2/26 Uvas Canyon Campout!

On February 26th, 2022, our troop went on a campout to Uvas Canyon. We met up at Chadbourne for a quick gear check and headed off to our campsite. Scouts got a lot of requirements related to cooking, planning, and hiking, signed off during the campout because we included meat in our dinner food plan and eggs in our breakfast. Unlike other campouts, this time we even arranged some games! We had a flagpole building competition, did some icebreakers, and played a few rounds of mafia. Along with those activities, we started a fire and did karaoke. The next morning, we went on a 5-mile hike and got to see waterfalls along the way! Overall, our campout was very eventful and entertaining.

When we reached the campsite, we immediately unpacked and started to put up our tents. We usually take no more than 10 minutes to set up tents, but this time we took nearly an hour! The ground was unbreakable and we didn’t have a mallet with us, so putting in the stakes was extremely hard. We eventually finished setting up tents, and of course, were very behind schedule. Immediately, we started our flagpole competition, which went great. The flagpoles made by both teams were very sturdy, and to clean up we let the opposing teams destroy the other’s structure. We realized that we actually had a lot more time than we thought, and decided to play mafia. Switching storytellers each time, we ended up playing 3 rounds before starting dinner. For dinner, we cooked burgers (veggie and chicken) and breadsticks. While some scouts were cooking, the rest of us devoured almost half a bag of tortilla chips with 2 containers of guacamole. Dinner went great, although we could have planned to get more chicken patties, and we started the fire right after. We were given a piece of flint and some lint to start the fire, and we tried for almost 2 hours, but the fire died each time we got it started. We eventually resolved to use a lighter to start it and had s’mores. While eating s’mores, we sang lots of songs together. Afterward, we were exhausted and went to sleep in our tents around 10:00 PM.

After a good night’s sleep, scouts woke up early the next morning at 7:00 AM. We then began making breakfast, which was french toast along with chocolate milk. Breakfast was a great hit, and all the scouts really enjoyed it! The french toast seemed to be a fan favorite, and many people topped it off with some chocolate and maple syrup. After everyone was finished with breakfast, scouts began packing up their tents. This went faster than expected, and we were able to stay on top of our schedule. Right away, we started our hike, which was around 5 miles. It was a beautiful route, and we got to see many small waterfalls and creeks. The elevation was a bit high for many scouts, but we didn’t encounter any issues and we were able to finish on time. Once we returned to our campsite, scouts did a quick sweep, where we picked up trash that might have been left by us or previous campers. After this, we all returned home, with many stories to tell about our experience.

There were many roses and thorns of this camping outing. Something we could have improved on was making the fire quickly. It almost took us 2 hours to light it and many of us were very cold. Although we did learn some tips from this experience about making a fire without little issue, we could use some more lessons on this. We all should have also come more prepared. Not bringing the mallet really slowed us down when we were setting up, as the ground was very hard. However, there were also many great parts of this outing. For one, the meals planned were very delicious and were definitely a huge hit, especially the french toast. In addition, the hike planned was hard, but very scenic and enjoyable. We all loved the views of waterfalls, and this hike definitely got our steps in. Overall, like in every outing, there could have been some improvements, but this campout was a great success and all the scouts really enjoyed it!

Here are some pictures from the campout: