Favorite or Funniest Camping Memories

[Jason OK]

Anyone like to share their favorite or funniest camping memories?

[Jason OK]

My favorite memory had to be going to Philmont and experiencing this lightning storm come rolling over the desert plain. WOW!

[Eamonn]

I think that each and every camp has special memories and looking back over the years each group of Scouts and Scouter's do fall "Victim" to that one thing that will be retold around the campfire for many years. Many of these memories are of things that happened when things didn't go as planned and some are just special because you had to have been there.

We had a really nice old Scoutmaster that had been in Troop 133 forever. Pete was in his 80s. The camp had built new shower houses, but the old out houses were still standing. Pete went to the old outhouse for a pee. A couple of Scouts from the troop had got on top of the roof and called out, down the vent "Help, Help I've fallen in!!" Poor Pete was unsure what to do. He was peering down the hole of the out house and of course couldn't see anyone. Again he heard the call "Help, Help" He rushed back to the troop camp site to get help. When he got back the Lads let him in on what they had done. He was a good sport about it, he just shook his head and said something about darn kids.

I remember getting the troop on a train in London we crossed over to Belgium and traveled through the night early the next morning I was woken by the troop looking out the train windows. We had just entered the Swiss Alps, the Scouts were so excited and taken with the beauty of their surroundings. I remember teasing one little Lad who upon seeing a cow, made a mooing sound. I told him that Swiss cows didn't moo, only English cows mooed and he needed to moo in French. He gave me a puzzled look and then worked out that I was pulling his leg. He gave me the greatest smile.

Eamonn.

[Fat Old Guy]

My troop has loads of stories about outrageious things that have happened on camping trips.

 

They include a Scout who chose not to put his rain fly on his tent and woke up in the middle of a storm with standing water in his tent.

 

Then there was the boy who had to be medevaced to the hospital because he cut his hand so badly working on his woodcarving merit badge.

 

There was the guy who thought it would be fun to chase a skunk. 'nuff said.

 

I'm sure that many of these stories grow with time but that's the fun of folklore.

[Fuzzy Bear]

I was fifteen and was camping in the mountains of Philmont for the first time. Actually, I had never seen mountains before and was impressed. My tent-mate, David, was a quiet young man so we didn't talk much. The Ranger had told us to choose carefully where we raised our tents. We were using tents without floors or zippered doors.

 

We walked into our first camp and found a nice place low and under a large tree. It was pretty and we were both inwardly congratulating ourselves on our choice. The tent went up and it promptly began to rain. David got in on his side and I on my side. We lay silently watching the downpour.

 

After a few minutes, David mentally noted that water had begun to come under his side of the tent so he put all of his gear in the middle of the tent and climbed up on it. I laughed to myself at the sight of him up on his pack like a drowning rat and I on my side still dry. A few minutes later I felt some water running beside my sleeping bag, so I piled my gear in the middle and climbed up. There we were two drowned rats.

 

The water continued to come faster and began to widen. Lighting started booming and both of us decided that we needed to evacuate the premises. Out into the rain we stepped already wet, donning our rain gear, we tore down the tent and started searching for a place were water would not come rushing through during the next downfall. Neither of us said more than a two words during this first learning experience.

 

That night, lying in moist gear, I wrote about how to carefully choose a camping spot in the mountains. David didn't have much to say about it. We just dried out our gear when we had a chance. I still quietly find it amusing.

 

FB

(This message has been edited by Fuzzy Bear)

[Jason OK]

Here's a funny one.

 

We were camping and we had the luxury of having a latrine close by. That hot afternoon one of the adults had to go take a poop. So he went to the latrine. Moments later he came running out, screaming with his pants around his ankles holding his man hood. Come to find out a wasp had started a nest under the toilet seat. He got stung right on the end of his man hood. After a lot of ice and loss of proud he recovered but our council never let it down. Later that year we had a council event. Someone rented a bee out fit and chased him around. Poor guy......

 

[kenk]

A happy story with a sad ending . . .

