Dear Friends,
This week, I'm in West Virginia, at the 2013 Boy Scout National Jamboree. This is held every four years and allows Boy Scouts from all over the country to gather and experience an incredible variety of activities related to the outdoors and Scouting.
This year, the Jamboree was held at the Summit Bechtel Reserve, about an hour outside of Charleston (the capital of West Virginia). It's 10,000 acres big...really big. This is the new home of the event and I can barely describe the immensity of this site. To give you an idea - the staff camping area was located over 3 miles from the main center where I worked the entire week. I had to hike almost an hour each way through the hills every single morning. But more on that later.
This is the first Jamboree that I've ever experienced in the U.S. I was asked by the Boy Scouts to come and teach one of the newest merit badges - Game Design. I had no idea what I was getting into. Overall, it was just an amazing experience. It was also the hardest that I've worked in a very, very long time. The rewards, however, are lasting. Prior to arriving at the Jamboree, I had a tough week at work. The moment that I started teaching these young men at the Jamboree...that all disappeared...
I'll use the next few blog posts to try and document what I saw and experienced. Because I was working over 12 hours a day, I didn't get to take as many pictures as I wanted, so I will supplement my photos with images taken by others during the event.
To make the trip, I had to fit everything into a single duffle bag. At the Jamboree, there were thousands and thousands of these bags:
After flying into Charleston, West Virginia, I took an hour-long bus ride to get to the Summit Bechtel Reserve. After arriving, I made my way to the staff camping area - dubbed Camp Echo:
What you see in these pictures is only 1 of the 4 subcamps within Echo. To help illustrate how big this event was...Echo was one of six different camp areas (Alpha, Beta, Charlie, Delta, Echo and Foxtrot). Yeah...this was huge. I took this picture of Camp Echo early one morning, on my way to my assignment:
The following picture was taken on a different morning. There was a lake in the middle of Camp Echo where they actually taught fly-fishing to the Scouts. I found these gents in the early morning fog, trying to catch whatever was in the lake:
For staff, we slept four-to-a-tent. There were two bunk beds on either side of the tent. This is my little "home". I had the top-right bunk:
Within Camp Echo, they had a massive dining hall. This was larger than the camera can even portray:
Each morning, you would eat a hot breakfast. Then, you would pack a bag lunch, as you wouldn't return to this area until dinner. I was amazed at the amount of material they had to provide every single day. This pile of empty boxes came after just a little while of being open for bagging lunches:
To further illustrate the size of the event, you need to understand the distance we had to travel. As I mentioned before, the Summit Center (where I taught) was about 3.5 miles away from the Camp Echo. I had to climb out of a valley, over a ridge and through this campsite each morning. Fortunately, the view was beautiful. However, the humidity was rather high and I was a sweaty mess upon arrival.
This is one of the trails that leads to Summit Center. In the distance, you can see the Scouts gathering for one of the big outdoor shows int he amphitheater/stadium, right next to one of the lakes:
The trail I walked most mornings also took me by another portion of this lake. Here, they had several "dragon boats" that allows Scout troops to compete with each other in a rowing contest:
Across a dam, there was yet another lake. Here, they had a variety of activities, including stand-up paddling:
In front of that was one of the coolest obstacle courses I've ever seen. It had inflatable see-saw obstacles and mini-hills you had to climb. It looked like a blast!
Each morning, they would take hundreds of Scouts to a white-water rafting adventure. The portion of the river with the best rapids was quite a distance, so they transported them via bus. I would walk past this line-up of vehicles each morning:
Making my way to Summit Center, I passed this one-of-a-kind structure. It was the largest Pinewood Derby track I've ever seen - about 80 yards long, set on a hill. I guess the gravity did all the work...
I found an area next to this that had Scouts lined up inside what looked like a giant barrel bottom. They were playing some form of dodgeball:
When I would finally reach the Summit Center, it was quite a sight to behold. Here are a few pictures to give you a better feel:
These guys are zip-lining right over my merit badge tent
In the distance, those are the Faith and Belief Tents, as well as Armed Forces Tents
That's the stadium, down close to the lake
Due to the high temperatures and extreme humidity, we had to constantly remind Scouts (and their leaders) to keep hydrated. All across the site there were faucets to fill water bottles outside of bathrooms. Through the Summit Center and campgrounds, there were places to get water. This was a welcome relief on the hot days:
I think I'm going to pause here...I have plenty of additional videos and photos to show. Come on back for Part 2, where I'll show you what a stadium filled with 40,000 Scouts looks and sounds like ; )
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