This was our second ski trip to Grand Geneva. It's become a popular annual tradition for the troop. For me, it's a bit boring, as I can't ski because of bad knees. But my son truly loves the sport. He did much better this year and actually made a trip or two down one of the black diamond runs, the more difficult slopes at the resort. Last year I had to go out to the ski lift to drag him home. This year he showed up in the lodge at the exact time that I told him! What's even more amazing is he had already turned in all of his rental gear.
Mr. Paton again took a crew of scouts out for the fist time and helped them earn Snow Sports merit badge. This is a real nice outing that I hope the troop continues every year.
Late in the winter of ’02, the OSA web site carried an announcement calling for volunteers to help out with a BioBlitz sponsored by the Michigan chapter of The Nature Conservancy (TNC). The volunteers were to join the scientists and naturalists brought in by the TNC to count all of the plants and animals at Owasippe during a three-day period in may. An OSA member helped arranged for the BioBlitz with the Chicago Area Council’s permission, so the effort was scheduled to coincide with the OSA’s spring work weekend. Well this weekend was also when our troop had scheduled their May campout.
So I spoke with our Scoutmaster, Dan Koleno, about organizing a High Adventure outing to participate in the BioBlitz, provided the folks at TNC would approve our involvement. At first, John Legge, the Director of the Michigan Chapter, was unsure on how to involve scouts as they never tried that before and didn’t want them to interfere with the scientists, and rightly so, who were on a tight schedule. But he was intrigued by the idea as it was after all, taking place on a scout camp.
But a few weeks later, he decided that the scouts could participate by seeking out Lupine communities in Pine Barrens and Oak Savanna habitats. The Lupine, a blue wild flower, is a critical component in the Karner Blue Butterfly life cycle. It’s the only plant that the Karner Blue caterpillar will eat. The Karner Blue in an endangered species with significant populations in only five states. So this would actually be a significant contribution to the project. Furthermore, the unseasonably cool weather ended up chasing many of their volunteers away that weekend, so our presence took on more important as we filled an unexpected void in the project.
All of this back-and-forth discussion actually took place months before the event. So I was able to announce the outing two months before the weekend. Still, I was only able to entice 5 scouts and one other leader, Nick. I think the rest were put off by the 5-hour drive there and back. So on Friday night we left with two cars, Nick’s monstrous Ford pickup truck with three of the scouts, and my Montero with the other two. We actually made great time and arrived in 4.5 hours, 11:00 p.m. CDT. That’s when I dropped the bomb on the boys that Michigan was in the Eastern Time zone and that breakfast was at 7:00 a.m.
After breakfast, John met with us to discuss our schedule. He originally wanted us to visit potential habitats in the Pine Barrens communities in the southeast corner of the reservation. But birders going through that area in the preceding two days did not notice even a single Lupine plant. So instead he asked us to follow the Red Trail north of Ad Center along the western side of the Cleveland Creek watershed. He had cut through there the day before and found some Lupine. He wanted us to start there and determine the extent of that population and then see if we could locate even more sites. Then in the afternoon, there were some other potential areas on the fringe between the Pine Barrens and the Oak Forrest communities. He also announced that he would join us for the morning hike.
His presence was an unexpected bonus as his avocation is birding. So every so often, he would her a familiar birdcall and locate the source and point it out to us. It was incredible! He spotted Baltimore Orioles and Scarlet Tanagers, both of which were in spectacular breeding color. All morning long he pointed out species of birds, many I never seen before. The late spring meant that the forest canopy had not leafed out yet, which made spotting the birds much easier. Many of the species were still migrating north and only stopping in these woods temporally on there way to their summer range. The open canopy also accented the periodic stands of Flowering Dogwood. Their blossoms were in their peak; forming beautiful white umbrellas scattered throughout the woods.
After 30 minutes of hiking, we found the Lupine he spotted the day before. John then gathered the boys and showed it to them so they could learn to ID it on their own. Then we decided to continue up the trail, looking for additional sites. We would then loop around to the west, bushwhacking off the red trail, until we circled back to his original site, where we would determine the extent of the Lupine in this field.
So we continued along the trail as it paralleled Cleveland Creek, until it started to dive down towards the White River valley. Here is where we decided to start our loop back. Nick and I were bringing up the rear when Nick nearly stepped on a hiding Woodcock. She loudly exploded up into the sky in a whirl of feathers. I know I jumped and I was a good 20 steps away. She flew straight up from Nick’s feet, right in front of his face, then landed about 30 feet away. His heart must have stopped! She flopped around for awhile, feigning injury to lure away from her hiding spot. We searched for her nest a bit, but didn’t find it. The others we now out of sight, but not earshot, so we gave up and headed towards them
We quickly caught up to them and continued hiking through the woods in a generally eastern direction until we found some old clearings from an old select logging operation. Here we located lots of stumps and mature trees with orange spray painted "X"s on them apparently marked to exclude from the cut. The open areas were filling in with some White Pine saplings, but mostly dense groves of Choke Cherry saplings, except were logging slash and chips prevented any real growth.
I know that the select cut logging technique is considered the modern standard operating procedure these days. But it sure makes a mess and throws the habitat off kilter. The transition from the natural Oak Forest community into this logged habitat was very obvious, not only visually, but audibly as well. All of the birds we were sighting earlier seemed to have disappeared. We must remember that select cut logging, although preferable over clear cut, is still a harvesting technique for an agricultural crop, and not necessarily a desirable habitat management strategy on its own.
Apparently, this man made habitat is not well suited to the Lupine’s liking either, as we didn’t find any here. But John said that it may make a good candidate for restoration by clearing out the young pines and cherries, followed with a low heat, prescribed burn. That would let nature heal the open space into an Oak Savanna type community that could harbor Lupines and Karner Blues some day.
We then turned south and followed the ridge that paralleled the red trail, only we were on the other side of it now. We were looking for a small valley on the topographic map that could be a good site. We then startled a trio of White Tail Deer who quickly bounded up over the top of the ridge, heading in the same direction as we were.
