Timberline: More Stories

Timberline: Mice running on my bed

(Timberline part 30)

Bristlecone was a very special and beautiful camp. I really loved all the deer, elk, eagle, hawks, falcons and bear that I saw through the years while at the camp area. It was also so beautiful when the clouds would roll in over the mountain behind us and down through the trees like the silent mist from the Ten Commandments only this mist was just the opposite in effects as it gave as energy and strength. The sunrises in the morning and the sunsets at night were always so beautiful as well. The smoke from our campfires would rise up through the trees and catch the rays of the early sun and remind me of the First Visit to Joseph Smith bt the creators of this beautiful place. Then I was reminded of opposition in all things.

One night as I was awakened in the middle of the night and just laying there thinking about the camp and the boys who were there I suddenly realized that there was something walking or actually running around on top of me. At one point I could feel one on the blankets just over my left foot so I moved it very forcefully and quickly forward the side of the tent and as I did so heard a little thump against the tent wall. I realized that there were mice running across the top of me and they were getting there by climbing up the blanket that had slipped slightly to the side of the bed and was touching the ground. Well I felt them a few more times each time trying to kick them off with my feet or by moving my hands which were under the covers for once. I usually would end up with them on top of my covers shortly after falling asleep. Well I didn’t sleep too well the rest of the night and lay there developing a plan for a more restful night the next night.

The next day I told my tent partner Doug Binks about the little episode and we both realized we just might have to sacrifice all of our mouse traps minus one which we would use later in the week. You see we had a presentation that we made to the boys later in the week where we would have a boy come down and dare him to set off a mouse trap so that it would hit his hand. Generally, of course, they would think us crazy and not do it so we would take the trap and grab it jst right with our hand while tripping the release so that when it went off it would hit our hand in just the right position as to miss any knuckles (because if it did it didn’t feel real good0. Anyway that would get all of the boys attention and then we would pull out a rat trap and ask them to do it with that trap instead. Of course even we would not do that but would take a pencil and from the front of the trap with the trap pointed toward the group release the trap and send half of the pencil flying up into the group. We would then explain that using tobacco, strong drinks and drugs was like the difference between a mouse trap and a rat trap. Not something they should do to their bodies. Well we had several traps between the two of us in our supplies that we had taken to camp every year so we pulled them all out and moved my bed to expose a small hole in the ground that was obviously where the little fellas were coming from. I set one there that morning and by the time breakfast was over the count of the mice was diminished by one. We then reset the trap there and several more around the tent and by the next day had caught several of the offending little fellas. Well I am sure we didn’t remove all of the mice from the camp but enough of them that they no longer visited my blankets during the night which I had also folded so that they wouldn’t touch the ground anyway.

Timberline: Singing and skits

(Timberline part 31)

One of the really fun things that we did each year at camp was a lot of singing and performing of skits. Baden Powell, the founder of scouting, was really into acting and performing in plays through his life. He loved that and art and since he was so good at both of them felt that boys should also have every opportunity to learn to do them especially the singing and acting since they could be more easily learned I guess than drawing. Anyway so every year we would see boys come to camp who wouldn’t be caught dead singing in church or at home turn into some pretty good singers by the end of the week. Of course the fact that the staff was always having so much fun with it and would make them sing over and over until everyone was participating had a lot to do with the change during the week. It was so fun to watch scouts that I knew probably only sang along with the radio in total exclusion from anyone else at home turn into very excellent singers by the end of the week and even lead others the rest of the troop in singing as well. It was not unusual to hear the scouts singing as they would hike down the trails. They were also having a lot of fun doing skits each night at the campfires. Of course they were usually the skits that the staff had done for them the very first night or others that were so well known from district campfire programs. Needless to say it was always interesting to see which boys really had talent and did some pretty good acting as well as singing. It was interesting that through the years there had been some staff skits that involved dressing like a girl but I remember the one year when a young man came to the scoutmasters and told us he had been offended by one of those skits so that practice was changed from then on.

