Saturday, May 27, 2006

Scout Camp

There's been a lot going on in the past few weeks, but last week began three weeks of intense experiences.

I'm going to bend the first and second rules about scout camp here.

We left for scout camp in eastern Washington Monday morning and headed back home around noon on Friday. I think I got about 10 hours of sleep while I was over there.

During the days there was a gradual build up of skills: learning to "sink and fade", camo up, choose good hiding places, etc. We were broken up into four clans and at night the game was on. Some people just slept, others were on guard and some went and scouted (or at least tried to fine) the camps of other clans. Most people did some combination of those three things. Each clan had a flag posted up so it was a challenge to go and put things on their flag or mess around a little with their gear without getting caught. In the evenings there was often an organized activity such as stalking up on some people (the instructors in character) around a fire, get as much info about them as we could, grab some "booty bags" stashed around the area and not get caught. For me, those types of events were probably the most fun. I don't remember ever being so creaped out (in recent history anyway) and keeping on being bold(ish) anyway. Definitely an edge stretching experience. It was also fun to see how many times people would walk by when I was motionless in plain view 10 feet away. It wasn't too surprising when it happened when it was dark out, but it happened a couple of times in broad daylight. I probably did the same kind of thing at times and it really makes me think about how often I probably walk by wildlife without noticing it there.

Next week will be a 4 day survival trip in which we are only allowed to bring our clothes, no knives, lighters, etc. allowed. Should be quite an experience, but I hope it dries up a little before hand.