We followed their well-worn trail up over the top and found the valley. We found Lupine as well! This was a good size opening with a decent population of Lupine. There was also evidence that the lumber operation we traveled through used this field in their operations. There were circles of wood chip in which only thistle grew. And a few rusting pieces of corrugated metal that was left behind. We found the Lupine on the western slope near the bottom of the valley. Most of it was intermixed within patches of wild Blueberries. And many of these were under pine trees or where pine trees once stood. Blueberries and Lupine prefer slightly acidic soil and the decomposing needle litter from the pines would lower the pH in the soil. This field would be an easy habitat to restore and it’s only a quarter mile or so from John’s original site.
We then found a huge ant mound on the southern end of the field. This is another good sign, as John explained to the scouts that ant have a symbiotic relationship with Karner Blue caterpillars. The ants provide protection from predators while the caterpillars exude sweet nectar that the ants eat whenever they gently stroke the caterpillar’s body.
Now it’s back to the first site to gauge the scope of the Lupine population there. So we headed up over the ridge and soon found the Red Trail again just past the target site. We ambled back up the trail, spotting birds and plants along the way. Everyone was relaxed and enjoying himself while spending the day in the woods. The original site also had a decent sized population of Lupine, but not "prolific," as John put it. Still, it was there and could be a potential Karner Blue breeding site too. They’ll come back and inventory the adults later in the summer.
It didn’t take long to get back to Ad Center and her John took leave of our company. He had other tasks he needed to attend to while we continued on our quest for Karner Blue habitats. He pointed out several potential sites that were on the fringe between the Oak Savanna community in the southeast corner, our original target area, and the Oak Forest community that covered the rest of the reservation. These sites were scattered all over the reservation in a discontinuous path. But most of them were near or on two-track roads. So we decided to drive to or near each site and try to visit as many as we could in the afternoon.
Like anyone really needs an excuse to put it into 4-wheel drive and go two-trackin’! I decided we would start by Camp Carlin and hit the western two sites. Then go to the fields between Camp Wolverine and Camp Reneker. Followed by some sites along the Lake Cabins access road north of Ad Center. Finally, we would visit a field I remember from my visit last year. John had mentioned that Lupine likes disturbed area, including areas that have burned. My son and I passed a huge field off of the Orange Trail north of Gus Kopp dam that had a few charred stumps.
So we drove into Camp Carlin and stopped for lunch at one of the campsites. It was a beautiful site at the far southern end of camp up on top of a small hill. After lunch we drove down to the shooting range and searched the large field that stretched north and west from there. But nick found only a single plant. So we continued west along the two-track to reach the Far Western border of the reservation. The road passed through several large prairie type habitats but there was no sign of Lupine at all. Everyone was having a blast two-trackin’ through Owasippe. This was not part of the original plan, but it’s always fun to put the Montero in 4-wheel drive. I had not driven through the woods of Owasippe like this in 25 years.
We must have been 2-3 miles into the trek when I noticed that my gas gauge was on empty. I had not even considered this since the original plan was for us to hike. I knew I was low, but intended to fill up on our way home on Sunday. The extra driving in 4-wheel drive burned up a lot of gas too! So we promptly turned around and drove into Whitehall to gas up.
On the way back to the reservation, we took Holton-Whitehall Road so we’d end up at the sourthern end of the reservation work our way north and hit the remaining spots. First was a large field north of Reneker, no Lupine. Then we continued north through Wolverine and Ad Center. We then turned onto the access road to Gus Kopp Dam. Here we found a small population where the White Trail enters the field. We also drove into Wolverine’s shooting range but found no Lupine.
Finally, we drove over to the north side of the dam by the old Guest Lodge cabin. My wife, my brother and I stayed here during a Christmas in July weekend a long time ago. We explored the cabin and the dam briefly, then headed up the Orange Trail to find the last site. The site is about a half a mile down the trail and was easy to spot. Bingo! We found the biggest population of Lupine that day. It was about twice as large as the first two sites we explored in the morning. We spread out and walked to the far end and back. Once again, the Lupine only grew on the lower, western slope of the shallow valley.
We finished up back at the dam at around 5:00 p.m., which left us an hour before diner. I suggested that we see if Camp Blackhawk was open. It was only five minutes down the road and then we would have visited each of the section camps on the reservation. As luck would have it, it was open. Blackhawk is a gorgeous camp along the southern shore of Big Blue Lake. The dining hall sits about 200 feet from the waterfront on a hillside. There’s a deck along the entire width of the dining hall that has a view of the lake through the trees. This would be a perfect spot for a scouter to set up a rocking chair after dinner. Nick found a way into the dinning hall so we took a look inside. We also walked up staff row, which sits high on a bluff overlooking the lake. What a beautiful view to wake up to every morning. It was around 5:30 p.m. when I rounded everyone up to head on out. I suggested we stopped at one of the campsites on our way out so we can see what they looked like.
So we started to drive out, continuing on the road we came in on. At every camp, the roads loop back around to the main road, except at Blackhawk. Only, we I didn’t figure this out until the gravel road turned to grass and then ended abruptly. It did end at a one-time exit on to Owasippe Road. But that entrance was sealed a long time ago by a trencher and piles of stumps. So there was no way we were getting out that way. So we had to turn around and go all the way back around the way we came in. As I was backing up, I was looking at my left side-view mirror when I heard a terrible sound, my right side-view mirror scraping across the rear quarter panel of Nick’s new pickup truck. It was at this time that I said a few choice words that I don’t usually use in the presence of scouts. I was ticked. Mad at myself for making such a bonehead maneuver. To Nick’s credit, he took it really calmly. He said it was done and over and that we should just move on.
