Camping with the Little Mormon Boy Scouts

This weekend, I went camping with the Boy Scout troop in my ward. Six of us, three scouts and three leaders, headed over to Bull Run for a cool (read cold) evening communing with nature. The campground was fairly deserted; the only other people I saw were there with scout troops.

The campsite was in the middle of a hard wood forest; a carpet of oak leaves lined the ground. The scouts attending the camp out are all pretty new, so Zachariah took care of the fire. Nothing feels nicer than a warm fire on a cold night. As Zachariah started the fire the boys set up their tent. To say that it was an easy task for them would be an understatement. One of the boys later described it to his parents as "a time of much confusion."

Each camper brought their own dinner. One brought a meatball sub from Subway. Not exactly camping fare. Like I said, inexperienced campers. I brought a tin-foil dinner. Kristin prepared it after I gave her the basic format: potatoes thinly sliced on the bottom, onions, carrots, and a hamburger. Zachariah's fire had some awesome coals, among which my dinner cooked for 25 minutes. Nothing beats a hot meal on a cold night. It was so tasty I snuck away from camp and called Kristin to ask her what she included. The answer: a little butter. I love butter.

One of the leaders spent the night in his car, and woke me up when he started the car around 3am to turn on the heat. Otherwise, I slept soundly until 7am. Next time I need to bring a knit cap to wear while I sleep. The new air mattress Kristin bought me gave great support and kept me high enough off the ground to avoid the morning dew.

Breakfast consisted of oatmeal and hot chocolate. Last Tuesday night at our Scout meeting I taught the troop how to make donuts over a camp fire. They really enjoyed it, so we had to make donuts on the camp out. I'm not sure which they preferred more the eating of the donuts or watching as I dumped the cooking oil on the fire when we were done.

When the scouts reported on the camp out two things were mentioned:

1. They had a tough time getting the tent set up.
2. We cooked donuts.

At least they are retaining something.