Centennial Camporall

I'm tired, sore, sunburned, and happy!

Over the weekend, the Utah National Parks Council of the Boy Scouts of America held a celebration of 100 years of scouting.  We camped out in Heber City, Utah with 2500 of our closest scouting friends, and we had a very good time.

When we arrived, we found out that we would not be camping in a farmer's field as I had been told.  Instead, we would be camping out in a cow pasture.  There is a distinct and important difference...welcome to "Camp Cow Patty."  But even that is a shared experience that these scouts will continue to chuckle about in years to come.

The boys were able to participate in a wide variety of activities including sports clinics and tournaments, chess tournaments, model rocketry, horseback riding, 5k runs, and vintage photography.  They all seemed to have a really good time.

We ate lots of good food--half of which was prepared in dutch ovens.  We shivered in our sleeping bags as temperatures in the Heber Valley dropped down to the mid-teens during the night.  We sat around the propane heater (no campfires were allowed in Camp Cow Patty), and at times laughed, and at other times were spiritually fed.  During the day, it got up into the mid 70's with full sun, and that led to my sunburn.

My Scouts did well in the competitions, taking first place in Ultimate Frisbee and third place in the golf tournament.  They took fourth place in the soccer, basketball, and chess tournaments--an impressive feat because my scouts (12-13 years old) were often competing against Varsity Scouts (15-16 years old) and Venturers (16-17 years old).

It was a very successful, very enjoyable, once-in-a-lifetime type of experience.