So we turned around and head back towards the main gate. I was still stewing privately about hitting Nick’s truck as we approached the gate, which was closed and locked. We were locked in! Dang it. Again, they had trenched along either side of the gate and piled stumps so you could not drive around. This extreme security is necessary these days because of the arson that has burned down Camp Carlin’s dinning hall, Camp Reneker’s lodge and a ranger residence.
There was no way out and it was now 6:00 p.m. and everyone in the camp, the TNC folks, the OSA folks and camp staff and employees, such as the rangers, were all at Food Prep having diner. It would be a long time before anyone noticed we were missing, if ever, because no one knew we were taking this side trip to Blackhawk. So we had only two choices. We lock up the vehicles and hike down to Ad Center along the road. It would take us a good hour or so to make the trip. Then we would have some one drive Nick and I back to our trucks. Or we could try to find the old service road between the new and old Blackhawk and see if we can go out the old entrance further to the east. We opted to try to find the old entrance.
Finding the old service road was not too hard, as there were only a few places it could be. They started to build the roads in the new Blackhawk back in 1975 when I worked there. We had moved the waterfront west about a half-mile to where the new dinning hall was to built so we had to drive down the service road once and a while to deliver or pick up supplies. I think the waterfront staff sometimes drove to meals using this road. I remember that the service road hit the new road by an old radio shack. I can’t remember why the shack was there, I think it was left over from Camp Wilderness, a lone troop camp, which occupied the site before they built the new Blackhawk. He shack is long gone but there were only a few places were an intersecting road meet the main road were it was level enough to have been where it sat.
The road went two ways, left and right and we chose the wrong one, the left one, of course. It dead-ends into the Blackhawk wilderness campsites. I believe this is actually where Camp Wilderness stood over looking Big Blue Lake. So back we went and started down the right branch. This road proved more promising as it soon dwindled down to a tight grassy road that appears to be seldom traveled. Then, just as I thought we were going to be successful, it ended on a hilltop overlooking Big Blue with no apparent way to continue. But this spot looked so familiar but I couldn’t quite orient myself. It had been 25 years since I was there and everything was grown over. Still, I felt we were close. So I decided to go out on foot and scout around a bit and see if I could locate the road.
I knew we were still west of the camp so I struck out through the bushes heading east. I only had to push my way through the first hedgerow when I found a small, rectangular foundation. This is where the nature lodge once stood. Now I knew where we stopped. That was the hilltop where the flag pole once stood. So I continued eastward a short way until I found the foundation to the dinning hall. It seemed remarkably small for a building that could hold hundreds of scouts. I searched for the main road from the southeast corner where the trading post opened up. There in a thicket of dense saplings I found the road. The brush had all but obliterated the path, but it was still passable for a smaller vehicle. Nick's huge pickup truck might get scratch trying to work its way through it. And I know Nick's truck was "scratched" enough from my mirror already!
I turned around a started to follow the road heading back west, just south of where I pushed my way through the brush to find it. At one point, a huge Oak tree had snapped about twenty feet above the ground and formed an arch over the road. John Legge had mentioned earlier that a major storm passed this way the year before. This tree seemed to be part of the damage from the storm. But there was plenty of room to get under it and it was still secured to the trunk so the road was still passable. I continued on until I hit the service road fifty feet or so south of where we stopped. The vehicles were still sitting on the flagpole hilltop. The site looked friendly and inviting now that I knew where we were.
I explained what I found to Nick and we decided that I would continue and see if I could make it through. Then I would return and unlock the gate for his truck. And if I couldn't make it through, we'd all just have to walk back. Nick also decided to follow me on foot to make sure I got through all right.
The road was actually in great shape and it opened up a bit once past the initial thicket of saplings. After a few minutes, I started to anticipate the right hand turn back towards the blacktop and past the ranger house where Orville used to live.
That's when I spotted the locked cable strung between two posts barring the way. And on the other side was a lush green lawn and a beautiful lakeside home. Obviously, the Council had decided to sell this corner of the property. Dang it!
After a few minutes of thought, I decided to go to the home's front door and see if they happened to have the camp's phone number to see if we could call someone to unlock the Blackhawk gate. Halfway up the lawn, I noticed the owner coming up her driveway with a HUGE barking dog, pulling on leash. I guess he spotted me too.
She graciously took the dog inside and came back to hear my sad tale of woe. She did not have the key to the gate but did offer to try phoning the camp. She came back a few minutes later explaining that there was nor answer. That didn't surprise me as they were all still at Food Prep eating dinner. She did offer to show us a way to her drive way through the woods. So she and Nick walked ahead of us, leading us towards her barn. As I was thanking her, she mentioned the she boards Tony Krier. Tony is a long time fixture at Owasippe who is retired and is sort of an unofficial ranger. In fact, I believe he probably knows Owasippe better than anyone else alive. I have met a few times and know him well, although he likely couldn't remember my face if someone mentioned my name. Just as she was saying this, Tony pulls up in his red Cherokee! Unfortunately, he doesn't have the keys to the camp gates, only the rangers have them. So off to Ad Center we go.
I found the new Head Ranger, Al Geisler, at Food Prep and introduced myself, since we had never met before. I explained my plight to him and asked if he could go to Blackhawk and let the other out, or give me the key and I would do it. He gave me a real funny look as he didn't now me from Adam, as they say. Luckily, Chris Sanchez, who knew me from my staff days, was standing there and she vouched for me. So Al gave me the key with strict instructions to lock the gate and return the key directly to him ASAP. So off I went to rescue the other half of our crew.
Fortunately, we didn't miss diner. Chauncey and his crew, Badger & Beaver (I'm not kidding), prepared a huge feast for the OSA Work weekend crew. After dinner, we helped wash dishes and clean up with them. It was the least we could do for their hospitality. Later, Nick, Kevin and Neil helped Badger collect some firewood. He took them to the Wolverine Fire bowl, which the OSA had donated and built last year. They were very impressed! They also were fired up about Owasippe and asked me about working there next summer as CITs.
