Gibson Ranch campout

We had a great time at Gibson Ranch. It was a tad on the hot side, but thankfully we had a nice shady area (see post below). The boys worked on a scale version of the gateway we are going to build at our next outing, the Fall Camporee. It's a simple gateway, but one that our young Troop can easily handle. Small steps before you try to take big ones. I see a grandiose gateway somewhere in our future.

Our Troop received a generous donation of some tents and other items from another Troop that folded a few years back. I brought the tents with me and had the boys set them up after our gateway practice to see what kind of shape they were in. To our surprise, there were about 12 tents, and a few of them had never been used before! We now have new tents for our boys to use at our many upcoming outings. A BIG thanks to Troop 562. Your spirit will live on in us.

Dinner was excellent and the boys worked together pretty well in preparing the food. After dinner was time for the real reason for the outing, capture the flag under the light of the moon. The boys were off and we could hear them trying to keep quiet so the other team wouldn't hear them. It sounded like they had a great time.

One of the benefits to camping at Gibson Ranch is that once the park closes, there's nobody else there. You are by yourself.

We finally settled down to get some sleep. I had challenged the boys to sleep the really old fashioned way when we arrived, no tents. Even though we had all of these nice brand new tents, each of the boys took my challenge and slept under the stars. I think they enjoyed it.