Boy Scout Camp

Friday Jimmy & I spent the day at the McKee Scout Reservation, visiting our grandson Brandon who has been attending summer camp this week.

The McKee Scout Reservation is an 800-acre camping facility, in a 3000 acre forest in Jeffersonville, Kentucky near Mount Sterling. It has a beautiful lake completely stocked with fish and many hiking trails. Brandon and his friend Matthew told us of the 5 mile hike they had taken on Thursday…but they were sure that they walk at least 20 miles everyday getting from activity to activity. *LOL*

Brandon was able to participate in aquatics, ecology, scout crafts, leather crafts, art, and earning merit badges. While we were there the boys were at the archery range trying to earn a badge and Brandon was given a left handed bow to use…the right handed bows were already taken and being used by other scouts. Brandon is right handed, but managed to get his arrows in the target, even while using the left handed bow…I thought that was great…I’d never be able to do that but, you have to hit the bulls-eye in order to earn the badge. Brandon went back later when a right handed bow was available and shot 5 bulls-eyes and earned his badge.

Brandon showed me a pair of leather moccasins that he had made and a coin pouch…and the two boys sang Jimmy & I one of their funny songs they sang during skits they put on after their supper. It seems that after supper, in the dining hall, the scouts put on skits for the other troops and they sounded quite funny. There is also the nightly ritual of sitting around the campfires right before bedtime… they didn’t tell me, but I could almost say with some certainty…the telling of spooky stories goes on here. Waahahahaha.

Parents are encouraged to be actively involved in their child’s scouting experiences and to go along on these scout camping trips, so Brian & Reva were right there too. I’m sure you’ll be able to get a first hand account of their trip on their blog. I was only there for a few hours in the afternoon…we were invited to stay for supper, see the various skits and later sit around the campfire with the troops, but since I was riding my bike, I didn’t want to have to ride it home in the dark. It was the first time I had driven on interstate highways and Friday there was a lot of traffic on the roads. After dark you can’t see the obstacles on the road, like those big black pieces of tires laying across your lane as well and I just didn’t want to take the risk of having an accident.

Below are some of the pictures I took of our visit to the camp.
Boating activities of many kinds, they also fish and cook their fish over open fires.
Here are a group of scouts at the lake attending aquatic classes.
There are many beautiful hiking trails...and below the boys are tuckered out from a very long hike.
Matthew is 10 years old and Brandon, who is leaning on the post is 11.
This is Brandon's & Matthew's tent. Every scout is provided with the exact same type of tent, which appears to be permanently set up for the summer.
This is Brandon, but this is NOT the bow he used to earn his badge. This is his own bow from home. The bows the boys use for the badges are the simple half-round bow. While at camp, Brandon made the arrow that is shown in the center.