The next morning we cooked breakfast, packed up and headed home. Several boys commented that this was their favorite outing so far. It wasn't camping, but I had a blast hiking and two-trackin' through the woods where I grew up.
You can view my field notes from this outing at the Scouter 149 website
Why does it always seem to be the hottest day of the year on the day we arrive at camp? Once again we started summer camp in the sweltering heat. The check in process was not as smooth as I would have liked. There was slight confusion on the sequence of steps involving the dining hall orientation, medical check in and turning in the medications. Nothing serious, but it meant that I toted the medical forms, two copies of each, and everyone's medications back and forth from our site and the dining hall several times. On the way back to our campsite, my son confided to me that he had forgotten how fun camp was and that he was excited to be there. I think part of his lack of anticipation in the weeks before camp was that the previous two summer camps were not as enjoyable and rewarding as his first experience at Tesomas. He was truly happy to be back at Tesomas.
It was still hot on Monday. The weather report forecasted temperatures in the mid-nineties with a heat index of over 100. It was a good day to spend down at the waterfront. My son’s schedule had him there right after breakfast for Lifesaving and again after lunch for Small Boat Sailing. I didn’t see him until lunch. I asked him how it went. He said it was tough, that they swam 400 yards. I was impressed! So I guess I didn’t have to worry about him handling the rigors of Lifesaving.
Several of the boys started to feel the effects of dehydration. With forty-three scouts, it was nearly impossible to keep reminding all of them to keep drinking all day long. Even my son felt bad after dinner and was feeling ill. I was at the health office with him after dinner while he took his daily medications. He mentioned to the health officer that he felt sick. The health office replied as he turned away, so we couldn’t hear exactly what he said. But my son thought he said something about going home, which he didn’t. Joe immediately retorted, "No way! I paid $175 for camp and I’m staying!"
So the two of us hung out around the dining hall while the rest of the troop participated in the Smiley scavenger hunt. Smiley is the camp mascot. It’s a cartoon drawn by a Disney animator of a voyager tent with a smiley face, hence the nickname, and a crown. Walt Disney was an old school friend of the Samoset Scout Executive. He asked to have a team on animators spend a summer at Tesomas in preparation for the creation of Bambi. So the next time you see Bambi, take a good look because you’re really looking at Tesomas.
The contest featured different stations with contests or quizzes. There was also staff dressed up in different costumes, such as a ninja and Mario from the Mario Brothers game. They were giving out clues, so true and some false. It was up to teams to determine whether or not to believe them.
Anyway, we wandered down to the waterfront to see our teams compete there. We were there when his patrol came down. So we cheered them on as they were rowing out to the guy on the raft playing an electric guitar. (Yes, an electric guitar). He told them to proceed to the Personal Wellness area. My son’s stomach was feeling better so he decided to join them. It ended up that’s where Smiley was so they won the contest, and a watermelon!
I remember Larry Nelson and Gary Swegel, two leaders from troop 131, hiking the trails at Tesomas three years ago and mentioning that there were a few nice spots. So I decided that I would hit the trails this year. Fortunately, two scouts, Jim and Danny, needed a 4-mile backpacking hike for a Camping merit badge requirement. So Tuesday after lunch, I stopped by the Scoutcraft area and picked up two of our scoutsi for our trek.
Tesomas has three trails the Green "Hermit" trail, the blue "Swamp" trail and the yellow trail. Combined they are approximately five miles in length. So I intended to do each one after another, starting with the Hermit trail on the north side of camp. We picked up the trailhead just past the entrance to the EcoCon trail, on the north side of camp. I didn’t find out for sure, but I believe the name comes from one of two structures that are on the trail that were likely used as a home by a recluse. One is the back of a large panel truck or delivery truck. And the other is a small run down shack off the road about 30 feet.
It’s not really a trail per say. It’s really an old logging road that’s marked with the little green squares that Tesomas uses to identify their trails. It does finally turn into a footpath at the very end. Unfortunately, the path dives down to the edge of the Black Spruce swamp and the mosquitoes were at their worst there. But at least it was a trail and it was a welcome relief to get off of the hot gravel road and into the tree canopy. But all in all, I would not recommend this trail.
The Swamp Trail was next. The name had me worried a bit, especially after the buggy leg of the Hermit trail we just completed. But we pressed on after a short rest. Jim had a bunch of wood ticks on his socks. We’ll have to make a more thorough search for ticks when we're done.
The Swamp trail starts off as a camp road that dives down deep into the heart of the forest. It was dark, damp and buggy. I was getting real worried. The trail then took a left turn down a logging road and started to slowly rise. After a half-mile along this section, the trail broke out of the woods and rose up high on a ridge. It straddled this ridge, either a glacial moraine or esker, until it rose a good 20 to 30 feet above a large Black Spruce swamp. It peaked right in the middle of this swamp. There was a nice refreshing breeze and very few bugs. We were able to stop and rest comfortably for the very first time during the hike. It was a really cool location and worth the effort to reach it. I took a few pictures, but they failed to truly capture the beauty of the place. We were like hovering above the swamp on an island.
The trail went on southwards for a short while, then turned eastward, then to the northeast as it returned towards the camp. Just like the Hermit trail, it finally left the logging road and turned into a footpath. The trails are seldom walked and the markers stretched out far between, so it was a bit of a challenge to keep to the path. It also went through a boggy part here so we had to pick our way carefully through the heavy bracken fern, grass and sphagnum tussocks. The very end of the trail crosses a wet section of several hundred yards where logs had been laid down as footbridges. They were tough to see through the undergrowth, but we managed.
We came out on a camp road about a quarter mile from our campsite. It was getting late so we decided to omit the yellow trail. It heads south along one of the camp roads down to Akela’s World, the Cub Scout day camp. Then it loops back to Tesomas along the Crystal Lake shoreline. The shoreline trial is very nice but short.
It was an exhausting day. The heat index was hovering around 100 degrees and the mosquitoes and flies where maddening. And we found more ticks, some embedded, when we returned. But neither of the boys uttered any sound of complaints. They just trudge along behind me to the trail’s end.
