Chisholmn Trail Adventure?

[eagle90]

Our PLC is looking at High Adventure options for 2005 (Already!) and in surfing the net found the Chisholm Trail Adventure sponsored by the Longhorn Council in the Dallas area. It looks like a good combination of aquatics and land based adventures. It seems fairly reasonably priced too. Anyone have any experience with this program? Thanks for the help!

 

DALE

[2scoutmom]

My advice is: DO NOT GO!!!

 

Our troop went on the Chisholm trail this past summer. Our troop does many different activities and our boys are game for just about anything. They had a miserable time at this camp.

 

First, their boat was not ready on time. They had to wait an extra day to get it. The camp was not well run, the staff at the different camps were not trained well, and our boys spent a lot of time just sitting around. Their website looks a lot better than the camp- for instance they proclaim the kids will get a chance to waterski during the week but that simply was not an option (one of the activities our kids were looking forward to)

 

I am incredibly disappointed on the amount of money we spent on this camp for what the boys got in return. We have been to camps that have had better 'high adventure' type programs.

[scoutgirl]

I would definitely recommend that you attend Chisholm Trail Adventure.

 

I worked on staff out there last summer and got to see the program first hand and as a former Philmont staffer I was quite impressed with the program. Scouts are given a chance to do some very unique programs that I have not seen or heard other councils doing including, but not limited to: Wakeboarding, TX Rangers Outpost, TX Frontier Cooking Outpost, and the highly popular Covert Operations Outpost. The staff at the Climbing Outpost and Wakeboarding staff included sponsored climbers and wakeboarders-you dont find that experience at local scout camps too often. This is a true high adventure program meaning you will get back what you put into it

 

[m_orbeck]

A Missed Opportunity

 

I am sorry to hear about this Mom?s displeasure?and her missed opportunity as a Scouter.

 

I am a registered ASM from Troop 264 in Keller, Texas and we attended the same Chisholm Trail Adventure (CTA) program the same week she was there, no doubt sat near her Troop in the dining facility and slogged through the same mud along the roads, during the record setting rain events of the first week of camp June 6 2004. We had 12 Scouts in the Base Camp program (5 of these were rookies) and 7 older boys in the CTA program and I must admit that I have never witnessed such an awesome display of God?s ability to put on Weather Merit Badge class. The 10,000 acre lake rose 11 feet in 2 days. Were we ready for this one, even those of us who were seasoned campers and Texas natives? Absolutely not!

 

Many of my fellow Scouters in 264 have prior military experience, and consequently place a high regard towards being prepared and adapting with changed conditions. We all have our personal experiences, tips and speeches and never pass up a chance to teach a valuable lesson. But every once in a while, Mother Nature will step in to provide us with the training props and Audio Visual aids, as she did that week, so that the aspect of realism is truly paramount. And thinking back on the countless number of times we have lectured our boys about the good sense of always stowing our personal gear together, in a dry place, or taking a few minutes to check that tent flaps are closed before we set out in the morning, I know too well that the comparison with first hand experience is indescribable. When that storm blew in the first night, we all got soaked to the bone, trying to throw extra tie down lines on the tents and actually lashing rocks to the tent walls in a valiant attempt to combat the high winds. We repeated this process over the next two nights and once again on Friday. And not once during that week did I have to explain to those boys about the luxury of donning dry socks and boots in the morning or that wonderful sensation of sliding your cold feet down to the far end of a dry sleeping bag.

 

And to the Mom?s remarks about the camp staff?? Another miss, wide left and off the black. I have attended a few summer programs in which the weather cooperated with us, when the food was so tasty and the drinking water was excellent. We as adults have a tendency to be highly appreciative of those camps, giving out top scores in the post activity evaluations. But when matters take a turn for the worse and storms come in, we often criticize the staff for our own inconveniences. Too often we forget that the staffers require our attentions and concerns also. They are for the most part only a year or two older than the Scouts we claim to be responsible for and we need to be ready to step in during a merit badge class to guide and assist, always from the background. The staff endured the same downpours we did that week, but they had to muster at least an hour earlier than we did each morning, and they did not eat until we were all served, and they returned to their wet tents well after we were all tucked away. And this was week one for the rest of the summer. Shame on the adult that does not recognize this virtue of sacrifice and their desire to be trainers for our boys.

