Hyco Lake Campout

June 10-12, 2005

“The scouts and leaders of Troop 216 had another great weekend outing to Hyco Lake. After arrival and camp set up on Friday some scouts were playing football on the large grassy field that was our camp site. Others were playing chess or poker (no money exchanged hands). Then those crazy scouts were up at 6 AM chomping at the bit and looking forward to hitting the water. I guess I remember what that was like.

After  breakfast and cleanup, the scouts were assembled for the classroom part of their merit badge work for the merit badges of the day, motor boating, skiing and orienteering. Thanks to Karen and Chris Clemmer for providing two boats and Kevin Smit and Kevin Lang for  bringing their boats. With that flotilla the scouts were able to put in about 3  hours each on the water. Thanks also go to Andrew Walters for coming for the day to be our BSA certified lifeguard. The scouts had fun on and in the water.

At the end of the day 19 scouts earned their orienteering merit badge, 18 scouts earned their motor boating merit badge one scout earned the water skiing merit badge and 20 scouts earned about half of the  water skiing merit badge requirements. Several scouts worked on other rank advancement activities and were signed-off.

We were  finally off the water about 6 PM. The adult captains and their  assistants were justifiably ready for a break and a shower. The scouts still had energy. They were playing football again, also back to the other games and preparing dinner. One patrol, the Turkish Vikings prepared steak, rice and corn for dinner. Wow, were getting a little fancy there! After dinner some scouts gathered around a campfire and later several  scouts and adults played manhunt (hide and seek in the  dark).

The  scouts didn’t start getting up until 7 AM on Sunday. I think they were a little tired from having so much fun. We had breakfast, broke  camp, packed up and did our good scout thing by picking up trash in our campsite and all along the path from camp to the water (past several other family camp  sites).

All  that’s left is the anticipation for our return next year and the  hope of getting a few more scouts to earn their skiing merit badge. Next stop’s Summer Camp for our last great experience of this scouting year.” by Mr. D.