At noon the boys and I headed north to Diamond Lake and Camp Cowles Cub Scout camp to spend the night in the tree houses. They are a pair of 20 x 20 buildings on stilts in the forest next to the lake. We all were there by 1pm and had the tents all setup and the boys stuffed with snacks by 2 pm.
We all went out for a walk to go see the Carbon Lodge. Next to the lodge is this cirque of totem poles that are quite tall. A couple looked over 40 feet tall.
We went and talked with the Boy Scout troop that our pack feeds into. It may still be around when our boys are old enough to transition to scouts as most of the boys are going to age out of the troop. We walked back to the camp and the boys were whining about being ravenous so when the cars were in sight they booked it down the hill.
Once they were slightly satiated Willy our pack leader showed the boys how to start a fire with a 9 volt battery and a bundle of steel wool. In his hand he has a hand cranked blower that he uses for his wood stove.
The boys all had a go at getting the fire going but they couldn't hold the blower still enough to aim the air correctly.
Finally I held the tip of the blower still while one of the boys cranked the handle and the fire lit up. There was much rejoicing.
Both my boys slept in their tent in this tree house with Mo and her boys in their tent.
Before Willy got burgers on to cook Mo and I took the boys to the lake to go swimming or more so wading. The dock is great since it has an inner area that is more shallow then the outside of the dock.
I was proud of J for climbing down to the outside of the dock and trying to run back and forth along the edge. He has been pretty leery of water so this was a good step. His time in the hot tub has helped some too.
R spent most of his time playing in the sand on the beach which is now a good bit larger with the water level lower. We headed back to camp about 5 pm for food.
The boys were extra anxious for smores and they devoured a full bag of marshmallows plus a few from another bag. They managed to "go to bed" but it was 11pm when I had to crash and they were still making noise. Once Mo went up they started to calm down better.
I had my tent out under the trees and as always when sleeping outside I slept extremely fitfully all night. The boys were up early and hanging by the fire looking for snacks and food.
Willy made pancakes and the boys attacked them before running around like fools all over tree houses. I got stuff cleaned up pretty quickly and most of our stuff packed. We scoured the area for garbage and made sure the boys picked up anything they dropped and tossed it in the garbage can.
Diamond lake had a cool mist roiling across the surface as I walked back from the bathroom.
Willy is the range master for the Scouts so he left to take care of his duties and we all cleaned up the camp site before leaving at 10am.
We got home by 10:30 and got everything unpacked. The boys got home and were acting like terrors after all the sugar they had ingested. It took a while and a package of lunch meat for them to start to act like normal human beings and not psychotic balls of energy.
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