Scout Camp 1988

Most of the troop: from the left, Jason Seymour, Jason Domecq, William(Smokey) Morgan, Tim Mortinson, Karson Grewe, and Seth Merrill.

Boy Scouts are the happiest when they have a stick that is ether on fire or pointy. Don't ask why, that's just the way it is.Smokey is standing there wondering where he left his pointy stick, Karson is admiring his pointy stick, while Seth and Jason Domecq are burning the pointy end off so they can start all over again. Jason Seymour is eyeballing his next stick, while Tim is just happy he survived last night!

Karson is twelve, along with a bunch of his Scout friends. One Young man, Jason Seymour was a couple of years older. He was kind of between crowds of young men. We had been preparing for weeks , getting ready for scout camp at Camp Winton.

Camp Winton is located at Bear River Resevoir, off of Highway 88 in Amador County. The camp sits between six and seven thousand feet in elevation. Cold at night, even in August, and the water in the lake is from snow melt. I was an assistant Scout master, but I would be the only leader there for the first few days.

I took my pickup truck to the trail head with Karson, and met the other boys as they were dropped off with all their gear for a week at camp. No roads into camp. We backpacked about three miles with all our gear on our backs. It was hot while hiking, and as soon as we arrived in camp we were met by the camp counselors who directed all of us to the the medical cabin to be evaluated by the camp doctor. From there, we dropped all our gear off at a camp site and headed down to the swim area for the dreaded "swim test". Everyone, including me, had to jump in feet first, going all the way under, then swim two laps around a marked -off area.

Out of the whole troop, we had about three who were in the "skinny kid" group. One who's name I won't mention, "my son" jumped in feet first, came up facing the dock and actually walked back up to the dock on top of the water. I have never seen anyone walk on water before, and we had several in our troop that could do it. How cool is that? By not being a certified swimmer there are a few things that you cannot do. You can't take a small boat out without an adult. You can't take sailboat lessons. Other than that the whole camp is yours.

The whole week is devoted to earning merit badges, and there is no end to the merit badges you can earn. One evening a merit badge counselor asked me if we had any young men who needed the "survival" merit badge. We had two, Karson and Jason Domecq. This was just before our dinner call, and these were two of the "skinny kids". The two of them were whisked off with the counselor, not to be seen again until morning. What they had with them is what they had to survive the night with. That makes for one long night for a twelve year old. "see you guys in a little while" I yelled as they both looked back at me and smiled. I would see them in the morning at breakfast----maybe.

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One of the evenings before dinner call, I took the whole troop to the kitchen and picked up an ice chest with enough stuff to feed us, but we had to prepare it all over a campfire. We loaded all our gear, and the ice chest into a couple of canoes, and one rowboat for me. We all paddled up the far end of the lake and found a flat spot to camp for the night. The whole troop scattered like a bunch ants. I'm thinking to myself, now what? I need to get these boys together somehow. Once the boys had their camp sites set up they all gathered back where the campfire was burning. I had talked with Jason Seymour just before the boys gathered and asked him to "follow my lead" If you want a bunch of boys to listen to you, try keeping it a secret.

We were all wrapping our dinner in tinfoil and baking it in the campfire, when I leaned over to Jason, and whispered, just enough so a couple of the boys could overhear me. "Jason, did you see the wolf tracks down by the waters' edge?" Jason looked at me and whispered back, "What do you think we should do?" I whispered back, "I don't think we would lose more than one" Lets just let the boys camp where they want to. I hate to ruin their scouting experience by telling them to stay by the fire all night.

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I had brought a large plastic tarp in case it had rained. I used it to lay down as a ground tarp so we could use it under our sleeping bags. Before everyone had finished eating, all the little camp sites were abandoned and all the sleeping bags were laying shoulder to shoulder, with no one wanting to be on the outside of the crowd. I took one side, and Jason took the other side.

Standing around the campfire at night you need to keep rotating to re-warm the cold side, kind of like a rotisserie. Everyone had a flashlight and was scanning the treeline. It's amazing how many sets of eyes are watching you when you do that. One young man whose name I won't mention, "my son" was rotating himself keeping warm, just like the rest of us. I hear water running, I look over my shoulder, and guess who is taking a whiz? He looks up at me with those wide open eyes. "I'm not going out there in the dark".

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That night, laying shoulder to shoulder, the boys took turns saying their prayers. I have never heard more fervent praying in my life. It was August and all of us were watching the night ski. The meteor showers that occurred that night were spectacular. It was like having our own fireworks display. One young man, Tim Mortenson, took it upon himself to keep the campfire burning all night! What an amazing young man, to care enough about all the other scouts to stay up all night. I know Jason Seymour and I slept much better with all of us sleeping shoulder to shoulder.

These young men are in their mid thirties now and still remember that week at camp. Some are even in my Ward.