Survived another rainoree

[moxieman]

We're seriously talking about banning the term 'camporee' and going with rainoree instead. Only had 6 inches of mud in my campsite. Theme was Junior Leader Training and cooking.

 

My brother and I put on a utensil-less demonstration in the morning and despite the reactions of some on this forum, the boys loved the ideas we passed on including such things as the Tarzan Roast (dump roast directly in the coals), cooking on slate (bacon/eggs, steak, home fries and english muffin pizzas), bacon in a bag, etc.

 

My brother (SM of his hometown troop) then went on to win the afternoon adult cooking competition with rainbow trout with greens/veggies he foraged from the camp we were at. He also cooked this on slate/utensil-less and started his fire with flint and steel (scoring bonus points). His scouts also won in the scout cooking competition.

 

Despite the rain, raw (upper 40'sF) temps, and mud, the scouts had a good time up here in the Maine Wilderness and that's what counts, right?

[Gonzo1]

That's exactly right.

 

A bad day camping is better than ANY day at work.

 

Years from now, no one may remember the sunny days at Camp Wazapamani, but they'll remember your Camporee forever.

[theysawyoucomin']

Twin Rivers Council also had a toad choker this weekend.

 

A group of old machinery folks came out to the fair grounds and showed the boys linotype machines and screw making machines and other belt driven devices. Being one of the cradles of the Industrial Rev. I wish folks had preserved more.

 

Troop invited an 87 yr young woman to lunch with us. It was great to see the young and old interact

[Scouter&mom]

I am so jealous....... I would have loved to see the rain and mud.. We are living in a dust bowl.. It has rained here twice in the last three months.. (we normally get 4-5+ inches a month). and one of those rains brought tornadoes. If we don't get some rain, the lake at camp will be dry.. it was way low last year, and we are now over 12 inches behind for the year.

 

Look at it as an adventure.. Our boys still talk about the camps that the tents were floating. In fact last week, they were stressing being prepared for campout and bringing raingear although no rain was predicted. The two oldest boys were discussing the campouts that they awoke with the tent as an island in the middle of a lake of rainwater..

[kb6jra]

"Toad Choker"...LOL!

 

I gotta use that one.

 

 

[MarkS]

We had our rainoree in April. We had 1.75-inches of rain in two days with an overnight low of 28 and a high of 44. Nearly the entire rainoree field had ankle deep standing water. If you didn't have good quality high-top hiking boots, your feet were soaked. Our theme was Orienteering, Not the best theme or activities for the rain. The Saturday evening campfire activities and Sunday morning closing were canceled.(This message has been edited by MarkS)

[moxieman]

Scouter&Mom: That's the 'fun' thing about Maine: Don't like the weathah, wait a minute.

 

For the last week of April and the first two weeks of May, we were under a "Red Flag Warning" for tinderbox dry conditions--complete open burn bans. Some towns even banned the use of wood stoves. We were worried we wouldn't be able to do a proper cooking competition due to the tinderbox conditions. Then it rained all this past week (some areas got snow). In addition, some parts of the state have seen SNOW for the past two days and we're under a frost/freeze advisory for the next two days.

 

Spring in Maine--a roller coaster thrill a minute!

 

 

MarkS: we always try to have a back-up plan for soggy weathah since that nearly seems the only weather we ever hold an event in. This time around since we were at one of our council's camp properties, we moved the closing into the dining hall (we got lucky and weather broke long enough Saturday afternoon/evening to hold campfire outdoors. At other locations we've been fortunate in that the state National Guard has loaned us some of their huge tents for our events as back-up shelter.

 

How wet can it get at a Maine Camporee? I've done the research and posted the results on my website (I probably have posted this link before):

 

http://home.gwi.net/~moxieman/scoutweather.pdf

 

 

[CA_Scouter]

We were in charge of activities this year at Rainoree.

 

Had a great time as rain threatened the entire day. We kept 'em busy until 4pm, then at 4:30 it started sprinkling. We setup our shanty town ( tarps, tarps and more tarps ). By 6 it was a-pourin' and the director canceled the campfire. By 7 some guy in a beard was walking animals by two by two towards a large wooden ship.....

 

I love it 'rainoree', 'toad soaker'... gotta add those terms to my vocabulary.

 

 

[theysawyoucomin']

gully washer

 

ADS salesman's weather

 

liquid sunshine

 

toad choker

 

duck drowner

 

"3/4 of the Earth is covered with it I suppose it has to fall somewhere"

 

 

 

 

[kb6jra]

Come to think of it, most of our recent years Camporees have been a bit...moist.

 

I guess that's good since I'm in Southern California and we need all the moisture we can get.

 

The Camporee we had this last time was scheduled to begin at 8:00 PM on Friday night with some night time activities. Unfortunately they held the event 35 miles from home with no other way to get to it except in total gridlock on the freeway system.

 

Live and learn.

 

 

[local1400]

Well Mox, being an ex-Mainer I can certainly sympathize with the rain situation. But as you know, very little rain falls in February there so you could move the spring camporee date up a little.

[Pack378]

Same here.... it's either cold or raining...

 

we just prepare for it....

 

slip and slides, rain gear and some liquid dawn makes for a fun time!!!