Immediately upon our return to the campsite from our hike, I had to start preparing the cobbler dough for that night's "World's Greatest Cobbler" competition. I mixed the dough and placed it in the cooler to chill, ran to the shower, then came back to assemble and cook the cobbler. The other leaders where cooking our dinner, as it was the one night to eat out in the campsite instead of the dining hall (a BSA National recommendation ). And the boys were preparing and practicing for the presentation.
One group of 6, wearing Burger King crowns (Camp Tesomas, Where Camping is King) was our kazoo band. Another group rehearsed the Tesomas Hymn while a third practiced the Tesomas chant. We are an out-of-council troop so we were not familiar with these songs. The older boys lashed two short tripods to hold the cobbler bearer's stave at presentation.
We marched into the pavilion led by the kazoo band. We then gathered around the picnic table around the four judges, whom we nicknamed the "Cobbler Gobblers," and the "choirs" sang the hymn and chant. They parted to the side as two boys set up the tripods. They held them steady while the cobbler bearers carried in the Dutch oven in on their stave over their shoulders and placed it onto the stands. I then approached spatula in hand to serve them. Our troop bugler sounded a little flourish (ala the old margarine commercials) as I lifted the lid to present the cobbler.
It was a lot of fun. I was excited to see the whole troop rally around the event as team. Not one scout was left out and they were all excited and enthused. To me, that was the real prize.
One of my personal objectives this week was to reinvigorate the Order of the Arrow participation in the troop. Tom Kita Chara, the Samoset Council OA Lodge, conducts one of the most exciting tap-out ceremonies I have ever seen. It actually begins on the first day of camp when the staff members playing the role of Uncas begin to memorize the faces of the candidates. During the ceremony, they race around the fire bowl and pull out the unsuspecting candidate from his or her seat. They’ll pull a few candidates and then run out the bowl to meet with their backup, who also has memorized the candidates and have been checking their names off of the master list. During this time, another member comes out to perform the Feather Dance, a traditional Indian dance. This process is repeated a few times with additional dancing between tap-outs, including an inspiring flaming hoop dance. Our whole troop was excited about the ceremony afterwards. And the candidates peppered me with questions when I retrieved them afterwards.(Our lodge gave permission to tap out but not to conduct the ordeal, which must be done at a Wulapeju event.)
I was also involved in the preparation of the ceremony. Each week they sand paint a new design in the fire bowl. I volunteered to help. We pours colored roofing granules into the design scratched into the sand on the fire bowl floor. This week’s design was a Mayan or Inca Indian mask in the moon and a long boat of warriors paddling toward the moon. It’s not physically hard work to sand paint. But it is tough spending all day bent over pouring the sand into the design while trying not to step on the scratch marks It’s sort of like doing detail art work while playing twister. And the blazing sun and heat only added to the challenge. It turned out very nice and I was glad to be able to help create it.
The excitement from the OA fire carried over into the next day as well. The camp was running a special session on becoming an OA Troop Representative. Four of our older scouts attended and were even talking about becoming Brotherhood members. I don’t think any of our scouts have bothered to continue on to Brotherhood. So I think I have achieved my objective or at least have a great jump-start towards achieving it.
Thursday night was the troop shoot at field sports. My son and I were not on the same team. In fact, he was pretty much on his own this year. He even sat at a different table in the dinning hall. I guess he’s taking me up on my suggestion to treat me as if I were just another leader. Anyway, the shoot involved teams of leaders and scouts on the archery, rifle and shotgun ranges.
The shotgun was the last station for our teams. Neither of us where shooting shotgun in the competition. I did the archery for my team and my son did rifle for his. But after the competition, the councilor let us shoot for fun. My son shot first and nailed two out of 5 pigeons, which is very good for a beginner. I went 0 for 5. So he now had bragging rights that he "skunked" me. Luckily, the shooting was late in the week and he didn’t have long to crow!
My son finished his main three merit badges, Lifesaving, Camping and Small Boat Sailing, early enough that I was able to talk him into building his survival shelter to get a partial in Wilderness Survival. He constructed a dandy shelter. So Friday night he was all prepared to sleep out in his shelter. He even had all of his gear packed so he wouldn’t have much to do to break camp the next morning.
His shelter turned out really nice. The councilor even took a picture of it show other scouts working on the badge in the weeks to follow. The only problem was that he developed a wheeze about a half-hour after he turned in for the night. I had warned the camp doctor that we might be knocking on his door later in the night. But my son recognized it early, took two puffs on his inhaler and bailed out back into his tent. Not a total success, but at least he know knows that he has to do and what he cannot do in a true emergency. I have ordered an emergency plastic tube tent for him to carry in his fanny pack in case he ever should end up in a survival situation. I ordered a spare so he can sleep in it during the next campout to complete the requirement.
I had a few practical jokes planned for camp this year. But my first prank was an opportunity of coincidence. Bob and Pete, two of our leaders, went to town to get ice, cobbler ingredients and other items. The only place in Rhinelander that had block ice was the ICO gas station/convenient store. When they returned, Bob commented on how a "Biker chick with crooked teeth and tattoos" was hitting on him. She noticed that the troop T-shirt Bob and Pete wore said McHenry, IL and she explained that she was originally from Wonder Lake, the next town over.
I just couldn’t pass this up. The next morning I stopped in the camp office and asked the clerk to write out a message for me on their message pad. "Bob, Wanda from Wonder Lake called. Call me at ICO," and I rattled off a fictitious phone number. I then dropped it into our mail slot and went on my way.
Brian, another leader, picked it up later in the day after lunch when he checked the box for advancement slips. We were all siting around in front of our scoutmaster's tent, a.k.a Koleno’s Café when he handed it to him. "This is bogus," he kept repeating over and over. "There’s no way she could know who I am." The next day, when Bob a few other leaders were out of camp, the rest of us were siting at Koleno’s Café. Furtive glances and blatant accusations flew like leaves in a windstorm.
