Scout camp 2005

This week, I'm going to remember the last scout camp I went to.

We drove up to Brother Trost's brother-in-law's house in Idaho, where we set up our tents in his backyard. I rode up with Brother Gubler, and I was in a tent with Nathan Loveridge and I think David Christensen and I think some others.

Perhaps it was that first night when we drove to go someplace for cliff jumping, but I didn't participate.

It might have been the very next day when we went on a canoe ride in a river. I was with Nathan and perhaps Kelton Gubler (I can't remember for sure). Spencer Jones was in a kayak, wearing a cowboy hat, and at one point his hat fell off. We were in our canoe, and we weren't very good at maneuvering it, so when we hit some rapids, we capsized. I lost my glasses in the process, and we hung on to the canoe as it floated down the river. We were rubbing against large boulders in the river. Eventually we were able to get out of the current and onto the beach. We tried to turn the canoe over, but there was a vacuum that made it very difficult to turn over. We eventually got it over, but I was nervous to get back in. I didn't want to go anywhere, but we couldn't just stay on the riverbank. We said a prayer before we left again.

I knew that I wouldn't be able to last without glasses, so I heard that Brother Gubler was leaving early, and I was going to go with him. But suddenly, he had already left, and I wasn't able to go with him. But I was a little glad. I was able to call home and have David find my blue-lensed glasses, with they sent up with Bishop Clark for me.

After the canoe mishap, I was rather hesitant about other rafting trips. So one morning everyone else went on a rafting trip, but I explained that my reserve of courage was all drained, so I didn't go and stayed with Dave Finklea.

One of those days, I rode with a Pay and a Snarr, and they were listening to a mix CD with "Space Cowboy" and "Hot in Herre." Another day, they were flipping radio stations, and I liked "Ticket to Ride." On that same trip, they had found a country cover of "Cat's in the Cradle," which I didn't care for.

One evening, we had a conversation about missions. The RMs told about their missions, and Cody Spencer was getting ready to go on one, so he told why he decided to go.

One night, one of  the Clark girls came because she lived in Idaho. She was talking to me about my brother David. I said they had a baby named Preston, and she thought I said Rusty.

There was talk about how David Christensen had got way too much milk--ten gallons, and we didn't even have cereal. I said that I should have spoken up when we went shopping, because I did think that was excessive. But Brother Trost said his brother-in-law drank milk like it was going out of style.

One day, we were going to ride horses, because Brother Trost's brother-in-law owned several horses. I was a little nervous, but they put me on a horse named Pop, which they said was their best horse. It was indeed a well-behaved horse, and I was glad I was able to ride it. I felt like we were all cowboys. We rode our horses up a mountain trail, and there was a portion where the trail forked. Pop went a different way, and I trusted him, but everyone told me I needed to direct him back to where everyone else was. Then we saw where the other way met up with the trail, and they realized that Pop knew where he was going. Eventually, we made it to a hidden lake, where we were instructed to take our horses to the water. I did so, but Pop didn't drink. They asked me if I had taken him to get a drink of water, and when I said that I had but he didn't, there was of course an obligatory comment about "You can lead a horse to water...". Dave Finklea asked me if my horse was good, and I said yes, and he sounded like he wanted to trade, because his was resistant to him, since he weighed a lot. Fortunately, I was able to stay on Pop on the way back down. I was surprised that the signs on the trail pointed to a place with an inappropriate name. When Bishop Clark got off, he gratefully said, "Terra firma!"

One day, I waited in the car while others rented out rafts. I remember telling Mark Millard and Jordan Morley about the Gilligan's Island episode when Gilligan was struck by lightning and became magnetic and later became invisible. Mark said, "That show's retarded."

On our way back on our last day, someone in our caravan got a flat tire, so we stopped on the shoulder while it was fixed. Mark read a Laffy Taffy joke that sounded a little inappropriate. Greg Byington told a really inappropriate joke that he learned from his dad. At one point, we stopped at a gas station, and most people got large drinks. Then as we were driving, Nathan Loveridge needed to go to the bathroom really bad, and he kept asking to stop. Everyone was annoyed with him. Eventually they stopped at a gas station for him, and he was instructed not to buy one thing in the gas station, because we wanted to get home. While we were waiting, Greg was saying that he didn't like people, and that he knew people who were smart but didn't know practical things like how to change a tire. (I don't know how to change a tire.)

When I got home, I was very tan, and I had tan lines at my wrist and over my eyes, because of my blue glasses.