 

Three years ago, our Scoutmaster, Gordon Carter and I took five boys through the same CTA program. We would both agree that it was the most fun ?vacation? we ever had, especially the Texas Rangers portion, of which we are both avid readers. This year we took our turn in Base Camp with the younger Scouts, but we made a special request to the CTA director to ?help out? with the Texas Rangers when our own CTA boys attended. With our ?previous experience?, we volunteered to be the bandits, the bad guys, sneaking in and stealing the payroll and a few horses on the side, and of course, kidnapping the women and ?lightin out for the hills?! Our boys, as newly deputized Rangers were in hot pursuit with a fervent desire for vengeance, a steely look of reckoning in their eyes. ( It is truly amazing how contagious your adult enthusiasm can be with these boys). Of course they overtook us as we retreated up the hill, guns blazing, always running from rock to rock for cover. Before the smoke cleared and the paper wadding blew away, the Rangers had won the fight, and in true fashion of the times, took no prisoners. They stacked our dead bodies up like cordwood in the road, placed their boots upon the backs of our necks and posed for the victory photo. Later, one of the Ranger staffers told our adults, ?You know this week has been truly miserable, but you guys made it fun today. Thanks for helping out!? Helping out as an adult is our job in Scouting?and getting to act like boys again is the biggest secret of it all.

 

Our new Scouts are no longer rookies after that week. They have a little bit of a swagger now, with a healthy dose of a ?Bring It On? attitude. And that is exactly what we want them to be. What a blessing to the Scouting Program if these boys ever register as adults and actually be adults when they, in turn, take their troops out into the storms.

 

Dr. James Dobson once wrote an article about families that form the strongest bonds after the worst camping trips. Dobson explained about the unique bonding that is formed when we suffer and persevere together, overcome together and later reminisce together. How true of Scouting!

 

Mark Orbeck

Asst. Scoutmaster

 

Troop 264 Keller, Texas

Stand Alone ? Stand Together

 

[eagle90]

Thanks scoutgirl and Mark for the positive responsses. I also received privates from 3 other folks who attended the CTA and had nothing but raves. I also received an explanation of the weather consequences from your Scout Executive. Consequently we have sent our reservations in and will be heading southwest in June. Thanks again for the good words!

 

DALE

[Nancy]

I am excited to reply to this even though you have already decided to go. I'm a mother to a recent Eagle Scout, a Star Scout, and a Cub Scout. I have been involved in Scouting for 7 years now in many fashions, but I can say that by far, the Chisholm Trail High Adventure camp was the "time of my life." The key is in enjoying the activities as if you were a teenager again. (I've always enjoyed the outdoors and would rather go hiking in the mountains than lay sunburned on a beach.) As a 39 year old, married, mother of 3 boys, I don't get much time to truly enjoy "playing" but I did that week. I climbed the rock walls, (3 times,) I shot the clay pidgeons at sporting clays, (well I actually hit just a couple,) but I laughed and competed with the boys. I sailed, I tubed as much as the drivers would let me, I was bounced higher than any leader the staff had seen at the waterpark, I too was an old west criminal destined to be felled by the Texas Rangers, the key there is to yell as many insults at the "boy" rangers as you can think of as you're running in and out of cover firing your black powder rifle. I was the ONLY one who wanted another round of covert-ops at 1:00 am, and I was the only one to tie my prisoner to a tree using my issued suspenders at U.S. Cavalry. (He went along with it and stood tied to a tree until the battle was over.) If you make it fun, it will be fun for everyone around you. The second day of our camp it stormed as we sat under cover at the marina, waterskiing was canceled because of lighting, but the staff took it upon themselves to serve us cookies, hot chocolate, and coffee! They obviously enjoyed their jobs. This was my first time camping with our scouts,(I'm a member of the committee and a MB counselor,) and it truly was the time of my life. I didn't bathe for 6 days, although I found a cold water spigot to wash my hair on day 5, and as long as I didn't have a mirror, I was happy! The lake water every afternoon helped to wash off the grime, but quite frankly, we were having too much fun to notice any hygiene deficiencies! Definitely go and have a good time. If you have a good time, the boys will too!

[eagle90]

Thanks Nancy! We are all signed up and looking forward to it. Isn't that what's great about this Scouting thing? We can do things we have never done before and probably may never do again, and be KIDS again, at least for a little while!