Sunday, March 30, 2008

Boy Scout Camping @ Manidokan


Due to a shortage of adult leaders, I volunteered to camp with T's Boy Scout troop this weekend. We camped at Manidokan Retreat Center, in Maryland between Frederick & Harpers Ferry. The site was pretty, but we were on the crest of a hill and so had no relief from a strong, unseasonably cold wind that blew all weekend. It was cold! T, who rarely gets cold, actually put on a jacket, and then borrowed one of mine as a wind barrier OK, he was still wearing shorts, but T with two jackets on is a rare occurrence.

On the Boy Scout trips the boys run the show. That's pretty neat - the adults don't have to do much work at all. We did, however, have to eat Scout-prepared food: nearly-raw steaks (I put mine back on the fire for a while after it was declared "done" by the cook), over-cooked pasta and instant mashed potatoes. Of course, no vegetables in sight. The above picture gives some idea of what eating with the Scouts is like.

Dessert was a sort of cherry cobbler - hot canned cherry pie filling with a layer of yellow cake mix on top. I was so cold, and it was so warm, that I actually had seconds of the cobbler. We also got to listen to the Scouts bicker over who had to do which chores - just like at our house.

Other than that, we did a nice hike, had a nice campfire, and had a generally good time. T & I hit a few geocaches on the way home, introducing one of his friends to the sport.

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