has two troop guides and each patrol has both a Patrol Leader and an Assistant Patrol Leader sitting on the PLC. The junior leaders seem to enjoy having the leadership responsibilities, and they are really helping the younger scouts.

Philip Sternberg
Scoutmaster