Timberline: Games

(Timberline part 32)

Games were always a favorite part of the experience at timberline each year as well. Of course the favorite was capture the flag with one team being the staff and the other all of the patrols. The staff somehow always seemed to handily capture the flag with very few being caught by the patrols but that was mostly due to the fact that they were older, faster, more cunning (from years of doing it) and just flat out knew how a lot better. But it usually didn’t take long for the other boys to catch on and then they would divide the group into two and the staff in half so there were experienced boys on both teams. I was always amazed as I witnessed some pretty good crashes into the dirt and through the trees that no one ever got hurt, even the onetime that  boy came so close to a big rock that I was yelling to get them to change course since I could see it coming. They did fall but were both saved from landing on the rock. There were also the games where we had their neckerchiefs pushed between their belt and pants in the back and the last one who still had the neckerchief and hadn’t been pulled out by someone else was the winner. I believe it was called Scalp the Indian which by standards today would be a very poor choice of names (Grab the Flag would be better of course). They even got to where they played that game on a tower we would build with poles during practice of the principles of knots and lashings. There other games also such as the COPE course games where the boys learned principles of team work, trust and patience. Games like Trust Fall where one boys would fall backward onto the waiting outstretched arms of his patrol members and a couple of staff as well. It was interesting that in all of the years that I experienced the trust fall exercise only once did a boy fracture his arm and we didn’t even know that until a couple of days later. We also has the spider webs where they would have to get all of their patrol through holes we had tied with twine between a couple of trees and to do it without going through the same hole. That meant sometimes leaving the most obvious and easiest hole for the last and largest guy since he would have been on that side to help lift the smallest one through a hole high in the web. We also had mine fields where they had just a few boards on the ground onto which to stand and move with usually only one extra board beyond the one per boy in the patrol. They had to move across a field without ever touching the ground. Other games involved using one board and it barely being big enough for one boy and getting the whole patrol onto that board without anyone touching the ground. This was usually a challenge except for the year that we had a huge Hawaiian boy that was only 14 lift everyone onto his back and shoulders. It wasn’t even difficult for that patrol. (He scared a lot of the boys when he showed up that week at camp but became their favorite scout by the end of the week when they realized he was just one big teddy bear of a scout.) We also had games where they had to lash poles into a tree and cross an imaginary flood running between the trees and of course there were certain challenges to that as they could be at the two different trees but only one and had to secure it to the other tree by thinking of ways to accomplish it without loosing someone in the angry torrent. There were several other games used to measure the height of trees and other such practical uses of talent at camp but the last one I will mention was one of my favorite games. We would tie a complex set of strings leading in and around and through the trees with a small can filled with rocks somewhere at the end or in the middle of this fairly large maze of twine paths. The boys would then be blind folded and would have to get the entire patrol to that can without being able to see. They could touch them and guide them but it was usually quite a trial before they would be able to get everyone to that point. These games were always my favorite part of the leadership learning events that occurred at camp. Of course the favorite one for the boys was the tower that I mentioned where we would have each patrol lash a tripod using three large poles. They would then move the poles to within one area where the remaining poles could be lashed between the tripods for two or three levels. We would always leave the tripod up until the last morning and there were always boys playing on it when there was any free time in the program. We would usually have our troop picture taken with everyone on the structure at one time. The games, and skits and singing at camp always brought out some pretty interesting things in boys that were good by the end of the week.

Timberline: Patrol Method and twins

(Timberline part 33)

At Timberline we use the patrol method that was developed by Baden Powel and tested as well by him and countless troops since then. Of course part of the practice at this camp is to take boys that come from the same home troops and divide them into patrols that do not have any of their friends in the patrol with them. This helps them to learn how to make friends and to develop leadership among boys whom they have not usually known before they got to camp. Of course we can only do this to a certain point since many times they do know the other boys from school and athletics. One year however we had a very interesting event take place. There were a pair of twins (Brock and Paul Roberts) that as far as I could tell were identical. (It wasn’t before several years had passed that I was finally able to tell them apart when they were not by each other.) I had one advantage over the other scoutmasters though in that my son, their age and in school with them, was also a participant at camp that year. We had a lot of fun that year but it was mainly due to the pranks that these two boys would pull knowing the advantage they had over everyone else including members of their assigned patrols. We were constantly trying to guess who was who and found out later at the end of the week that they had spent almost as much time in the other patrol as they did their own because they switched places almost everyday. I finally had to use my top secret spy to let me know who was in the patrol that day in each case. Of course once he told me where one of them was the answer to the other was automatic. I didn’t use that knowledge except for myself so that I was able to call them by the correct name when I would talk to them. It was pretty funny and how they pulled it off was also pretty darn good. I later got to know them better when they played soccer on the high school team with my sons and even to the point that I could tell them apart.  