"Who did it?"
"Did you do it?"
"I didn’t do it."
"It had to be you."
Most of the attention was pointed toward Pete, who had gone to the ICO with Bob.
But Pete adamantly denied writing the slip. "Then you dictated it," he was charged. Over and over again they queried him, expecting a break in the case. Pete knew it was me because I had asked him earlier if he knew her name so I could play a joke on Bob. He didn’t so I made up "Wanda." But he kept quiet the whole time. "I did not write it." "I did not dictate it." "I did not phone it in." on and on he parried every challenge. He did mention that Bob was worrying all night about it once Pete reminded him that he called Bob by name in the store so it was possible that she knew his name. And the T-shirt had the troop number on it so it would not be too hard or her to phone in a message into the only scout camp around.
So on Thursday I ratcheted it up a notch. I pulled Matt, the camp Program Director, into the scam. He bursts into the dinning hall in the middle of lunch, searched me out, and asks, "Is there a Bob in your troop?" I point Bob out at the end on my table and hands him another phone message. Bob reads the message and turns beet red, no; it was more of a maroon color. He looks like he’s going to blow his lid. "This is bull!" he exclaims. He went on for a while longer how this was no longer funny. While I quietly ate my lunch deciding whether to pull the plug on the prank, let it ride or take it up a level.
He seemed truly upset about the prank, I think a part of him kept nagging that it could be real. So I approached him after lunch and said, "Bob, it was me."
He looked down at me puzzled. "What?"
"It was me."
"You! Oh man, you have to watch out for the quiet ones." Then he smiled and added, "You’re evil." He also mentioned that he went as far as to reverse the phone number in an attempt to find out who it was, so he was really worked up in a lather over it. A truly good prank is worthless if someone get hurt, so I feel I made the right decision. However, I know have to watch my back when he’s around because I’m fair game in his mind!
The root for this prank goes back four years to a summer camp at Ma-Ka-JA-Wan. That was before we joined the troop, but he’s what I was told. Rob Beaderstadt bought a cement garden squirel, painted it up like a skunk and added plastic gem eyes. He them snuck it into Ed Chess’ tent. Ed entered his tent late at night and his flashlite danced across the "skunk," and he let out a blood curdling scream.
This spring Tommy got a remote control rat. It has wheels that race it forward and eyes that light up. I instantly recognized it as a possible sucessor to Rob’s skunk. So in the pack it went.
I decided to wait until Wednesday night to play this prank. Jim Clingingsmith joined the troop on Wednesday. He has a reputation for playing jokes so I figured that if I waited, chances are he’d get the blame. So after everyone left for the OA campfire, I snuck into the tent that Dan, Ed, Brian and Rob were sharing and put the rat under some sheets on Rob’s bedroll.
A couple of weeks before camp, I was telling a few stories to my son about some of the pranks that went on up at Owasippe while I was there. So I decided to let him in on this one so he could savor the thrill of the hunt! We decided to use the code phrase "There’s a full moon over Warsaw," the same phrase that was used at an infamous prank at Owasippe in 1973.
So when we returned to our campsite from the fire, we exchanged knowing glances as we sat down in a circle in front of "Café Koleno," the nickname we gave the awning in front of Dan’s tent. All four of them went into the tent to collect their toiletries and headed down to the shower. So we had to sit and wait it out.
They were taking their time and eventually I gave up. I spent my day sand painting the fire bowl in the hot, blazing sun so I was fading fast. I grabbed my towel and kit to head to the shower. I slipped the remote to my son as I passed him and said, "Have fun." He just smiled ear to ear. I passed Brian and Dan on the way down to the shower as they were returning. Ed and Rob stayed down longer to wash some clothes in the sink.
I actually beat them to the campsite as they were waiting for their clothes to dry in the dryer. My son saw me coming and came over all excited. "It didn’t work, Dad!" He decided to push the button on the remote when Dan and Brian entered tent. Apparently, the batteries must have worn down while we at the fire. He said pushed and pushed the button, but there was no reaction., saying something Finally, when he had given up, Brian stumbled on the rat in his bedroll (I guess a picked the wrong bedroll!). My son said he was startled a bit and said something like, "Hey! What’s this? Beaderstadt!!!"
As expected, the prank level jumped up considerably when Jim Clingingsmith arrived on Wednesday night. Rocks and pebbles started to appear in leader’s pockets. On Thursday, Jim convinced on of the kids to shimmy up the troop flagpole and stick Dan’s hat on top. Dan retrieved it using the several tent poles stuck together.
That night, after everyone had just turned in for the night, Jim, Stan Mill and myself were sitting around the dying embers of the campfire. Jim said, "Hey! You wanna go down to the office for some coffee?" So we got up to leave and he adds, "Wait a minute." And he tip toes over to Dan’s tent and relieves the clothesline of Dan’s scout shirt. And he grabbed Dan’s at for good measure as well.
We stop at the office to start a fresh pot of decaf brewing then head on down to the waterfront. At the end of the pier is a wooden "T" support to hold the throwing rings. We took them off of the arms and placed one back on over the top. It sat on top of the crosspiece at an angle, sloping down in the front. Jim then dressed the support and ring with Dan;s shirt. The ring added some girth to the shirt to make it appear as if it were being worn, He then tied Dan’s distinctive hat on top. We then went back to the office for our coffee.
The next morning the troop assembled at the camp flagpole outside of the office. It’s sits on top of the hill overlooking the waterfront. We’re all mingling around a bit as we are early for the flag raising, when someone points out three loons swimming just outside of the swim area. Someone countered that they were ducks not loons, and various leaders then weighed in with their own opinion. Dan turns to look at them and provide his 2 cents worth when he suddenly noticed the shirt … and the hat. His shoulders slumped a bit as his face signaled recognition of the hat and he realized that it was his!
