What a wild campout Troop 60 had: the weather expected to arrive on Sunday came early, so we got to practice camping in tropical storm force winds on Friday night and then hiking in what became a magnificent thunderstorm!

We welcomed Rees from the Webelos II den and showed him how Boy Scouts work in patrols and help each other set up camp, the kitchen, cook meals, and build a fire.

It was a windy afternoon, but the boys kept a positive attitude and made their dinner (hot dogs) and cleaned up before we celebrated a birthday with CAKE! And a present from the Scouts to Mark in gratitude for his service to the troop. What wonders will the Scouts cook in his new cast iron dutch oven?

The wind gusts stripped tents of their rain flies and tarp coverings and made for a noisy “wrap! wrap! wrap!” flapping all night, but we woke to a grey but dry morning. As one of the adult leaders said on Saturday morning, it was like “sleeping at base camp on Mt. Everest!” Check out the wind pushing over the tents:

We broke camp, made breakfast, and then went for a 2.5 mile walk to the Gardens. By the time we started back to the campsite and vehicles, it was a DOWNPOUR! Everyone got completely soaked, and I have no pictures of anything because my camera phone stayed safely in a plastic baggie, the ONLY dry thing for miles.

We stayed under a pavilion during the worst of the weather and made sandwiches for lunch while watching the lightning and thunder over the lake. It had its own beauty, but it certainly wasn’t what we’d planned when we arranged to go camping at Hodges Gardens. I think we need a do-over! 🙂

Special thanks to this trip’s parent volunteers: Bray, Mark, Melanie, Micah, and Stephen. We couldn’t have adventures without your help!