 

I was about 13 years old and on my way to the National Jamboree in Oregon with a bus full of fellow scouts. The bus broke down outside of a small town - Libby, Montana. The troop's leadership apparently contacted a church in the town who responded by taking the boys into their homes for the night. Three other boys and I spent the night with a delightfull family. They feed us eggs and fresh trout for breakfast. They took us on a tour of their town's plywood factory in the afternoon. The bus was ready to go on the second morning, and off we went to Oregon.

 

Though for the life of me I can't remember their names, I'll never forget the care and hospitality those people gave to complete strangers.

 

Recently my wife and I saught additional information about Libby as a potential retirement location. We were horrified to find out that in addition to the plywood factory, Libby's other main industry involved a vermiculte mine. The dust created by the mine has apparently covered that town in dust that has been linked with cancer. It broke my heart.

[mopar73mopar]

back in the 80's when i was a young scout we went on a district camporee and it was held on an old battle field. the camp was huge so the council decided they would have a trading post/district executive suite on the grounds with electricity(via a drop cord at least 10 football fields long) so we get the idea that they should rough it as well and "borrowed" a section of cord about 100 feet long. so the rest of the weekend the executives handed out free ice cream and stayed in the dark due to a missing or "borrowed" cord. it's amazing what a missing cord does for spirits of the exec's tring to make a buck!! the ice cream was delicious. mopar 73 mopar

[OldGreyEagle]

Yuck Yuck Yuck ol' Mopar, what a jokester, now do you have any stories you can relate to us that don't involve breaking the scout law?

 

Note to youth, no matter how funny it may seem at the time, "borrowing" gear or equipment that is not yours or that you do not have permission to touch is not scoutlike.

[boleta]

My thoughts exactly.

[Jason OK]

Another Funny One.

 

Philmont PILOT BOMBARBDIERS.

 

We had this guy on our crew that would sit in the bathroom stalls (mostly pilot bombardiers in the back country) either at or on the way to Philmont. Come to find out he was writing every joke or nasty thing he could find in his notebook. Every once and a while, I wonder if he ever published that notebook. I know he put a lot of smelly hours in it.

 

[mmhardy]

Back in the day I was on my first summer camp up at Lost Lake near Clair Michigan. Toward the end of the week it was my turn to cook. Our Scoutmaster was the guest of honor. We were cooking over an open fire and we "soaped" the bottom of the pans so it would not be a huge chore to scrub the soot from the pan. Well in my zeal not to blow a half hour scrubing pans I must have put a bit too much pink dish soap on the bottom of the pan. It dripped down to the edge and must have followed the side into the pot when I flipped it over.

 

As the corn was cooking I noticed the prettiest bubbles coming up from the boiling corn. Being age 11 with not too many hours of cooking time under my belt I didn't think anything about it until we took our first bites of corn. Blaaa. I was banned from cooking for the rest of the week.

[mk9750]

I think I've told this before...

 

At the first summer camp I attended as an adult, we had a prank battle going on between a group of 15 year old Scouts and a couple of brand new Scouts. Everything was in great humor, nothing mean spirited. It was great fun to watch.

 

The young guys had the last laugh with their Friday night prank. After all were in the sack, they snuck out, and completely removed the tent from around the three 15 year olds. Must have never made a sound doing it, because the guys who WERE in the tent never heard a thing. They woke up to a bright, sunny Saturday morning, not understanding why there was so much light coming into the tent. It was absolutely hilarious, and I've got to tell you, I've not seen any group of new Scouts get accepted by older guys as quickly as these guys did.

 

Practical jokes can easily get out of hand, and you have to be on the lookout for signs that they're getting ready to go to far. But if they stay within bounds, they are a great way to have fun. I'll remember forever the look of pride on these new guys faces when they knew thay had won this little contest.

 

Mark

[Jason OK]

Boleta,

 

Tell us one of your memories. Are you always so serious?

[EagleInKY]

Far too many to recount. One in particular comes to mind. We had a young scout show up to his first campout with an electric blanket. Mistake #2 was going up to the scoutmaster and asking "where do I plug this in?".

 

Moving the reel forward a couple of years. This young pup and his dad are "tapped out" into the OA at Summer Camp. They had to observe the "silence" rule all night. When they arrived back at the troop campsite, an outdoor electric outlet was "installed" in the dad's tent. Of course, he wanted to laugh out loud, but had to stay silent. It was one of the funniest moments I can remember.