Camp in diverse places. They're generally ferret-free.

I recently got home from a week-long trip up to Camp Frontier in lovely Pioneer, Ohio. I know what you’re thinking, A week at camp. The first week of August.

The heat was pretty miserable, for the first couple of days. We had high-nineties temperatures during the day, with the heat index approaching temperatures somewhere in the neighborhood of the sunny side of Mercury.

We had some pretty severe storms on Tuesday night, and that cooled things down. I had to use the fleece blanket I had packed for the last couple of evenings. It still remained humid, but at least it was cool.

I attended camp as a Leader for the second time, the first was when I had just turned 18 and went with my Troop back in Mississippi Valley Council.  This time, I went with four other leaders (all Dads) and fifteen young Scouts.

Where I live now, we are in the Black Swamp Area Council, a 13-county territory in Northwestern Ohio. We are bordered by Michigan to the north, Indiana to the west, and the Toledo, Ohio council (Erie Shores Council) to the east.

What is fun about the camp that we attended is that it is within the borders of Black Swamp Area Council territory, in Williams County, but it is a camp for the Toledo Council. Due to some sort of restructuring that happened years ago, our territory formed around their camp, so it sits like a little island. For our Troop, it was only a half-hour drive to get to this camp, whereas if we drove to a camp that was within our own council, we would drive for either 45 mintues (Lakota) or an hour and a half (Berry). In fact, our Troop is closer to two Boy Scout camp properties than those in our own Council.
People coming from Toledo have to drive over an hour across our counties to get to their own camp. It’s pretty amazing how the territories ended up being divided.

Another interesting thing about the camp is that it sits on the border of Ohio and Michigan. Parts of the camp, some campsites and the dining hall, are in the Ohio half. More campsites, some lakes and activity areas are on the north side of the camp, in Michigan. We stayed in the Ohio half, but it was about a 30 second walk to get to Michigan from my tent.

The shorter drive and interesting location made it an appealing choice of camp. Another reason for attending there is that it is good to change things up once in a while. When I was a Scout, our Troop once travelled to Camp Crooked Creek near Louisville, Kentucky. It is a really good experience for Scouts to be able to see camps not only outside of their own Council, but in an entirely different region. Sometimes things are done very differently, there are varied traditions, and you get a lot of variety in activities available for the Scouts.

We cooked in campsite all week rather than eating in the dining hall. We chose to do this as we budgeted and bought all of our food and supplies for a fraction of what it cost to pay the camp for food. I understand that they have to pay staff too cook and clean the dining hall, but we really wanted to save the money. Also, camp food at the previous places we’ve attended has been pretty lousy. The dining halls are cramped and noisy, and the selection is poor. We only find out later that Camp Frontier charges so much for food because they have fairly high-quality meals, and they serve out of the dining hall but eat under a catering tent outside, where it is cooler.

This has been about my 10^th year cooking in campsite. We almost always did it with my old Troop back in Iowa, and we thought that it would be a great plan now. One of the things that we emphasized in my old Troop was that the Scouts help, and learn how to cook. One of our Scouts specifically learned how to test to see if your bacon is hot in a frying pan. No injuries, but he won’t touch it with his fingers again.

The Scouts, for the most part, really enjoyed cooking in campsite, though we did have some grumbling about wanting to go back to eating in the dining hall next year. One of my fellow leaders had an interesting response for that. “Once you can properly plan, cook, and clean up after your meals in our campsite with minimal supervision from the adult Leaders, then you can appreciate going back to the dining hall.”

I found that sage-like statement to be funny, because with how Scouts grow and some leave Scouting, and we are always getting new, younger Scouts, we may never get to a dining hall again. Also, as the Scouts get used to cooking in campsite, they may not want to go back to the dining hall again. I know I don’t care if we ever do. Usually you eat better, cheaper, and healthier in your campsite. Except on Taco night.

Another great thing about the Camp we attended is that the staff was excellent at wanting to make our experience better. Daily stop-bys were made by senior staff and younger staff members, asking how things are, how to improve something. We saw their list of suggestions, most all of which they take seriously, and they prioritize into “for next year” and a “in the next few years”. The list consisted of priorities, like scheduling issues, facility problems, and restoring buildings that were out of date or run down. It also had some odd items, made by some out of touch parent but still put on the list to show their consideration, like “Wi-fi camp-wide so Leaders can look up requirements and Scouts can keep in touch with families.” Um, how many routers do you need for a 1000+ acre camp if a good router can cover 200 yards? There are 4840 square yards in an acre, not taking into account topography, obstacles, and interference.

I would have suggested getting a cell phone company to put up a good tower nearby. My phone died every day from searching for a reliable signal.

One morning we even had members of the Council Executive Board (The top volunteers for a Council, usually large business owners, who make all the big decisions for the council like hiring the top Scout Executive) come to our camp and ask us our opinions on the camp, how things were going, the camp staff, everything. I have never seen at a camp before, members of the Executive Board coming in to stop by each and every campsite and ask how things were going for them. In many places, the Executive Boards and Scout Executives are largely out-of-touch with the lowly Scout Troops and Leaders, unless they happen to have kids in a group. I was really impressed by that show of service and dedication to the Scouts and Volunteers, and not just a fiscal bottom line, which is a trend in too many other local councils.

They were also very well planned out for Troops who ate in-campsite. Most Scout Camps did announcements and flag ceremonies directly before or after meals, and the timing for them was always varied. With my old Troop, we never bothered to even try to make announcements. Sure, we missed out on if something changed, like the location of a meeting or Merit Badge Class, but we didn't stress about it too much.

At Camp Frontier, they seperated the Flags and Announcements from the meals, so that you always showed up to flags at 8:45, rather than breakfast at 8:00 followed by flags sometime between 8:30 and 9:15.

This was one of the complaints we had for one of our Council's own camps, and we were told by their little ferret-faced program director that they wouldn't even consider changing it. At least if you aren't going to consider it, you lie and say "We'll consider it" before filing the suggestion in the garbage can. He now works for them full time as an Executive. I hope he straigtens out.

I’m going to encourage our Troop to visit another different camp next year (not just because of Ol' Ferret Face) One leader of a Troop from New York State said that their policy is to never go to an in-council camp. They almost always travel at least four hours away to discourage parents from bringing kids home mid-week. A little extreme, perhaps, but I bet that they have a very diverse set of experiences and a great connection with the Scouting community at large, rather than those who always go to the same few in-council, or worse yet, they find themselves in the rut of the same exact camp each and every year.