In our group Haliburton is a yearly week-long camp. Once, every year 60 of us go up to Haliburton Scout Reserve for a week at the end of July and beginning of August. This is a report of this year's camp.
Saturday, June 30 - Everyone has to get up early today, we have to beat the Burlington GO station for 6:30. We board the bus and leave around6:45. We have started the trip to Haliburton. After a couple hours of driving we stop at the New Dutch Oven. This is where we have breakfast. Breakfast is a buffet with all the regular stuff and a glass of orange juice. After a while we get back on the road and we don't stop until we get there. When we arrived, we found that the truck with all of our equipment has not yet arrived. We waited around for a couple of hours for it to arrive. When it did arrive we unloaded all the stuff and put it on barges and headed over to our site. Our site this year was Beacrobra Bay. Beacrobra Bay is on the far side of thelargest island on the lake from the Hub. The Hub is where most of the activities are and where the store is. When we got to our site we set up the group shelter and kitchen and then we all found campsites and set up our tents. After we were done that we came back and ate the dinner that theScouters had prepared for us. We all hung around and talked and playedcards until we had mug-up and went to bed.
Sunday, June 31 - This morning after Breakfast we were divided into our Patrols. There are six patrols, each of which has one day on which they make all the meals for that day. Each patrol is paired with another and thosetwo do all their activities together for the week. We also have the boardexplained to us. At our campsite there is a large board that has poker chips with numbers on them hanging on it. There is one for each person. Each person has a number. What we do with these is if for example if you wantedto go swimming and there was a leader supervising swimming, you would take your number off the board and bring it to the leader who is supervising swimming, give it to them and go swimming. When you are done you take your chip back and put it back on the board. This way the leaders know howmany heads they should see in the water. Also, if you want to go to the Hub, have found a canoe partner to go with and have asked a leader if you can go,what you have to do is put your chip on top of your partner's and then you can go. A little while later barges come and pick us up and take us to theHub for canoe lessons and to get a canoe. After the lessons we canoe backand play capture the flag in canoes. They way this game works is everycanoe has one flag. The flags and pieces of wood painted orange attached to a string. The person at the stern of every canoe attaches their flag to the sternof their canoe and lets it drag in the water. When a whistle is blown the game starts and everyone tries to get as many flags as possible without losing their own. If you lose your flag you keep playing and when you getanother one you attach it to your stern. At the end of the game the canoe with the most flags wins. After the game we had free time until supper and bed.
Monday, August 1- Today is the first day of activities. There are a lot of activities. The patrol groups split off to where they need to go and do their activities. Each group gets to do each activity once, unless it is rained out.The activities at Haliburton are Trappers Cabin, where we learn what it was like to be a trapper, about their traps and the animals, Survival Island, where we learn how to survive in the wild, sailing, kayaking, snorkelling, climbing wall, rappelling, archery and rifely. At each of these activities the instructors there teach us something, instruct on how to do the activity and keep us safe. Each activity except for sailing is one hour long. Sailing is two and a half hours long. These activities are spread out over Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. On these days, if you're not at an activity, eating or on duty you have free time. These times are when you can go swimming or to the Hub. After our morning activities we come back for lunch and the head out forafternoon activities. After those we come back for supper and then head to bed.
Tuesday, August 2- After our breakfast we all head off for our activities. We come back for lunch and then head out again for activities or free time. We all get back for dinner and early bed. Tomorrow is a big day.
Wednesday, August 3- After Breakfast today we break off into two groups. The larger group of people is those who are going on the Pikes Peak hike and trail clean up and the smaller group of people is those who are not. Those on the hike paddle to the entrance and from there begin their trip. They split up and hike on two trails. They hike for a few hours, picking up every piece of litter they see and clearing the trail. After a gruelling hike they make it to the top of Pikes Peak. They rest there for a little while, eat their packed lunches and then start back down the trail. Those of us who stayed behind however have a much different job. Ours is to take down and move the temporary kybos. We dig a hole just a few feet from the old one and fill in the old one. We set the tarp back up. After that our job becomes a little bit more like the job of those on the hike. We have to pick up all the litter on the campsite. After that is done we have to wipe done the tables. After all this we eat and then have free time until dinner, when those on the hike get back.
Thursday, August 4- Today's breakfast is a little bit different than usual. Today we are having what is called a Monk's breakfast. During a Monk's breakfast you cannot talk. If you do, you lose first your fork, then spoon, then knife, then left hand, then right hand, then the table, then the seat, then you have to eat your meal kneeling down and licking it out of a bowl. After breakfast we go back to activities. After lunch though we all paddle over to the Hub, and so does everyone else in camp. This afternoon there is the regatta. All the camps participate in the regatta and all try to win.There are a lot of activities in the regatta. One of these is the Queen Boat race where there are two boats each with eight scouts paddling and one scouter steering racing at a time and being timed against all the boats. Another is the canoe race. Another is the swimming medley where four different swimmers using different strokes from each team race in relay race.Another is the matchstick race, where you are given a match on one side of the dock and have to swim it to the other side without getting it wet and be able to light it on a rock on the other side. Another event is the in and out canoe race. In this event two scouts are in a canoe race, except whenever the event supervisor blows their whistle they have to jump out and get back in as fast as they can and keep paddling. Another event is the sculling race. This event is a canoe race with three scouts in each canoe, except they have to use their hands to paddle. The regatta was going well, and it was lots of fun. But, then all of a sudden a thunder head blew in and it started raining.That cancelled the rest of the regatta and we had to sit around inside for along time before it was safe to go back to camp. When we finally got there,we ate dinner, played cards, had mug-up and went to bed.
Friday, August 5- Today after breakfast everyone headed off their activities. When we all came back for lunch we were told that anyone whodidn't have an activity to do could go to snorkelling again. Lots of people did this because there are two contests going on at Snorkel island. One of this is that if you can catch a fish with your bare hands and bring to the instructor alive you get a Coke. The other is that somewhere is the swimming area there is a bus. If you can go all the way down to this bus and discover the licence plate number and tell it to the instructor you get a 24 pack of Coke. Because of these contests lots of people wanted to go back.After our activities we came back and ate supper. After supper we all paddled over to the Hub. Again the whole camp was there. This time it was for campfire. The instructors started a huge bonfire and we all did skits,songs and cheers for the rest of the night until we were taken back to our campsites on barges.
Saturday, August 6- Our last day at camp. And it starts early. We are all woken up at 5:00 A.M. and we have to start packing right away. We packup the whole campsite and clean it until it is spotless. At 9:00AM the inspectors arrive. Their job is to make sure that our campsite is spotless. If we fail inspection we will be the last people to leave camp. The inspection includes checking the whole campsite for litter and testing to see if the firepit is hot. If it is, it could start a ground-fire and burn down all the trees on the island. After we pass inspection barges come to pick us up. We load all of our stuff onto them and then go over to the entrance on barges. We load the stuff onto the truck and get on the bus and go. We stop at the cottage that one of the Venturers parents have kindly volunteered to let us use and they cook us lunch. After lunch we get back on the road and go home.
- by Max P.
