Re: Back From Camp

Hi Mark,

I enjoyed your message about Camp LeFeber and am glad everything worked out
with the two lost scouts. It brings back fond memories of my experiences
there with Troop 223, SE District in the 60's. The first time we went up
was the last year there was no organized program or camp staff other than
the ranger and maintenance crew. At the time there were only four sites
spaced equally around the lake, each with a dock with rowboats and canoes
and cinderblock cookhouse. We went up with three other troops whose
leaders all worked together or were friends. It was a great experience
totally running our own programs including the various camping related
merit badges. One of the leaders was a Red Cross WSI and we ran the
swimming program out of their site since it had the only beach area. I
finished 2nd Class, Cooking, Camping and Swimming MB's that week. The
highlight was a backpack overnight trip to the Beaver Ponds with all four
troops. Most of us rigged up shelters using the abundance of poplar trees
that had been cut down by the beavers rather than tents.

Several of our families came up with us and stayed in the family cabins,
joining the troops for meals and campfires. I remember one evening when
my little sister, about 5 at the time, was down on the dock fishing with
just a bare hook while the troop was eating dinner. She suddenly started
screaming at the top of her lungs and we all thought she had fallen into
the lake (she was wearing a life preserver vest while fishing just in case).
I've never seen our SPL move so fast. He vaulted from his seat over the
picnic table and was halfway down to the dock before the rest of us could
even move. When we got there, she was still on the dock holding her pole
with a small sunfish on the hook screaming in delight. She wanted someone
to take it off the hook so she could catch another one!

The following year the camp had been expanded into the beginnings of the
type of camp you described. There were no shooting sports yet but the
troop sites with their "modern" latrines and patrol sites with dinning
flaps and wood stoves and central campfire areas had been built and the
central commisary was in place. We had two patrols of senior scouts use
the outpost camp the whole week, sending in two boys once a day for food. I
was PL of a patrol with younger scouts so we stayed in the "developed"
area. I went back a third time the summer before we moved out of Wisconsin
in 1966 and spent the bulk of my time earning Scout Lifeguard. I really
enjoyed all my expericences at Camp LeFeber and hope it hasn't become too
developed.

YiS,
Mike, Eagle '70, CM Pack 1071, MC Troop 1071, Olde Mill District, NCAC

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CDR M. Dobson                | NetNews Admin info.usuhs.mil
Experimental Hematology Dept | dobson@info.usuhs.mil
Armed Forces Radiobiology    |
Research Institute           | I don't have enough rank to speak for DoD

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