In the Woods with Webelos!!

This post will have absolutely no pictures of Madison because she stayed home with Grandma and Papa all weekend so that Steve, Kellen and I could go to Webelos Woods. I left them with a pamphlet of information on Maddi's schedule, likes, and dislikes so that we could all disappear for the weekend.

On Friday, as soon as Kellen got home from school, we met in front of the Roth's so that we could caravan out to Camp Cooper together. When we first checked in, we were told that we would be in the Whispering Yew camp site. We had five leaders/parents that night and five boys, and we would be sharing the site with another pack that had one leader/parent and three boys. That was working out okay, although we were going to end up a little short on platforms for the tents. Even that was alright, though. Kellen and Mickey had already set up a tarp on the ground at one end of the camp so they could set their tents up right next to each other. The platforms wouldn't have been necessary except that this is particularly hilly camp; without them we would be VERY uncomfortable!

After cracker barrel we found out that a Boy Scout Troop had already been scheduled for that site, prior to our own reservation. They were quite determined to keep that site so we were relocated to Lacamas, which was a fairly steep climb but had considerably more platforms in it. Since we didn't find this out until after campfire and cracker barrel, we were transporting our camp and setting up tents (again) between 10 and 11pm. That's okay. At least we had another Boy Scout troop (there as the camp staff for Webelos Woods) to help us move everything and get it up again!

After a breakfast of scorched pancakes, semi-warm sausages and eggs, fruit and cocoa or juice, we headed out to our first station: Map and Compass. The boys learned how to read a few things on a map and then how to operate their compasses.

Then they got to use their compasses to determine which of six stakes had been placed at a specified distance and degree from the marked stake in the bottom right of this picture (it has a pink flag on it and is between the feet of the boy in that corner).Then we trekked up to the dining hall for the First Aid station where they learned about burns, bites, shock, frostbite, ankle braces, and carrying someone in a stretcher.

Then we were off to Team Building, down by Lake Hurl (say it out loud and tell me if you don't laugh!) where the boys had to work at getting themselves out of a human knot as well as passing a hula hoop from boy to boy around the circle without letting it touch the ground or using their hands.


Our next station was ropes and lashing where they got to see these poles lashed together to make a 'chair' before they took rides around the station on it.

They also sat and watched a demonstration on whipping and fusing the ends of a rope while another leader taught the adults of our pack how to tie a couple of knots ourselves.
Following the knots session, we had ourselves some lunch up at the dining hall in the form of chili dogs. We had a little bit of extra time before our next session so we went to check out a beaver dam that we had heard of. It was really quite cool since it was placed just feet from a small bridge that we had to cross to get to our next station. You could tell that the branches placed there were fresh, and we were even able to see small changes in the dam when we walked past it again the next day on our way back from our hike. Definitely a work in progress, and the ranger says he believes there are four beavers living there. So cool!

We then progressed to the cooking station. First the boys saw these poles lashed together to make a watering station. It makes a tri-pod and then you suspend a gallon of water and a bar of soap from the top. Then they made quesadillas and did the dishes before they were finished with that station. It is now verifiable fact that young boys are capable of washing the dishes...
Our second to the last station of the day was for campfires, and the boys LOVED it. First, a Boy Scout talked to them about fire safety, woodcutting tools, how to build a camp fire, and methods of starting one. We already knew that very few people were going to be staying to camp the second night of Webelos Woods so the camp director decided that the two packs remaining could be allowed to have fires in their own camps at the end of the night, if lit and supervised by a few of the Boy Scouts. But that's another part of the evening... After listening to all of the information on campfires, the boys divided into two groups and got to have a contest to see who could build a fire higher the fastest, the point being to sever a string tied across the two sticks on either side of their fire, as seen in the picture. Of course, they had a LOT of fun doing this! I'm not so sure I liked the Boy Scouts showing them that they could light a Light Anywhere match on the zipper of their pants, though...


