Summer Camp 2002

In June of 2002 Troop 509 traveled out of council for the first time for Summer Camp.   As our destination we chose Camp Geiger, just North and West of St. Joseph, Missouri in the Missouri foothills along the Missouri river.  Camp Geiger has been a Scout Reservation since the 1930's and is listed as one of the top ten best Scout Camps in the nation.  They run at least 8 weeks of summer camp and in 2002 were planning on expanding to 10 weeks. 

11 Scouts and 3 leaders made the five hour journey.  Annette and Greg took an untold number of pictures of our stay at Geiger.  I have tried to pick the best of the best and add them to the web site.  Each will have a little caption that might help explain what is going on.  Each of the young men taking part had a great experience and as a Troop they came together closer.  Its hard to be 5 hours away, and surrounded  by people you don't know without learning to rely on each other.  I am terribly proud of these boys who went.  We were complimented by all staff and other leaders at Geiger about how well they conducted themselves.  Remember the photos are thumbnailed, to see a bigger version of them, simply click on them.   Enjoy the photos, if you have questions about what was going on, ask one of us who was there.

Setting up Camp:  When we got there were were allowed to take our vehicles into camp for unloading.  Then once we got everything out we had to move them up near the dining hall.  All our travel this week would be on foot.  Notice that the camp provided us tentage. These tents were mounted on platforms and were, umm, well almost shall we say, level.

                                        
Arriving there                     Leaders hangout                  Boys hangout                       Up hill in all                   Cardiac hill, the
                                          (that's as level as it gets)                                                          directions                     best way out of camp

                                                                         
                                                            Dining hall                    looking into camp             Yes that's us, at
                                                                                                                                                     the bottom

After we had camp up, it was time to get down to business.  Two young men, Jaron Anderson and Todd Bush had signed up for the Cope Course (challenging outdoor personal experiences).  The Cope Program started at Camp Geiger and it is still one of the best in the nation.  All the other boys were taking merit badges.   Something that was a challenge at Geiger.  Not just doing them, but getting there.

                                                     
Opening Formation           Off to a Merit Badge                     Pottery                                 Rifle                                    Pioneering

                                                     
     Shotgun                              Wood Carving                       Climbing                      Wood Carving again              Finishing up a requirement
                                                                                                                                                                                             with the Scoutmaster

planning the day

Of course it wasn't all work.  There were things to be done besides Merit Badges.  Hanging out, relaxing, going to the trading post, even a little bicycling after the last class ended.

                                                    
The Trading Post                   Bryan's found it                     Kicking back                and just hanging around              Quiet Evening

                                                                                   
                                        off for a jaunt                      its a long way down                  Did he deserve it                    Storm coming in
                                                                                                                                                     SURE !
                                                                                                                                        (besides it tasted good)

Ok, I need to break in here a minute.  On Wednesday evening a pretty good sized storm rolled in.  They pulled us all out of our campsites and moved us to the dining hall.  After the storm went past it was cool and wet, there had been a nice rain.  Well, anytime you have rain, you end up with mud, and Missouri mud is special, its slick.  So after getting permission to have a ball the boys went MUDDINGGGG!!!

                                                                                  
                               No spare shoes?                    Mudding wears you out                    Who is this really?              Time for Cleanup
                                 socks will do.

It was all in good fun, and most of the mud came off, well, all of it that is except for those socks.  I understand they went to the trash heap.

As I mentioned earlier, Jaron and Todd took the Cope program.   This is a series of different things, including zip lines, rappelling and free climbing just to name a few.  Each of the boys found that they had to rely not only on themselves, to to a large extent on their buddy to pull this off. 

                                                              
You start up like this        That's Todd, upper                 Taking it slow           Should have checked this                You end up here,
                                                          left                                                                               knot first.                         only way down is the zip line

                                            
It looks like this          only one way to get there     one rock at a time                  almost there                       man, that's a long way

Like I said, it was a great week.  Seven fun filled days of camp and traveling but all things come to an end and this was no exception.  The classes are done, the food eaten, the gear packed, only thing left is the drive, to mom, dad, a hot shower and a soft bed. 

End of the Week