Timberline: Staff Development

(Timberline part 34)

Timberline is a fairly intensive course and doesn’t just start on the mountain the day the participants arrive. We usually start approximately 6 months in advance with staff development meetings. Of course the scoutmasters have never really stopped since the last course since they have been recruiting staff and setting schedules and working on menus and attending course directors conferences. The youth staff starts though 6 months before they go on the mountain. They are given assignments, prepare and present the lessons and practice the skits, songs and run-ons that will be used during the course. It is fun to watch the boys as they gain confidence during the meetings that are held once a month until the last month during which there are two meetings and an overnight at the campsite to practice their skills for the campfire. Then on Saturday before the course is to start the following Monday complete packing up and head off for the hill fairly early in the morning. Once there they set up camp starting with their own tents and then with the tents that will be used during the week to give instructions. They set up the kitchen and eating area and prepare the campfire area or areas. Then that night they run through the campfire program again. Sunday brings the day of rest or at least as much as possible. They start by going down to the nearest ward for church and then when back on the mountain use the remainder of the daylight hours working on their lessons and other things that can be done with minimal work around the campsite. That night is then the time the scoutmaster has his special program to dedicate the campsite for the course and to present each staff member with his gold bead and whatever else he might want them to have to inspire them to do their best for the participants during the coming week and even years since many of these boys will become friends for life. It is not an easy process to get ready for timberline but it is fun and rewarding since all the work will pay off in less than a week.

Timberline: Camp Setup

(Timberline part 34)

I have had a lot of fun during the years at Timberline. It has been challenging at times but always fun. The one part that wasn’t always the most fun was setup of the campsite. There were years that we had to level off areas for tents so that when the participants got there they would be able to set up their tents with minimal effort and time. We always had plenty of things to get done and time was pretty important to us. So a typical Saturday before the course would start very early in the morning with all of us packing what had not been done Friday night into our vehicles and going to the Scoutmasters home or some other location where we could complete the stuffing of all of the equipment into trailers and large box trucks for the transportation of the equipment to the campsite. Usually the night before several of us had gone to Camp Maple Dell and loaded all of the gear from the storage building. We would have to account for every thing we would need. There would be camp stoves, and kitchen boxes, tents, tarps, large tents for groups, some food items that were donated by the state, shovels, axes, bow saws, Timberline TLs, and The American flags sets. Even the notebooks, course materials, t-shirts, beads and hats for the participants. We had first aid kits, first aid logs, propane tanks, water coolers, and ice chests along with dutch ovens and charcoal starters. There was usually a pretty good load of equipment before the boys added their personal gear to the mix. Then of course the scoutmasters had plenty of other gear that they would take and all of the teaching materials that they might need would be there as well. The quartermasters and youth staff would have already gone the day before (and sometimes just earlier that day) to the grocery store to pick up all of the food that could be purchased that would last the entire week and cause as few trips as possible down the mountain for the QuarterMasters.

One particular year as we were traveling up the west side of Billies Mountin one of the wheels came off from the trailer we were hauling packed with a good share of this stuff. We spent the next hour walking back down Hwy 6 looking for all of the lug nuts that had come off allowing the wheel to freedom from the heavy load as well. Come to find out that the tires had been changed earlier in the week and the lug nuts not tightened. Anyway we found all but one of the lug nuts within about a 300 yard area back down the highway. We were able to put the tire back on and complete the trip to Bristlecone Camp near Price.

One other time the large yellow box truck we were hauling the gear in decided that the climb up the mountain to Bristlecone was just to hard and unlike the little train that could it couldn’t.  It seems to stick in my memory that we had to remove some of the gear and pull the truck up that part of the mountain with another truck in the convoy. I am not certain of this but that how it seems to be in my memory.

