The Friday morning before Memorial Day weekend, n’s Cub Scout den led the flag ceremony at school.
After school we drove to Camp Trask, a campground owned by the Boy Scouts which is located in Monrovia. With traffic, it took about two hours.
We set up camp with our trusty REI Basecamp 4. The whole group site was on an incline, so we just made sure our heads were at the top. While we were setting up, a bear walked right behind the bathroom and to the side of our group site! We have never had such a close bear encounter. Fortunately, the bear left us alone for the rest of the weekend, much to the dismay of some of the cub scouts!
There was a camp kitchen, but we opted to do the first dinner on our own. We just warmed up some pre-cooked chicken and cooked up some tortillas for easy burritos.
As more people arrived, our quarters became closer to each other. I think we were the only family with four people in a four person tent. Most families had 8-10 person tents!
One nice part about camping with other families is that the kids keep themselves occupied!
We gathered here Friday night for “Cracker Barrel”, which consisted of crackers, cheese, chips, cookies, etc. They also showed a movie called “Scout Camp”. We only stayed for about the first twenty minutes though. Let’s just say there is a reason you have never heard of this movie!
They had strict rules about passing a swim test before doing any pool or lake activities. The lake was not too impressive, so we did not bother.
The lake.
There was a lot of activities that you could choose to do. We lined up for archery first.
D did archery later on in the day when there was no line and did pretty well.
Next we did sling shots, aiming kidney beans at tin cans and other targets.
D, n and I all shot our first BB guns. (k had already done it with her Brownie troop and didn’t feel like it that afternoon).
Being the crafty mom, I had them do a little leather work. They sewed a coin pouch.
We participated in the camp kitchen by washing dishes Saturday night and cooking breakfast Sunday morning. When asked what her favorite part of camp was, k said “Washing dishes!” We need to transfer that enthusiasm to our home!
As you can see, it takes a lot of organization and planning!
For dinner we had chicken, steak, beans, corn and Asian slaw. And s’mores for dessert of course. There was a group campfire on Saturday night, complete with spooky stories. The boys who had been there before really wanted to hear a story from last year and kept chanting, “Black-Eyed Ghost! Black-Eyed Ghost!”
Camp lasted until Monday, but we opted to go home on Sunday morning. When we woke up, it was actually raining. Not too hard, but enough to get everything wet. It took us while to dry all of our equipment out at home.
It was nice to experience the camp as a family. I was not too sure if n should join cub scouts before, but now I am really glad he did. I feel like it exposes him to so many things that he would otherwise probably not do.
