Resica Falls Summer Camp – James Y. (Scorpion Patrol Historian)
On June 21st, on a Sunday morning, we all gathered at the Great Falls Library. A big bus was positioned there, and we organized our trunks and our packs into lines.
When everyone had arrived, and e
veryone had signed in, we all loaded our gear in a storage chamber near the bottom of the bus. However, some older scouts were ordered to ride by car. The bus was large and comfortable, along with small TVs. We made a stop for break, and continued to drive on.
We arrived at a parking area, greeted by staff ready to help carry our packs down to our campsite. Our campsite’s sleeping settings were two people tents. Also, bugs and spiders infested the insides, along with the occasional chipmunk scurrying nearby. We had a latrine right near our entrance! Staff came by an
d showed us around to the dining hall and the pool, along with explaining the rules.
After we finished, a couple people who needed to took the BSA Swim Test. As soon as they finished, we had a Thanksgiving like dinner, along with a dozen other troops. We headed back to our campsite, and familiarized ourselves with our campsite.
Next Monday morning, we woke up at around 6:30 AM to go to the pool to do the “Polar Bear Swim”. We got into bathing suits and jumped into cold water. Then, with 5 minutes to spare, we changed into Class A+ and headed over to breakfast, followed by seconds, announcements, a song, and morning colors outside. Waiters were required to head over 15 minutes early to help set up.
Our schedule each day consisted of waking up, eating breakfast, colors, then some work on merit badges with counselors, or, Dan Beard if you were a new scout. We then had lunch, a few minutes of free time, and more work on merit badges, or Dan Beard, after that. After we finished all our work for the day, we headed over to dinner, 
had seconds, along with desert. Then we headed out for evening colors. When we finished, we usually had quick announcements and we were dismissed to do whatever we wanted.
Some days were special. We had the Polar Bear for Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday. We had the 58th Annual Resica Falls Rodeo on Monday, 7:30 PM, All Faith Religious Service at 7:45 PM, along with an 8:15 Camper’s Campfire on Wednesday. All followed by a closing ceremony on Friday at 8:45 PM.
Thursday was really different. As soon as we finished our first set of merit badges/ Dan Beard in the morning, we were all gathered to go on a 2 mile hike to a place called “Cool Dip”. We would eat lunch when we got there, and we were all supposed to be at our next class at 2:00 PM, just in time. However, we took a wrong turn, had to swim across a river to get to the new scouts, eat lunch, and get back late. Many people ended up getting partials on their m
erit badges because of “Cool Dip”, which didn’t seem pretty “cool” we were all late to class.
On Friday night, the last night, we packed away the stuff we didn’t need. When it was Sunday morning, we packed up, and stored our trunks in now-empty tents, for it was pouring. We went over to the dining hall and ate bagels, along with orange juice in a container. When we finished, we brought our trunks back up, and when the bus finally came, we loaded it up. Some people got switched to different cars, then we left at 11:30 AM. The bus made one stop at Sheetz, but the food service took forever! We finally reached St. Francis Church, at 5:30 PM, finally home.
Even though there were some not-so-nice things such as the bugs, chipmunks trying to eat our food, bans on soda, along with Cool 
Dip, it was still fun to earn merit badges and learn new things, and it was a memorable experience!