I got a nice photo of Dan marching out to the end of the pier to retrieve his uniform. Al Archie, the camp director admonished me for entering the waterfront without a buddy tag. But then he smiled and commented that it was nice to see folks having so much fun!
I had made a strong effort to convince the troop to camp at Tesomas this year. It was almost two hours further than Ma-Ka-Ja-Wan or Napawan. But Napawan the previous year was so lousy, at least to me, I felt that we really did have to change. So I was glad when the boys had a great time and did well in their advancement. Brian came up to me on Thursday and asked if I would visit a few of the other campsites. Rob asked him to select a site and rollover our deposit for next year. Rob is a big fan of Napawan so I felt redeemed when he was won over to Tesomas.
And, as luck would have it, the closest and nicest site at the camp was going to be available the next year as the local troop that camped there was changing to a different period next year. Plus we are going to work in the Hanna Venture Base and its Micro-Treks and Venture Trek programs into our schedule next year for the older scouts. So I am already looking forward to Tesomas 2003!
Devils Lake has always been one of my favorite camping places. It’s not remote or rustic, but the lake and the bluffs are spectacular. Ironically, this trip is two years, almost to the day, since that ill-fated trip with troop 131 (Mirror Lake 8/10-14/2000). So I was really keyed up for this trip to be the total opposite of what was the worst camping experience in my life.
It was touch and go whether my son would camp or not. He developed an asthmatic wheeze from shuffling feet for two weeks at marching band practice. In the end, he was feeling good enough to go. But we couldn’t leave until Saturday morning as the marching and had a parent preview on Friday night. So we woke up at 4:30 a.m. and hit the road a little after 5:00 a.m. We stopped at the Depot Dinner in Richmond for a couple of fried egg sandwiches to go and ate them on the way.
The sun rose shortly after we left but it soon darkened as we neared Madison, WI. Then "Bam!" it hit us, a torrential downpour that obliterated the road. I nearly had to pull over and wait it out as it as difficult to see the road. But it lasted on fifteen minutes or so and it faded into a light drizzle by the time we reached the western edge of Madison’s suburbs. Less than an hour later we puled into the campsite and it was long gone. So the weather started clearing up for our hike.
Geology Tour
I contacted Paul Herr of Nature Safaris again. No one in Troop 131 was interested in his tour two years ago, but both the scouts and the leaders in 149 were excited. He no longer does walk-in tours and you have to arrange a group tour. Fortunately, the troop committee agreed to front the money and make up the shortage. But fortunately we had enough attendees to pay for the tour in total. Twenty-nine Scouts and Scouters went on the tour!
The tour was outstanding! Paul made geology interesting and was teaching us all earth science without us realizing it. Devils Lake is a very unique geologic formation and I don’t think anyone on the tour will ever forget how it was formed.
We started at the southern shore where Mr. Herr gave a fifteen-minute introduction. He encouraged audience participation, including "ahs" when he said something impressive, which he generously gave cues so we wouldn’t miss them, and groans when he said a bad joke or pun, for which we needed no cues. We then headed along the Grotto Trail along the base of the southern leg of the east bluff. The grottos formed among the fallen boulders in the talus field can drop temperatures as the act as a natural air conditioner. It wasn’t that warm today so the temperature difference wasn’t that noticeable.
Then we headed up the CCC trail. At the top, Mr. Herr continued his story, showing us frozen ripple marks, smashed rocks, and raindrops dimpling the surface from events that occurred millions of year ago, like a snapshot in stone.
He also expanded our knowledge on Turkey Vultures. He explained how they defecate on their legs to keep from overheating on hot days. And how they’ll vomit the rotten meat they’ve eaten if you excite or scare them. The leaders had a lot of fun with those facts the rest of the day, temporally renaming the Leaders Patrol into the Vomiting Turkey Vultures. "Hey! Keep cool and stay calm or I’ll…" We even made up a new patrol cheer where you rock back-and-forth on each leg while shaking the free one obviously keeping cool, while flapping your arms. "Caw! Caw! Blech!" Obviously, we got scared.
We made our way back down to the south shore via the Balance Rock trail. Going up in tough. but going down is even harder, especially with my bad knees. But the trip to the top of the bluff is worth it. At points we could look four miles to the south and see the silver reflection of the Wisconsin River. Below, the terminal moraine that plugs up the valley is easily identified. And you can almost always get a vulture eye view of the beautiful Devils Lake between the two bluffs.
At the end, Mr. Herr gave me plenty of rock and fossil samples for the boys earning Geology merit badge. That was way beyond his commitment for the tour and an extraordinarily generous act. The hike, the tour and his generosity far exceeded my expectations for the weekend, and it was only half over!
Saturday Afternoon
Most of the boys and leaders went to the lake for a swim. Mr. Salkus had told me earlier that the park nature center was well worth the visit. So Mr. Huff, Mr. Teta and I drove to the north shore to visit the center. And Mr. Salkus was right. Not only was it a great center full of artifacts, photos, murals and even live animals, but the staff was very knowledgeable and freely gave their knowledge. Luke, in particular, spent a great deal of time expanding our understanding of the park, it’s history and formation, and the current project to pump out phosphate laden water in the fall. That project is targeted to return the lake’s clarity to 40 feet or so like it was at the turn of the century. The current fifteen feet looks nice so I can’t imagine how impressive it will be to be able to look straight down to the bottom even at the deepest point (40’-50’)
Saturday Night
The highlight of the evening was dinner. Mr. Farrington brought up his 30 qt. Pot for deep frying turkey. He cooked two turkeys for the leaders, one mesquite flavored and the other barbecue flavored. Both flavors where outstanding. There was also corn on the cob and a nice tomato/onion/pepperoni salad. I made a fresh peach cobbler that turned out nice. So I guess my failure at summer camp was redeemed. We gathered at the campfire after dinner and cleanup, but I was so tired I fell asleep in my chair. So I headed off and called it a night early.
