From Scoutmaster Hank Manz:
Hello parents and envious Scouts-
I’m back for a couple of days after being at Camp Bell since Sunday. I will be here until Thursday afternoon so if you have any questions, get to me before then. Phone service, always just about zero, is really zero at this point. The Leader Line has not been working all summer and the FAX line is out most of the time. Calling, even to pick up messages, is just about impossible because it ties up the one remaining line. Cell service is nil until you hit the road to Alton Bay and I’m not up for that kind of walk every morning. There is just too much to do.
This group is absolutely the best in my memory. This is always a very tough time for New Scouts, in this case the combined patrol called the Vermin Penguins, but by the time I left they had cooked four very good meals and had done a good job during their first day program which was Orienteering.
Meanwhile, the Old Hands, which is to say all the rest of the patrols, are doing nicely. Some of the cooking is a learning-by-mistakes effort, but much of it is absolutely perfect and nobody is starving. The food at Bell tends to be very good quality so it cooks up nicely and mistakes are forgiven.
I have been impressed by the way all the patrols are working and how quickly they settled in to camp.
One mark of how easy it has been is how close to 8:45 AM we get out of the unit and hit the trail to the program areas. There have been years when 9:30 was the best we could do. In the two days of program so far, we haven’t had a patrol even close to being late.
Another mark is camp cleanliness. Often it is something of a fight to keep it looking at least a little like a well-run campsite. This year, it has been a no-effort proposition.
The weather has been great. Just hot enough to let you know it’s summer, but cool enough to sleep comfortably. I even put on a light sweatshirt Monday night! It rained for about an hour Monday morning before program, but most of it never even got through the trees to the ground.
Some first pictures may be viewed at http://www.hmanz.photosite.com/campbell2006/ Not all of the patrols and their activities are pictured because I couldn’t get to all the areas, but there will be many more pictures to come from several contributors. You can view the pictures page by page, you can click on individual shots to enlarge them, or you can just click on View Slideshow and you will get a show with picture titles, but no captions. Those new flat screens may jump around a bit when pictures change from landscape to portrait and back.
Stay tuned!
-Hank