Hello from Ashburn,
I was so busy on Thursday night and Friday that I wasn’t able to complete post a blog entry until now.
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Today is Thursday and we are getting close to the end of our stay here at Olmsted and I don’t think we have any boys jumping up and down ready to go home. They have gotten very settled into their daily routines and comfortable at our campsite now.
Today three of our adults leaders finished their IOLS training and I took Scoutmaster Conference and Board of Review training. We are all a little smarter about scouting!
We ate lunch at the Archery range today. After they ate, our Troop was able to practice their archery skills.
After dinner, the camp opened up their shooting sports program areas to any scout that wanted to shoot…. and they got to shoot anything they wanted… anything, except, of course, people, animals, etc. Our boys shot their playing cards, their Olmsted hats, a pen (which in fact had to be a very good shot!) and small packages of applesauce. It was definitely a fun way to show off their shooting skills!
On Thursday evening, the Scorpion patrol went off to their overnight campout at the parade field. They enjoyed a campfire with s’mores with the camp staff. Back at our campsite, the rest of our Troop had a campfire. I cooked my world famous Apple Cobbler and another adult bought a few packages of popcorn. As I said before, these scouts will not go hungry at camp!
After seeing a neighboring Troop do this, we had 3 scouts decide to sleep overnight in their hammocks for the first time. I think we will be having some scouts sleeping from the trees on future outings! They really enjoyed it and said it was surprisingly comfortable.
As we woke up and started our day on Friday, we learned from the rest of the camp that a black bear visited Camp Olmsted during the evening, rummaging through trash cans looking for food. This was a great opportunity to teach the scouts that when we go camping, we should never bring food into our tents. It should always be stored in a bear box or in someone’s car. After all, the forest is the home of black bears, raccoons, skunks, and other animals and we are just visiting.
Friday was a day to finish up any incomplete MBs and to have some fun. Mr. Bonina, Mr. Parikh and Mr. Van Hulle took a few scouts on a hike that overlooked the lake at camp. Some scouts went fishing and some stayed back at the campsite, played cards and practiced their fire making skills. Also, I held 3 Scoutmaster Conferences for rank advancements. Later in the afternoon, the camp held an “Olympics” competition where Troops competed against each other in events like tug o’war, water ballon toss, knot tying and soccer and a few others. Our Troop did a great job competing.
Friday evening was the closing campfire, where the Scouts at camp had the opportunity to perform skits for all of the Troops at camp. It was a great time.
As you can tell, I didn’t include pictures on this post. Mr Parikh and I will be compiling the rest of the pictures and posting them in the Troop Photo albums. Once we’re done, we’ll send a message so everyone can go see.