High Adventure - I assume

Friday, July 11, 2014

I know that most of you reading this are mostly doing so just because you find my pithy commentary so amusing.  Well, at least that is what I tell myself.  However, in those moments when I’m truly honest with myself, I know, its all about the pictures.  You couldn’t care less about my commentary, what you are hoping for is another picture of your son.  Unfortunately, loading pictures is a cumbersome process here at the ranch.  We also have 28 folks in our group this time which makes it hard for me to get pictures of everyone as we a scattered much farther apart then we are at Goshen.  And as you will see, today I got a lot done, but honestly, while I enjoy making these available to you, I’m here for some High Adventure not to be team and crew photographer.  So without further adieu…

We woke this morning to a thick fog but the promise of a warm day to come.  The night was actually perfect temperature wise as it was probably in the mid to low 60s.  Perfect sleeping weather, except for the one scout who for some reason didn’t get his sleeping bag out from Bro. Baker’s truck and slept on a cot with nothing else.  I know, if we had known we would have tried to help, but stuff happens and when we don’t know we can’t help.  Bro. Adams was nice enough to inform me that there is no hot water in the showers.  He informed me that that shower is way better to wake you up that a cup of coffee must be.

Revele played at 6am.  Taps plays at 10pm over the speakers.  It is better quality than a former bugler we have had, but it isn’t near as sentimental for me.  We walked over to breakfast at 7.  When I say we, it was Bro. Evans and I.  We did let them know we were going.  We ate a nice meal (other than the “margarine” infested grits or cream of wheat or whatever that was that neither John nor Jason ate despite their best efforts and even some hot sauce…  We took our sack lunches and headed back to camp to tell them what was up.  We informed them that breakfast was ending relatively shortly and they also needed to pick up their sack lunch or they would miss not just one but two meals today. 

We headed over to try to sign up for the canopy tour first thing, but they told us it was full until 11 and they had 3 slots.  We took those.  A large group from our team showed up after that and went over to check and got in at 9.  We went back over and got a 10.  We then did mountain biking.  We did the green trail and then the blue trail.  No one broke anything so a few scrapes and some adrenaline from almost flying off the course are all good things.  The one group then left to Canopy – that is a series of zip lines through the tops of trees.  It was very cool.

Everyone was spread out doing various things the rest of the morning.  A number of us showed up at camp to eat our lunch and at 12:30 we headed up to the zip line to be sure we got out spot.  Well, they decided to harness us all at the same time and not send us out in groups – which turned out to be highly inefficient.  Eventually we got to the top and enjoyed the ride.  A couple of us did that two more times.  Now, the rub here is once you are harnessed up and have your trolley in your back pack you have to hike UP to the starting point.  That deters a lot of scouts.  So a couple of us went 3 times. 

Now, after this point, I have little to no idea where most of the group was or what they were doing.  It was free time and they were free to do what they wanted. I can tell you that I wandered up to the skeet archery  spot and shot a whole lot of arrows and hit very little.  After which we moseyed (and by that I mean we loaded into Jeremy ‘s pick up and drove to) the water area and got to do the obstacle course.  For the record, the 5 old guy obliterated the priests group.  Twice.  6:05 – a new camp record for 5 people.  They didn’t have a 5 person record, but that is beside the point.  If you are wondering, the 4 person record was just under 4 minutes and the priests were close to 15 or 20 their first try.  Then we came back and had dinner.  And can I tell you how much I enjoyed just sitting and relaxing and eating for a while.  Ahh.  Ice cold lemonade and some pizza and salad.  Not bad.  And I got to eat while my son sat there so we caught up as well.  Once we finished some of us walked back over to the water front and did paddle boats (no, not the kind you pedal like a bike, the ones you stand on with a long paddle.  It was wet and fun.  Then we attended the stake fireside where the leader of the Scout Ranch spoke to us about being more like Christ.  It was very good I thought and not even all that long.   After we played a couple rounds of gaga ball (google it if you are interested).  And then made the long walk back to camp. 

So as I said, people did lots of stuff all day I assume.  I know I did.  And I didn’t take my camera to the water area so I have no pictures from there.  Maybe tomorrow I’ll try to get one or two.  After dinner I was sitting up on the Summit of Summit waiting for my phone to charge and watching folks head down the hill to the camp.  This trip wasn’t cheap, but as I watched the procession of our group head home, in groups of 3 or 2 or 4 – of kids who while friendly to each other probably don’t hang out with each other – walking back to camp discussing I truly have no idea what or want to know, I thought this is why we do this.  These memories, these times, they will have this shared experience they can hopefully remember and be able to know they have a friend.