Our final station before dinner was the BB gun range, another favorite of almost any cub scout. I didn't take that many pictures here because there are only so many ways to vary the back view of someone, and it's certainly not safe to be in FRONT of these guys!
Before we went to dinner there was a time set aside for the break down of camp for everyone who wasn't staying for the second night, which meant some free time for us, since there was NO WAY we were leaving early! Dinner consisted of spaghetti, peas and carrots, and toast, as well as the proverbial 'bug juice'. Then there were awards down at the parade grounds. I didn't get any pictures of that because I was helping sort out some technicalities with one of our scouts who had arrived that day (he hadn't been able to come up with us on Friday). The boys had a great time playing on the climbing wall for a while before it was time to start the campfire ceremony. We only had two packs left in camp by that point, so our pack did two skits, the other pack did one, we had several shorts by the two Boy Scouts that organized the campfire ceremonies both nights, we had vespers, and then we headed back to our camp site. The boys built up a very tall log cabin campfire with a teepee nestled inside of it, loaded it down with dry moss, and waited with baited breath for the fire-lighters to arrive. When they did, we got the added bonus of having cracker barrel brought to us (instead of us having to trek down to the dining hall for it) in the form of Ritz crackers, vanilla wafers, oreos, salami, cheese, and cheetos. So we got to snack around our campfire with just our pack and a couple extra Boy Scouts as we ended our evening. And, of course, we even got to have the camp director at our fire.
The next morning (Sunday) the camp director, his D.E., another parent, and I hiked down to the kitchen to get breakfast ready. I reached star status that morning for my ability to cook every single pancake to a beautiful golden color; not a burned one in the lot! I have assured myself a spot in the kitchen again next year for certain.

After breakfast there was much cleaning to be done before we could go on our hike, remove all our gear and actually check out of camp. The camp director and a few others worked on the kitchen while myself and a few others worked on the shower stalls. It wasn't too long before we had everything spic and span. We had a total of six boys who came up to Webelos Woods, but one left right after the cleaning (he and his mom didn't want to go on the hike) and we had another who wasn't feeling well enough to go on the hike, so he stayed in his tent with his grandpa and waited for Mom to come get them both (she had dropped them off the night before). Since the other pack that stayed the second night also left right after the cleaning was done, these four remaining boys were the only ones from the entire Webelos Woods weekend that went on the hike, and they're all from our pack! Man, did everyone else lose out! Austin, Mickey, Calvin and Kellen had a blast, if only because our ranger was able to offer a lot more detail and information due to the small size of our group.
This is a picture of our camp ranger, Aaron, and our four boys as we headed out on our hike. And, yes, there are four boys there; Kellen just happens to be perfectly lined up with the last boy on the left, walking in front where you can't see him in this picture.
I have no idea what this is, but these beautiful little blossoms were everywhere on the nurse trees that we saw, and it made a very pretty picture.
Our hike was about a 1/2 mile loop, with a stop at this waterfall at about the half-way point. Unfortunately, Steve took a little tumble on rocks in the creek at the top of this and took a dunking in the water because he was trying to walk across the rocks to escape having his picture taken. It was a good thing for him that he didn't actually sustain any injuries from his slip. Just to be clear, he did NOT fall down the waterfall (a height of approximately 80 ft) he just slipped in the creek and got a little wet and bruised.
I think this was my favorite nurse tree that we saw (and there were a LOT of them) just because it looks like he has a funky 'do on top of his head!
It was a really great weekend, and there are OODLES of things the boys will get to sign off in their Webelos books, especially those who came on the hike. Aaron was very helpful in telling them all kinds of things about all the plant life that we were passing, including pointing out a rare variety of wild orchid that requires the roots of a particular tree as well as the roots of a particular mushroom in order to live (i.e. it WILL NOT grow in your back yard) and showing us a pacific yew that takes centuries to reach maturity and is on the threatened list because so many were cut down due to an anti-cancer agent that they produce. It was really quite amazing. Then we loaded all of our stuff up in our vehicles and trundled our way back to the real world, and real showers! We are definitely doing that again next year!!