Parfrey’s Glen
After a hearty breakfast, Mr. LaRue cooked scrambled eggs with chorizo recipe he favors, we broke camp and headed for nearby Parfrey’s Glen. This is the state natural area. It’s wonderful little valley cut through sandstone by a small creek. An early settler named Parfrey dammed the creek and built a gristmill. Now it’s a state natural area.
We casually hiked upstream, spotting different plants, such as Maidenhair Fern and Jewelweed. Deep in the canyon, the exposed sandstone showed the layers of brachia Dr. Herr mentioned when the quartzite bluffs were tropical islands battered by fierce storms. The sandstone conglomerate held chunks of battered quartzite pebbles and stones. The troop held a brief service at the trails end, then headed back out and started on our way home.
We took the long way home via the Merrimac ferry, which is always a popular treat for the scouts. On the far side of the Wisconsin River, we stopped for lunch, which was only noteworthy because Art LaRue sliced his finger with my new Leatherman Multi-Tool while trying to slice bread rolls! His finger is still intact and my Leatherman has been officially "christened."
This was a fun outing and I recommend any youth organization to take advantage of this wonderful historic national landmark. The Cobia is World War II submarine that's permanently anchored outside of the Manitowoc Maritime Museum. It was actually built in Connecticut but is representative of the 28 submarines built in Manitowoc during the war. We not only had a great time, but also came away with a better understanding of a submariner's life aboard submarines and the sacrifices they made defending our freedom.
The overnight began at 8:00 p.m. Saturday after the museum and the submarine is closed to the public. We arrived a little early so we could have a snack at the Beernstein Ice Cream parlor, an old fashion ice cream and candy store, about a block away from the museum. Forty scouts and leaders descended upon the narrow parlor at 7:30 p.m. Saturday night. It had begun snowing as we neared Manitowoc, which created a very picturesque image in the deserted streets. However, the staff handled our throng completely in stride and we all were ready to leave about 45 minutes later.
We "mustered" in the museum a few minutes later. Dave and Tricia from the museum were our "Captain" and "Chief" for the night. Dave started off right away by treating us as if we were raw recruits on our first training session. They were very good. They issued us our "dog tabs" and split us into two groups for separate tours and loading our gear onto the sub. My son and I were in the same group and we started in the foyer of the museum. It was getting a bit warm so we took off out jackets, only my son didn't put his back on when Dave took us out to the boat.
It was only a short walk out onto the museum patio and down the gangplank to the deck of the Cobia. But instead of boarding the sub immediately, Dave mustered us on deck for another tongue lashing, in which he through in a good deal of facts about the submarine and its history. Of course, my son was chilled to the bone by now. I was wearing a two-part coat so I separated the outer shell and handed it to him to wear. He thanked me heartily!
Dave then took us through the sub, starting in the front torpedo room and then back through each different section; officers quarters, control room, mess, crew quarters, forward engine room, aft engine room, maneuvering room and finally the aft torpedo room. We then went back to the museum to gather our gear. The first group had already stashed their gear on the bunks by the time we arrived. They were way ahead of us. In fact, one of our boys was already busy polishing the brass steering wheel as punishment for sassing back to the "Chief." He claims that he didn't really say anything bad, perhaps they just chose him to set an example to the rest of the group to make sure the behaved on board. We then had about 45 minutes to explore and eat our snack of milk and cookies as the first "watch" started at 11:30 p.m.
The Cobia is in incredible shape. The museum's goal is to bring her to 85% operational. They are working on the radar and sonar units and the rest of the conning tower, leaving only the TDS (Torpedo Data System used for calculating torpedo firing solutions) and few other small items to reach that level. The remaining 15% is not doable because of treaty between the U.S. and Canada to allow the subs on the Great Lakes. That treaty states that they cannot be operational as a weapon. So the torpedo doors are welding shut, the propeller and batteries have been removed. Still, almost everything onboard operates as it did in World Ward II. In fact, we were warned not to play with any valves or levers, as it was still possible to set the Cobia into a dive. Unfortunately, they would not be able to have her surface again on her own.
The "watch" was actually an extension of the tour. My son and I were on the second watch, which started around 12:30 a.m. We gathered in the forward engine room to take a short test to see what we had learned from the earlier tour. Then we headed to the control room where Dave explained what was in the conning tower; the radar, sonar, TDS, torpedo fire control, main steering and the two periscopes. It was actually from this room that the captain actually commanded the sub, not from the control room like one sees in the movies. This room was under restoration so we could not actually enter it. But we went through on our way out to the observation deck.
The snow was really coming down now and it was very pretty out. Manitowoc is an older town with a charm of its own. The swirling snowflakes lit by the town's light were picturesque. On deck we learned a bit more about the sub and its history. But the highlight for the boys was when we sat in the gunners seats of the 40mm cannon and pretended to shot targets as Dave called out directions, "target 10 O'clock high!" as the gun swung out over the river towards the Anheiser Busch malting tower on the other bank. "Direct hit!"
Finally, around 3:00 a.m., the Captain ordered "Lights out." over the intercom. Still the boys were wound up and kept at it for a long time afterwards. Fortunately, I managed to switch berthing assignment up to a bunk in the forward torpedo room. My bunk was directly over a dummy torpedo. Still, the exit to topside was through the forward torpedo room and folks leaving to use the "head" in the museum interrupted my sleep several times.
On the way out we stopped at a small zoo in town. Ironically, it's named the Lincoln Park Zoo, the same as the zoo in Chicago. Only this one is in Manitowoc! We spend a few hours looking at the animals. My favorites were the bison and the bal eagles. Some of the boys got too playful and started a snow ball fight that escalated to small stones. Fortunately, I got there and stopped them before anyone got hurt. So we started back home after a quick tail-gate lunch in the parking lot. As a result, the drive home was extra tough as I was fighting drowsiness the entire way. Other than the lack of sleep, the trip was very successful and the boys loved it. I suspect that we'll go back again someday.
