Boy Scout Camp - Waterworld Experience

I am amazed at how fast time flies! It has already been 2 weeks since my adventure with the Boy Scouts. We visited Lake Ozette on the Olympic Peninsula of Washington State. What a fabulous place!!!

My first time at this location, I was asked to come along and do the cooking for the 24 people that were attending. This was to be a boating activity that would be from Monday through Saturday and our camp site was in Ericsons Bay ... beautiful warm watered spot with a view to rival any park I've ever been to. The camp was only accessible via boat ... and we were more than prepared for that!

With 6 small kayaks, 2 snark sized sailboats, a aluminum skiff with outboard motor, a larger sailboat with cabin, a outboard ski boat and to top it all off, a jet boat with a 454 inboard. It actually looked like an invasion from sea as we finally got everyone to the shores ... about 3 miles from the boat ramp and ranger station.

We did have an outhouse to work with ... something we hadn't planned on, but were grateful for. No tables, but that didn't matter either since I have pretty much a complete kitchen setup and one of the other leaders brought 2 tables for our use.

 

Since we were water bound, everything had to be ferried to the location ... so I needed to go light and only took what was necessary. AND because there is always a threat of bears, the food had to be strung up in buckets at night ... so we made runs from the ranger station where we had a trailer of food (with a freezer) to hold our fare.

So a morning trip needed to take place to procure all the food for the day ... plus the reassembly of the food stores from the bear buckets and the extra that we stored on boats anchored in the bay. As it turned out ... we probably wouldn't have needed to do anything with the food when it came to animals ... with that many boys running around ... and that many men snoring at night, there were no signs of critters even in the area! With the exception of a squirrel who obviously hadn't had any human contact for a while and chattered at us from the nearby trees.

We had a grand time ... I stayed pretty much on shore and feed the mosquitoes quite liberally ... along with the others. I finally resorted to funneling smoke from a smoldering fire through my cooking canopies to reduce the incessant critters. Many of the boys looked as if they had contracted small pox ... but with cans of bug repellent, we did the best we could.

Once again, no one lost weight ... and all had a great time.

Warmest Regards,
Chef Tom Heintz