Ian has had a busy summer - two weeks out of school, and he has two weeks of camping with the Boy Scouts done!
He started out with the merit badge-oriented camp the day after school let out. Catherine, Leah, and I drove down last weekend to pick him up. We spent the night locally, since he and I had Lenhok'sin, the "high adventure" camp the following week.
We started out hiking to a local mountain with a great view, then back down to do some caving, which all of the boys enjoyed. After caving, since it was the 3rd of July (which is when we celebrated the 4th - less disruption to the campers), we were treated to hot showers before finding a place to relax on the hillside overlooking the lake and the fireworks launch site.
The next day, we hiked to the rock climbing outpost, but due to rain, we were unable to climb. We did get in a great little swim at a swimming hole. Too wet to climb, but not too wet to swim. We tried again the next morning, but it had rained most of the night, and as soon as we got to the climbing wall (about a mile from where we camped), it started to rain...again.
So we traipsed back to our backpacks, and made our way to the Foxfire outpost. We did 2 hours of a service project, improving the trail to Foxfire, then the Scouts got to forge their own knives out of rebar.
The instructor there was great with the boys, this was easily the best outpost we had visited yet.
We also made bullets and dipped candles, and finished out the evening with some popcorn cooked up in the dutch oven.
Just when we thought Foxfire couldn't be beat, along came the Mountain Man outpost. The Scouts (and later the adults) got to load and shoot a blackpowder rifle, learned about trapping, and everyone's favorite - tomahawk throwing. Cue the Mel Gibson "The Patriot" jokes...
We got back home late this morning. We hike 35+ miles over the past 5 days, enjoyed the outposts along the way, with absolutely no complaining (other than tired muscles and sore joints from the dads)! Ian and I had a great time, but now we are enjoying being home with Catherine and Leah.
Cheers,
Marc