I hope you see someone you love in a picture.  Assume they did what they most wanted to do and loved it.  They can correct that tomorrow if needs be.  Till then why think otherwise! 

Summit the Summit

Thursday, July 10, 2014

I’m once again headed into the wild with the wild, or maybe not so wild Team and Crew 1106. We are a group of 28 including our 5 fearless leaders.  I’m pleased to once again be traveling with John Evans – it is always good when someone else is in charge.  We gather at the church at 7am, and depart, lets just say sometime after that.  Despite the deluge of emails informing, reminding, begging, and even pleading, we have folks who don’t have all their paperwork so that gets to be dealt with prior to them heading down.  But 4 cars leave the lot and head west then south.

Our group is quite diverse with both young and old.   It will be interesting to see if or how the group comes together

My car with Nate, Michael, Blake and Dillon have a relatively docile journey as the alternatively battle on iphones, sleep, talk mostly quietly.  John leads the way and manages to avoid the 5 or more speed traps our fine public servants have set up along the path.

We get to WV and drive though a town.  This town has an astonishingly high number of taverns/bars/gin joints.  Or maybe that is how every little town in WV is, I simply don’t have a large enough data sample to reach any conclusions. 

 We finally turn into the Summit Bechtel Scout Ranch and note that the steel sign is already rusted (queue the Love Shack line Nate and I both sang).  We drive into the ranch about forever – seeing a fawn and a wild turkey on the way and arrive at the gate at exactly noon.  We couldn’t have been more punctual.  But since we are on time, we get to wait at the gate for 15 minutes while someone comes out to pick us up and lead us to camp.  We drive on a gravel road for about forever (and note the surprisingly small opportunities to get lost which seems strange to have needed an escort..) and wind around the camp and over to Camp C which will be our base camp. 

We arrive and get our stuff out of the car and head down to a registration tent and stand and wait for about forever.  John finally emerges from the registration tent and tells us that a few of us need to go in and get oriented.  We go in and wait for about forever as the guy keeps taking phone calls and eventually says “I gave you all that paperwork right?  Enjoy your stay.”  Or something like that.  We head to camp and they scramble into the coveted  tents, and generally since they are all identical and new and not full of spiders, everyone is happy. 

We then go back up the hill to the registration tent to have a tour after which we can get to having some high adventure.  After waiting about forever (and receiving a report that it wasn’t particularly helpful) we determine to do our own tour.  So we gather up who we can and head out.  We cross past the fishing pond and walk up the hill past the summit center and past the sustainability house and work our way over to the action center, which, as you might imagine, is where all the action is.  It is sort of like a carnival for bigger kids and so folks are free to do what they want as long as they stay with a buddy.

We are assigned to the BMX so we head there first.  We enter the tent and he tells us to grab a helmet and some pads.  So I grab a helmet and he hands me some pads.  They are two kneepads and two elbow pads. And, they are WET.  Not like damp from humidity, but like really wet.  And if they were just wet, it would be pretty gross, but the odor emanating from these pads is beyond my feeble ability to describe.  It is a combination of mold, a teenage boy’s sweat socks, and the set of gym clothes my son brought home from middle school about once a semester.  And once they were on, it didn’t go away.  And it’s staying power is something every perfume manufacturer would covet.  Remember, we are out of doors (thankfully because if we weren’t, I’m pretty sure we would all have been passed out from the smell long ago) and it is still so pungent my eyes are watering.

They start us with two beginner hills.  The key, they tell us, is to keep the pedals level.  It actually works pretty well.  After some practice we head over to the big course.  It is a blast.  It is also very surprisingly strenuous -  you end up not pedaling that much but you end up totally out of breath at the end of each lap.  Jeremy has his go pro on and nearly bites it but saves it with just a little ankle tweak.  We have a few other guys dump it and Michael who can’t seem to master one of the curves.  But by and large we are unblemished or maimed and have a great time.  They are getting ready to shut down at 4:30 for dinner (yeah, sort of early right?) So we had over and sit in the cafeteria area and wait for dinner.

We note the favorable comparison to the Goshen food and concur it is much better.  We have salad and spaghetti and garlic bread with Watermelon for dessert (or desert is we read the sign).  After dinner we head over and shoot arrows.  We then chuck tomahawks at logs.  I finished the evening with a few of us on the challenge course.  It’s a pretty good time.  We are looking forward to some of the other activities tomorrow.  Should be a great time.  I’m tired, so I’m going to bed.  Hopefully more tomorrow!