Once we would get to camp came the task of unloading all of the gear. We would set it up on the ground and then take the staff tents and put them up and put all personal gear into the tents so they would be out from the possible rains that might come. The entire staff would then gather to put up all of the larger tents and tarps that would be used as the kitchen area and instruction areas. We would then split up into several smaller groups and go to work setting up the rest of the camp. The quarter masters would assemble the remaining kitchen area and get the food into the coolers or whatever we had to protect and keep frozen those items requiring a cooler environment until being eaten. The troop guides would head off and select their campsites for the participants and in later years also put up their tents so the participants would find immediate more secure surrounding for their gear. The rest of the staff would go to the assembly area and learning areas to set up flag poles and other structures needed during the instructional times of the camp. Everyone had a duty and when everyone did their part the camp could usually be setup within a few hours. That would take us nearly till dark at which time they would all complete the arranging of personal gear in their tents followed by the evening campfire. There would be a dinner meal squeezed into the activities sometime that evening as well. The campfire would then consist of the skits and stories and other activities the staff would perform for the first night when the candidates would be there. They had to practice to make sure that they would put on a show worthy of being copied since it was well known that the participants would use the same skits, song and run-ons that they were shown that first night as they would perform in campfire programs later in the week. Every once in a while there would be fresh talent shown by some of the participants that the staff would even copy for the following years. By the end of Saturday everyone was usually pretty tired and sleep would come rather easily you would think but it seemed that the staff would be up a good share of the night just talking and having fun as spirits were usually pretty high due to the anticipation of the coming week.

Sunday morning would find the camp preparing for church. We would have a light breakfast before heading off to a local ward or even back to ones at home. After church we would reassemble at camp and the days activities would involve final preparation of lesson materials, the assembly of the beads and materials for the participant notebooks and other less physical activities that could be done with relevant reverence.  The troop guides would usually spend that day creating their compass courses to the outpost sites and finalizing details for it. Then the Sunday night campfire would be a special campfire for the Scoutmaster to present staff beads and sometimes we even had an Eagle Court of Honor for a staff member who had completed his requirements for Eagle Scout. It was a day when I would usually take a coupe hours just to hike around camp and photograph different things and spend time just enjoying the creations of my loving Father in Heaven. I loved those hikes and the quiet stillness that would exist on the mountain.

Timberline: Monday

(Timberline part 35)

Monday morning was always quite fun. We would get up a little early to be sure we had time for breakfast and to get the first staff members up to the meeting point for participants and parents. I remember a couple of years when parents decided they knew better when the boys should be there or they had to be back to work and came early or they were just early since they couldn’t wait and we would be caught still eating. We would rather meet them where we wanted but we just had them take the boys back to that spot and send a couple of staff members with them. The boys who were participating always seemed to be a little apprehensive as they arrived each year but the staff would play mind games with them in small groups until everyone in their patrol had arrived and then they would say goodbye to parents and follow the troop guide to whom they were assigned back to camp. The mind games such as “Croaky Dots” or “I am going on a Trip” would have them going all week until someone finally figured it out or a staff member would leak it out to them. (I would explain how they are played here but at the moment do not recall specifics.)

The hike back to the camp would include a nature hunt where the boys would identify certain plants or animal signs, things that the troop guides had previously identified and marked along the trail. When they arrived at camp we would stow all of their gear at a certain point and begin playing other group games such as “Capture the Flag” or “Scalp the Scout” until all of the patrols had arrived. We would then hold a group orientation where the Scoutmaster would introduce the Assistants and Senior Patrol Leader, he would explain a few things and then turn the time over to the SPL for the rest of the course. The SPL would then introduce the Youth Staff and explain the rules for the camp and other important information.

As the opening orientation was completed then each Troop Guide would have the boys take a compass course to their camp site. When I first was involved with Timberline the boys would find all of the tents and gear at the Quarter Master store and return to set them up and arrange their camp. Later we determined it was better for the staff to set up the tents so that the boys would have a place to store their personal gear as soon as they arrived thus eliminating some of the concerns that some of the boys through the years had expressed with some trepidation. It allowed them to feel more at home form the start of the camp and reduced some homesickness in the long run.

The rest of the day the proceeded usually by then with lunch and following lunch the rest of the Monday activities until supper. We usually had the boys in Timberline T shirts until the supper meal at which time we all wore the regular scout uniform for the evening activities, which included the campfire program put on by the staff. The skits they did that night were usually copied by the participants when it came time for their campfire program later in the week. Bedtime that first night was accepted with varying degrees of enthusiasm by the participants since some were tired and anxious to sleep while others were just starting to really wind up. The staff would then have staff meeting and each of us were more than ready to get some sleep.