A Scoutmaster's Blog

This is a online journal of a Boy Scout troop scoutmaster's point of view and thoughts on over 25 years as a Boy Scout Leader in central Minnesota. This site also serves as the home of the "Melrose Scouting Productions Podcast" which features Scouting related videos. Visit the site of Melrose Boy Scout Troop 68 at http://www.melrosetroop68.org for nearly 200 pages of local Scouting history.

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Name: Scoutmaster Steve B.
Location: Minnesota, United States

Scoutmaster of Boy Scout Troop 68, Melrose, Minnesota for over 25 years. Has been an assistant scoutmaster, roundtable commissioner, Philmont advisor, and Jamboree Scoutmaster.

Friday, August 25, 2006

Weather Story - Flood at Summer Camp

I woke up in the middle of the night to the sound of heavy rain falling on the canvas tent. "Boy, it is raining pretty hard," I thought as I rolled over on my cot and fell back to sleep.

I was with the Boy Scouts of Troop 68 for a week at Many Point Scout Camp. We were staying in the Tyler Campsite in Buckskin Camp. Tyler is located at the north end of the road that runs through Buckskin. It is the campsite that is furthest away from the dining hall and beach. Due to it's location, it is also the most quiet campsite in Buckskin, which is one of the reasons we like it. The campsite is located on a hillside so it has wooden platforms for the tents.

When we woke up that morning we noticed everything around camp was soaked. A couple of the Scouts complained that they had some wet gear, but nothing too serious. We also noticed that there was water in the deep ditch along the campsite. Due to the sandy soil we had very seldom seen standing water in the ditch. We thought it must have rained a couple of inches during the night.

Little did we realize how wrong we were.

As we walked through Buckskin on our way to the dining hall for breakfast we began to realize how much it had actually rained overnight. The lower-lying campsites had been flooded. Dozens of campers has drenched gear and soaked sleeping bags.

The worst damage had been done to Ten Chiefs Camp, located south of Buckskin. The road through Ten Chiefs crossed streams on each end of the camp. Both of these creeks had overflowed their banks during the night and had washed out the road on both ends of camp. Ten Chiefs had, temperarily, become an island. Food had to be brought to the campers by boat on that day.

The camp had received seven inches of rain during the storm. The water level of the lake had risen two inches.

The Boy Scouts and adults of Troop 68 that were staying in Tyler were very grateful that we had slept on a sandy and hilly campsite that night.

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