Camp Jack Wright

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Camp Jack Wright Campout

Boy Scouts Teaching - Click Pic For More Pics

Camping at Camp Jack Wright on the outskirts of Tannehill State Park is always an adventure.  The first thing is trying to get all of the gear to the back campsite late at night.  Fortunately this time we took an easier route with a wagon with big wheels and was able to make it a lot quicker and easier, or so it seemed.  The Boy Scouts learned some more during the process of setting up camp.  Each camp out always provides different opportunities for learning.  This is another reason why the Boy Scouts should try and make as many camp outs as possible.  The next morning there seemed to be some issues with lashing the poles together for the flag pole.  It was embarrassing to the adult leaders but it pointed out to the Boy Scouts that they needed to start working more on lashing in their skill sets.  Its hard to remember how to lash a flag pole when you only do it once a month.

The exciting part of Saturday though was going to help work with Pack 220 that was camping in Tannehill State Park.  The Boy Scouts scampered over the hill separating Camp Jack Wright and Tannehill and were soon amongst the Cub Scouts.  The Boy Scouts had their issues with the flag pole but it gave them practice for lashing together the Troop gateway for the Pack 220 flag ceremony.  I was proud of them for the way they showed the Webelos IIs how to lash and put up the gateway.  It didn’t take long with all of them working together.  What a concept.

That evening the Pack rotated through stations that the Boy Scouts were manning.  They had the fire starting station, the American Flag station and the Trebuchet station.  It was a close tie between the fire and the Trebuchet.  On one  you could watch a soft projectile fly through the air to smash apart upon impact with the ground and the other you could have flames magically appear after a shower of sparks.  WOW!

After the stations it was time to head back to base camp in Camp Jack Wright and whip up some dinner.  One patrol actually cooked a pizza in a Dutch oven.  Now that was pretty impressive.  Maybe the only issue there was that they didn’t cook enough for everyone.  Once the carbs hit and bellies were full the toil of the day soon took over.  It wasn’t long before Scouts were peeling off to their tents and calling it a night.  After the last voice was silent the adults decided it was time to stoke up the fire.  Reminded me of the old Indian saying “White man build big fire, sit way back…Indian build little fire, sit up close.”

The next morning it was time to lug all of the equipment back out and try and fit it back in the trailer.  The repacking always seems to be harder than the unpacking.  But the Scout put their backs into it and soon were finished.  We completed the camp out by going and doing a small service project for Camp Jack Wright.  A dozer had cut a fire path across the foot trail and some hikers were getting confused.  So the Scouts blocked off the fire path at the trail and then covered the fire path up for several yards to prevent further confusion.  After that it was time to head home and call it another successful camp out.

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Camp Jack Wright Campout

Scouts and Scoutmaster doing inventory - Click picture for more pics.

This was my first time to camp at Camp Jack Wright.  I had a really good time.  I don’t know that the Boy Scouts did.  I think the pavilion was a little far for their liking.  Also they had decided to take inventory on this trip so they brought everything.  I think they brought too much stuff to the pavilion instead of leaving it at the trailer and identifying it there.

We arrived at dark but because we knew we were staying in pavilions three and four we just needed to find them.  It was easy enough to find them but then the boys wanted to take the first pavilion and leave the adults with the second one that was further away.  Since the Scoutmaster had a brace on  his right ankle so he could walk that decision was quickly overruled.  You never heard so much whining and fussing in all your born days.

Now for the funny thing (at least to the leaders) that happened on this campout.  The leaders brought there stuff to the first pavilion and put it on the picnic table.  The boys brought all their stuff to the first pavilion and then carried it to the second pavilion.  It was a two stage process.  Well a little later some of the adults began looking for there stuff.  The boys had taken almost everything from the first pavilion to the second pavilion.  In the end they had taken enough adult stuff to amount to at least two trips between the pavilions.  Now that was funny.

I got to try out my new sleeping bag.  I had frozen at the Camporee so I had upgraded my bag.  I was looking forward to trying it out.  WOW!  The temperature that night was about the same as it was at the Camporee.  I actually got hot in my new bag.  It is going to be nice this winter.

The next morning the boys had a big breakfast planned with sausage and eggs and biscuits in a Dutch Oven.  By the time they got through cooking, eating and cleaning, it was lunch time.  Seriously.  I know there were several boys that learned a very valuable lesson from that experience.  Which, by the way, is what Scouting is all about.

Typically lunch is cold sandwiches but they had a big thinker in the planning process apparently as they had another hot meal planned.  I made the mistake of trying some of it when they offered it to me.  That won’t happen again.  YUCK!  So then they had to clean up all of that.  WOW!

Sometime later that evening they got started on the inventory.  It was listed on the camp plan to start after breakfast around 8:00 am.  Well they quickly went through it once.  Then I showed them how it should have been done.  Look out, here came the whiners again.  So taking what they had done they began to add to it and do it better.

They did get some free time though and came up with this crazy game that had them running all over the rock ridge along the backside of the camp.  Fortunately they only needed the first aid kit to stop the bleeding once.  Not sure what this says about the rest of the boys but we have a couple of boys that are real good at first aid.  🙂

Later on that evening they completed the game and finished knocking out the inventory.  It was time to cook something in the fire then.  Of course building a fire is always the highlight of a campout.  As they were preparing for that I slipped off and left the boys with the other two leaders.  I went and rehydrated some home made chilli for my dinner.  No way was I going to try what they were cooking.  Later on I found out it was hamburgers and hotdogs that they had cooked on a grill over the fire.  I think the hamburgers were burned on the outside and nearly raw on the inside according to the leader that tried one.  He hadn’t been there for lunch and so wasn’t as experienced in the cooking abilities of that group of Scouts as I was.  Poor guy.

I had mentioned that I was up for a night time Geocaching run if anyone wanted to so after they completed dinner a few of them and a leader came down to where I was all ready to go get a smiley face.  Boy did we have a hike.  We hiked nearly 3 and a half miles in a little over 2 and a half hours.  That doesn’t take into affect all the scrub bushes we tore through and hills we climbed and streams we jumped and rocks we climbed.  WOW! What a night hike.  We were all wore out by the time we got back.  However we all got a couple of smiley faces and that was good.

The next morning I got one of the Scout leaders to go with me and we hiked over the Camp Jack Wright side property line down into Tannehill State Park.  It wasn’t nearly as far as I had thought.  I needed to replace one of my Geocaches that had gotten stolen the weekend before during the Pack campout.  We quickly arrived at the scene and was able to replace the cache.  It was a nice walk back in the morning sun as it warmed up the forest around us.

Of course all this time the boys were hauling and loading gear.  I took the time to use my GPS to map all of the camp sites at Camp Jack Wright and take pictures of all of the interesting stuff there.  I still had to wait around for the boys to finish up.  Another lesson learned.  We got the trailer loaded and headed back to the Scout shack.

However once there the Quartermaster showed up and said all of the equipment needed to be divided among the patrols.  So out comes all of the equipment and starts going into little piles.  With more adults there this happened a lot quicker.  It was soon assigned, noted and placed in the Scout shack and everyone was on their way home.  Another successful Scouting campout.

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