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Tres Ranchos Mythological Camporee 2023

3 days of competing in above 90 degree temperatures. How fun... We competed with some other troops in the region in events like discus throw, orienteering, communication, first aid, archery, rifles, skits, obstacles, and knots. Obviously, we won quite a few awards.

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On Friday we all arrived, dragged our supplies to our campsite, and set up camp. The next day we cooked breakfast and went to the flag ceremony. After that, we left to do some activities like paper airplanes, archery, and communication. We then went back to camp to cook and then resume activities like rifle, skit, and tomahawk. Later that night the OA came and inspected our dinner. The next morning we packed up and the OA inspected our campsite. Finally, we packed all our stuff and went down to the main parking lot for the awards ceremony. What I liked about this camp is that there are other people there so that we can learn from each other. What I don't like about this camp is that our campsite was too small and the place was too hot. I learned a lot of new things from this camp including signaling, doing a skit, and discus throwing.

For the past weeks we've been preparing for a camporee and on friday 5-12 we all arrived and we went up to find a campsite and set up camp after all was setup we got ready for the next day full of events and walking. In the morning I had some pretty rough sleep but we were able to stay on our schedule. We cooked breakfast and went to the flag ceremony which briefed us about the safety of patrol events. After the flag ceremony we went off to do our activities some things I think we did really good at is fire building, skit planning, rifle shooting, communications, and tomahawk after around 12pm we went back up to our campsite to cook our lunch though the OA didn't come in to inspect our lunch. After we ate we did a few more activities before going back to camp to cook dinner which the OA did inspect this time and I think we deserved to have won something for dinner. The next morning we packed up and we had our campsites inspected and went down to the main parking lot for the award ceremony which I was pretty happy about for my first camporee. I liked how this camp had a lot of events and it was organized. I don't like how we had a pretty small campsite. Overall I think this camporee went pretty well for it being our first ever camporee.

On Friday evening, our troop arrived at the Tres Ranchos Camporee. We first got our patrols inspected and then we went up to find a campsite. On Saturday, the 2 patrols went around competing in activities around the camporee. The patrol I was in wase able to compete in a majority of the activities and I think we did pretty well in them. The activities were pretty fun like the rifles, tomahawks and the paper airplanes. I like that we were able to work together somewhat as a team in the activities. I think that next time I could help my patrol be more time-conservative for the meals as the cooking felt a little rushed at times. I think that next time nobody should be sitting around not contributing to the team effort and instead complaining about everything as it just slowed things down. If everyone was able to work together and communicate properly I think that our patrol could have done a lot better than we did. Overall, this camporee was fun and I look forward to attending more camporees in the future.

After hiking for a while up to the campsite, we dropped our stuff off in various parts of the 3 different campsites. Then the troop except for [scout 1] and I went to drag wagons to the campsite. Me and [scout 1] manned our posts in front of the respective tables in each area. These were the grown up and patrol campsites. After they finally got back, we were able to unpack and create our tents. [scout 2] was off doing SPL things, so his dad made his tent for him (and [leader 1]). The rest of us got to work building our tents and unloading wagons. We also made a camp gate. [scout 3] and [scout 4]'s wagons were missing. After brushing my teeth, that night was uneventful. It had no bugs, allergies, or difficulties. [scout 3] woke me up at 6:30, and at 7-ish we made breakfast. What I did not like about breakfast was how the grown-ups said we were wasting materials when we used paper plates to eat, and then took them to use it for themselves. Then, we made flagpoles and hung them on trees with the American flag and our troop flag. We went down to the flagpoles, where the OA slowly (very very slowly) raised the flags. We did patrol activities that day, including archery, which I liked a lot because I finally got the right bow which allowed me to actually shoot arrows correctly. Although [leader 2] said not to use instinctive shooting, I kind of combined aiming down the arrow and instinctive shooting. It worked, and I got 32 points for that. After a few more assorted activities, we went back to camp to eat lunch, which was steak sliders. [scout 2] decided to eat last, which meant we had to cut some of our sliders to get enough steak for him to eat and take pictures of. He took the pictures in the other patrol's area, because they had shade over their table. Then, we went on the hike up to the rifle range. The shortcut had an elevation of 200 feet, according to my dad's watch. It was terrible. I carried a rucksack, and I am very weak in this matter. My legs felt like they were about to explode, with the strain on them. When we got to the top, the most enjoyable thing was sitting down. Then, we shot the rifles. All my shots were skewed to the right, but shooting was really enjoyable. After a few more activities we went to tomahawk throwing. It was very fun because I got two tomahawks in the log. After that, we went to the fire-making activity. This was very fun because since they said we could use already-gathered materials, I poured [leader 2]'s special dried leaves on it. This let us light and burn the string in a very fast time of 2 minutes. However, some other troop must have brought gasoline-soaked wood, because we somehow did not win. That upset me, because we prepared and performed so well. Fast forward to dinner: I was pretty disappointed because I bought the wrong shrimp, apparently. I bought the one without the head and the judges were like, bye bye. Then I slept early, earlier than everyone else, which was annoying because I kept hearing someone walk around and yell or something, and the grown-ups were arguing so loud the entire ranch could hear it, which was terribly embarrassing. Breakfast was decent, because [scout 3] and [scout 4] cook good pancakes and bacon, and maple syrup is basically a bottle of sugar. We then left after a lot of packing.

