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Thursday was a rain-free day at camp.   The members of troop 108 all wore their new troop “summer camp” shirts and looked sharp.

Those boys that were taking merit badge courses in the nature area were treated to a visit from two wolf cubs from a local wildlife conservation group.   The cubs moved around the seated group and allowed the scouts and scouters to pet them.   The speaker for the group also gave a presentation about the organization.

Many of the troop members hiked up to Raven Knob (some for the 3rd time).   Since they were all wearing the summer camp shirts, the really stood out as a group to those looking up at Raven Knob from base camp.   Even our own ASPL, Matthew H, hiked it just 31 days after his major surgery without even breaking a sweat and treated himself to a Slush Puppie from the trading post upon his return.

Several of the boys who were participating in the Wilderness Survival and  Camping merit badges cooked their own supper and slept out in the primitive camping area – away from the troop.   All returned to the troop’s site with a smile of satisfaction early on Friday morning

The camp’s email server has been down all week, so any email messages you sent from their webpage to your scout have not been received.

Wow! Time flies when you’re busy running from one merit badge class to another and then to meals and free time activities.

Everyone is doing great at Raven Knob. The food is typical camp food, but the leaders complain that the portion sizes leave a lot to be desired. Thank goodness for the trading post and their Slush Puppies, Popcorn, and plate-sized cookies (still warm from the oven).

Monday we had a few light showers as we all tried to figure out who needed to be where…and when.   Some scouts travel from one end of the camp to the other just to get from one class to the next.   Had we realized where the classes were held when we were making out the schedules, we might have been able to save them some wear and tear on their feet.   Something to keep in mind for next year, I guess.

Tuesday remained rain free and our youngest scouts hiked up to Raven’s Knob (650 feet above the camp) as part of the Raven Scout program. Later in the day the leaders decided that the scouts in our troop had a choice of either going to free swim or hiking to “The Knob”. Most scouts quickly choose free swim, but a few were left in camp and they could either hike around the lake or head up to the knob. Four leaders and several Venture Patrol members braved the trails as one of the groups went higher and higher. ASM Helms was the last to arrive at the rock outcropping, but he made it and has pictures to prove it.

ASM Campbell and ASM Kelly are participating in the Safe Climbing program and will be qualified to take the troop’s scouts on climbing adventures in the future. They had already hiked to the knob on Tuesday morning and had done some rapelling from the outcrop but elected to go a second time with the Venture Patrol members on Tuesday Evening.

Wednesday was a mostly dry day. We had the opportunity to fix our own lunch in-camp and then had several visitors including Mr. Chambers (our troop committee chairman) and a few of the scout’s families join us for an in-camp pizza feast for supper.

After supper we made our way down to the OA Arena and as we got closer the light sprinkles that were falling from the sky turned into droplets and lots of them. The OA hurried through the ceremony where several members of Troop 108 were called to become members of the OA. From our troop the following boys were voted in by their peers back in March of this year:

• Matthew H
• Joe C
• David T
• Brent L

Also elected by the other adults in the troop was ASM Tom Kelly.

The rain stopped about the time they finished up the ceremony but most of the group was drenched by then anyway.

We wrapped up the evening by handing out the new troop summer camp t-shirts for 2009.   Everyone in the troop will be wearing these on Thursday and then they’ll get the Camp Raven Knob shirts on Thursday night that they will wear on Friday.

We got settled into the Kit Carson site and some of the guys that needed swim test took them. We took a “three hour tour” of camp noting the most important locations…the trading post, the dining hall and oh, did I mention the trading post?

I believe we have the largest troop in camp and all of our guys have been well behaved, so far. We are the first into the dining hall at the beginning of the week, but we’ll be last the second half of the week.

We all enjoyed the opening campfire put on by the staff and MOST of our guys went to sleep when they were supposed to. A few (in the Eagle Patrol) were still chatting and generally being obnoxious at 2AM – even after several visits by the scoutmasters. They got to clean the campsite latrine after breakfast this morning. 🙂

Click the webcam picture   to go to Raven Knob’s website. Click the weather info to be taken to a weather underground page about the current conditions forecast for Raven Knob.