Wilderness Survival Campout

This was the Wilderness Survival campout. We met at the Scout House at 6:30am, where we started our journey.  It was very cold when we got there, but it warmed up gradually throughout the day. We set up our equipment on the edge of a wide plain. This year, the forest around the plain was laden with firewood, and we had no trouble at all collecting a large pile. At about 11:30am, this year’s Wilderness Survival Scouts left for the forest. 
 
For the rest of us, time was spent fishing in the lake and sawing firewood with new handsaws.  We had a light rain around noon, which fortunately ended before we had to start fires.  At 3:00pm, all of the patrols had a fire going and started preparing their dinner.  Dinnertime was at 5:00pm, and according to the parents the meals were delicious although mostly prepared by FCE Scouts (Kudos, young scouts).  Fun things do occur during cooking.  For our patrol, our brownies were indistinguishable from coals, and about as palatable as them.  We definitely invented a new flavor of brownie, and one of our patrol members claimed to enjoy it. 
 
After dinner, we began preparing for skits. Though we normally had to resort to some halfhearted story due to the lack of creativity, this campout, our patrol came up with a genius skit, involving a chicken trying to cross the road. We performed our skit by the bonfire at 8:00pm, where we saw other decent skits.  After skits, some of us immediately went to our tents, while others ran around in the night.  At this time, it was already freezing cold and quite testing to the Wilderness Survival team and the rest of us. 
 
After a miserable night, we were reunited with the beleaguered but excited Wilderness Survival Scouts and cooked breakfast.  A few hours later, we were all in cars, speeding towards home. We had all survived, marking the 13th year of this campout. 
 
Thank you, Mr. Stocker, for your generosity and continued support of our troop.  We will see you next year!
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Alex C