I hated the heat. That was the worst thing about this camp. Most of the time, I felt like I was going to collapse because of the heat. Coupled with the fact that the shade is crappy/nonexistent, the heat made the walks almost unbearable. Besides, the "cold water" at the stations is probably poisoned or something, or at least has leaves in it to punish unprepared scouts. Cleanliness is also an issue, because washing your hands is difficult in the camp, so we ended up eating food with our fingers and touching disgusting stuff at the same time. The pollen also brought allergies, which was just another torture method. Bugs also got inside my tent, and I was up killing them half the night. While I was not killing bugs, I was sniffing and after this experience, the skin on my nose reddened and took about four days to recover.

The competitions were actually fun, because we were focusing on something fun instead of sitting in the campsite for ages or just going on hikes.

I feel like the OA has a bunch of [disrespect removed], because of the way they do the flags, drink milkshakes, and judge us all the same. They [disrespect removed]. Most of them are actually [disrespect removed], too! [disrespect removed]

We arrived at the camp and we did a check-in thingy. Then we went up the hill I guess, and dragged everything up there and set up the camp. The wagons were down there and I managed to lose mine. The next day we cooked breakfast and after that we walked near the flagpole area and we did the flag ceremony. During the flag ceremony they explained the rules, instructions, and safety. We did activities like communicating first, then we tried to do orientations. We did archery, disc. After that we went back to make lunch. After that we went back down to do rifle shooting, fire building, obstacle course, skit planning, then tomahawk . We were pretty decent at the tomahawk, communication, and fire building because it was either quick or accurate. Then we went back up to cook dinner, the OA inspected the camp and our meals. The next day we made breakfast and packed up and technically left. The camp was fun, but tiring because on Saturday it was really hot.

For months, we tied the same knots, built the same 18-inch fire, and went over the same first-aid scenarios over and over again. And this weekend, we gave it our all.

The Tres Ranchos Camporee, containing troops from three districts, held 18 competitions this year, and the troop as a whole participated in 14 of them. My patrol participated in 13 events. We won 2nd place in Communications, 3rd in Signaling, and 1st in Tomahawk. The other patrol won first in Frisbee and 2nd in Volleyball (although that was a joint effort). And of course, we won 1st in the Dutch Oven Cookoff! For a troop with more than half the scouts attending their first Camporee and one scout going camping with us for the first time, that is not bad at all.

I hope this camp came as an eye-opener for all of the scouts. It certainly was for me. All the requirements and things we normally do aren't for no reason. And scouting is much bigger than you might think, even though our troop is relatively small. Although this camp was very successful, we still have plenty of room to improve for next time. Despite all the practice we've done, I still think we weren't ready for some of the events, and we can definitely do a better job preparing for future camps. Moving forward, there will be more specific roles for members of my patrol, such as during cooking, so that there is less sitting around. I also plan to remake troop banners, yells, and incorporate more of the competition events into our meetings (so more knot tying, doing flags, running, rifle shooting) so we are always preparing for Camporees.

I know it was crazy hot this weekend, but I hope everyone had fun. [leader 2] and I will try to find more Camporees for us so we can win more competitions! When I was looking at some of the pictures, I saw us huddling to build a fire and [scout 4] putting his arm around [scout 5]. Seeing this, I couldn't help but smile because now I know as long as we continue to have the want to learn and the will to keep doing, only more ribbons will await us.

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