The Carlisle and East Burlington Troops decided to have a beginning of the year outdoor skills camp for 2009/2010 Scouts in Blue Springs Scout Reserve near Acton Ontario. This camp was loaded with fun ways to learn and experience new skills.
We arrived at Blue Springs around 8:00 but our tents didn’t get there till around 8:30 because of traffic. Then the Carlisle patrol went back to their shelter and started to unpack their equipment and set up tents. Shortly after getting everything ready we had mug up and a campfire. After the fire we made a duty roster and decided who would be in charge of each meal and who would do dishes. We were in bed shortly after 11:00.
When we awoke the following morning at 7:00 sharp we had a quick and messy breakfast (pancakes) ready to start learning lots of new skills. The Carlisle patrol headed over to the Burlington campfire and Scouter Al explained the setup for rotations. The senior Scouts were in there own group to learn about: nature, leave no trace camping, map and compass, and shelter building. The first year Scouts learned about safe equipment use, fire starting, axe and saw safety, and they also went for a nature walk and learned how to use a map and compass correctly. After activities we used the camp programs and went and experienced the thrill of archery. After a long day of activities the Scouts went back to their campsite and built shelters out of staves and twine to use for lashing while other youth prepared dinner or went geo cashing. The Carlisle patrol had Pepsi chicken a Troop favourite. After dinner the youth played a game of manhunt and then the senior Scouts played a game of capture the flag and had to answer trivia questions about leave no trace camping. After the trivia Scouter Al arranged a survivor fire lighting challenge and the Carlisle patrol won by 40 minutes! After the challenge everyone had mug up and was full of knowledge and had a well-deserved sleep in the shelter that they had made earlier that day. We were in bed by 11:00.
Once everyone was up we all helped to cook breakfast and started to pack down camp and take the tents down. After that we loaded everything in the trailer and headed over to the Burlington shelter for a Scout’s Own and then we had free time to do what we pleased until our parents arrived to pick us up. We had all left the campsite by 12:00.
I think the camp went amazingly well and everyone left enthused to try out the new skills they had learnt over the course of the weekend. The menu plan went well but next time we should not cook pancakes for breakfast.
Yours in Scouting,
Mitchell - APL Whaley Wonka Patrol
