Walker at 11 Year Old Over-Night Camp
Welcome to my first guest post. My name is Jared, and I will be guiding you through the fun world of an 11-year-old’s scout camp. Unfortunately, our illustrious host, Vanessa, was unable to join us, so it is left to me to be your eyes and ears. Please excuse me from her usual quality of photographs and wit.
Walker was very excited for his first of many scouting overnighters. This is about the age when I decided that it wasn’t really for me, so I’m kind of excited to experience it all as well.
Over the weekend, we camped in a big park a few miles from our house. We arrived at 3 or 4pm, and after setting up our tent, the first activity that was up was horseback riding.
After the horseback riding, there wasn’t much else planned for the evening. We had some hot dogs and miscellaneous snacks before heading over to the opening ceremonies. Then the boys ran around like maniacs for a couple of hours before hittin the sack. Walker is blessed with an awesome father, so he went to sleep after a little playtime on the ole Galaxy Tab 10.1. The rough life.
The next morning, we work up, ate, and started the activity circuit that has been laid out. First up was archery.
You can’t see it very well, but there are a LOT of arrows behind the targets 😛
Next up was a small fire building challenge where they had to build a fire tall enough to burn through the string. They were allowed one match which quickly went out. This took a bit of time.
Next…. hunting with stones!
Walker went with a side arm rock skipping technique that was a bit interesting. It ended up working rather well. I think he had the most “kills”.
And javelins!
And darts!
If you haven’t gathered, this was all supposed to be Native American themed. Naturally tee-pees must be erected with proper lashings, etc.
And torn down…
They also made medicine bags which I failed to get a picture of the final product.
A Cheyenne (?) woman spoke to them all about their culture.
The “camp out” culminated in the building of man-powered catapults with which to hurl bags of flour at your opposition.
Things quickly broke down into a full on battlefield. The fog of war caused much friendly fire. It really did look cool in real life. It felt epic 😛
The lashings held, but the pole couldn’t handle the stress. And that about did it. Luckily Walker will be 12 before the end of the summer, so he will be able to go to scout camp this summer. Here’s looking forward to it!
