Camp Geiger 2008

Geiger was wet, muddy, and exhausting -- but awesome!

The wind blew VERY hard -- 45 MPH gusts -- a couple of nights and rain one of them which got a lot of guys soaked. We had to make a run to a laundry mat in town to throw things in the dryer. It basically rained four of six days, but not constantly. Camp was shades of RSR in the rain -- LOTS of mud.

The heavy rains washed out the camp's beautiful new campfire ring and the road to our campsite, but repairs were made before either were needed again later in the week. It did stop raining long enough on Thursday to dry up some and have the big Mic-O-Say tapping ceremony. Then on Friday, while the Braves and Foxmen did their ordeals and prepared for the big induction campfires it cleared off and dried up amazingly fast -- also like RSR.

We were actually evacuated to the cinder block shower house at 1AM Thursday morning -- that was following the disaster in Iowa. The camp director wasn't taking any chances. We had a hard and copious rain that night with lightening, but no tornado, thankfully. Two hours hanging around on concrete when you would rather be in bed is no fun, though. We passed the time sleeping, wishing we were sleeping, or being goofy and singing songs -- specifically American Pie (as in Bye, Bye, Miss....).

Nathan McFarland and Cameron Godsey are now Braves in the Tribe of Mic-O-Say and Nick Webster, Isaac Daves, John Brunner and Joe Love advanced to Hardway Warriors. Adults Randy Godsey, Tracy Jandebeur and Field Daves joined Trish Love and Todd Webster as Honorary Warriors.

Camp Geiger is an exciting camp with many older youth and many adult staff members. They are very accommodating and helpful. The food was reasonably good, the camp is in excellent shape, with many practically new facilities.

Many thanks to the adults that went for taking their vacation time to spend at camp. Special thanks to Doug Drinkwine who, even though a brand new leader, held down the fort back at camp while the rest of the adults and most of the older boys participated in the Mic-O-Say activities. Most of us slept very little due to worrying about the weather early in the week. Then on Thursday and Friday the Tribesmen were out past midnight at the ceremonies. We were grateful for napping opportunities to make up for lost shut eye when the scouts were in classes!

Thanks again for entrusting your sons to us. It was a fun and memorable week!

More photos below! You can click on the little Picasa color wheel in the corner to open the album and save copies of your favorites.

Pictures from the Katy Trail Trip

Troop 122 Bikes the Katy Trail!

We had an awesome trip to Missouri over Labor Day! Fourteen Scouts and seven adults made the trip. After a six hour drive and one one tire incident with the trailer we pulled into Katfish Katy's campground at Huntsdale, MO, located right on the bank of the wide Missouri River.

We made camp, spent a good deal of time adjusting bikes and then set off on a late afternoon/early evening ride east on the trail taking the spur toward Columbia. They made it back in time to cook a late dinner. The Eagles had meatball sandwiches, the Irish had War Eagle Special and the Dragons enjoyed baloney sandwiches. The Old Goats feasted on taco salads with all the trimmings in taco shell bowls.

Saturday morning after breakfast and a few more bike adjustments, we were off for our day-long ride. We headed west this time, toward Rochport about 7 miles away. A pretty ride, we enjoyed lots of shade, tall bluffs, a river view and saw the Native American petroglyphs and the Lewis & Clark cave. Lewis & Clark wrote in their journals of paintings on the river bluffs along here. A faint image still remains, some 50 feet above the Lewis & Clark cave. We also saw a "haunted" stone shelter with a door built into the side of the bluff -- ask your Scout about that one!

Rochport, our next stop, is a quaint little historic town full of wonderful old architecture and antique stores. (The boys didn't get up the hill to visit that part of town, but Mrs. Love took a few minutes to do so on the way back....) Trailside it sports a little cafe and a bike shop. All the stops along the way offer restrooms and water fountains. Mr. Elliot found a shade tree and parked the trailer there and offered snacks and drinks to the hungry boys. A scout or two opted to take a break and ride in the car at this point, so Mr. Hopkins joined Mr. Elliot in the chase vehicle.

Just down the trail from Rochport is a great tunnel. It is rustic on one side and sports block construction on the other. It is the first and pretty much the only sight of interest on the next long 10 mile stretch to the New Frankin stop. About mid-way a few more Scouts needed a break, so the chasers tracked us down and loaded them up. Thank goodness for cell phones!

In New Franklin we enjoyed a little more refreshment. Then another mile down the trail we got a view of the Katy Roundhouse before pushing on two more miles to the Boonville station, the caboose and lunch. This station is actually in the town of Boonville. Before getting into town you have to cross the Missouri River on a really big modern bridge. It has a very steep grade up and back down as compared to the trail, which is never more than a 3% grade.

At this point, after about 20 miles of Katy Trail, several of the boys had had all the fun they could take and opted to put their bikes on the trailer and ride in the car back. We had the foresight to predict that we might need more rider room than our chase truck could accommodate, so early in the morning before we set off we shuttled a second vehicle to Rochport. That vehicle and another driver now joined the chase team.

After lunch and a rest, those that remained turned around and headed back the way we came. A few more dropped out in New Franklin and took the cars to Rochport where they waited for the riders and provided another break. The fastest three riders took off and headed for our campsite and beyond so they could be sure to get in their 50 miles. A few more skipped the last seven miles and rode in the car home and the rest headed back to camp, completing about 45 miles.

Back in camp the Old Goats who drove the chase vehicles worked on getting dinner ready for the entire troop. Mr. Hopkins had pre-made meat sauce and we had delicious spaghetti with rolls and salad. Even brownies for dessert.

The Irish patrol made their own special brownies in a dutch oven in celebration of Joe L.'s birthday and John B.'s birthday the week before. Mr. Allard presented a troop-signed Katfish Katy t-shirt to Joe for his birthday commenting that it was too bad he had taken a spill earlier. In fact, several spills were taken... some rather spectacular. Ask your Scout about that.

A highlight of the evening was Joe F.'s determination to remove a large limb from a dead tree so we would have some substantial firewood for a campfire. After trying a hatchet and a small saw a group decided to tie a rope around it and pull it down. Unfortunately the rope broke before the limb did! A larger saw was employed and got the job done at last.

After a hard day the troop made it to bed before 10 p.m. and not a peep was heard.