Afternoon all. I've received some requests 'bout our campout this past
weekend.
We started planning this campout a couple of months ago - the hardest part
at first was just finding a place to go, and it was quite by accident that
our Pioneer Commander (Chris) happened upon Parrie Haynes Youth Ranch in an
advertisement while on hold with the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department.
Seems that Mr. & Mrs. Haynes had donated their Ranch as an outdoor training
center for boys. The advertisement sounded great and Chris's 1st hand
examination of the site went well so we set it all up.
Now our Pioneer group has only 10 boys and initially only 4 were going, but
with some clever advertising and some gentle persuasion on our part we were
able to take all but 2 young men with us, half of which had never been
camping in thier entire lives. A good time was looked forward to by all
including the Commanders.
The camp site was a good 5-6 miles from the old bunkhouse (now the check-in
station) and was ever bit as spectacular and secluded as Ranger Steve had
stated. Our camp site was on top of a hill located in the center of a large
valley. Although dry the grass was knee high and mixture of oak and cedar
trees lined outer perimeter of the valley. A lone oak tree and a bass pond
were located at the base of the hill and other attractions near by were an
old windmill with a stone cistern (still in use, and quite interesting if
you never seen one), some horse pin's and the near by Lampasses River. The
oak tree was spectacular - our boys 1st reaction was "wow Commander this is
just like the one at Disney Land" - to which my response was yeah except
this one is a creation of God not Walt Disney. The trunk of the tree was
approximately 7 - 8 feet wide, it was approximately 40 ft tall, and about
100 ft wide according to our best estimates (tempting even for a Commander
to climb but we stuck to our orders and just observed the tree).
Anyway we set up camp on the top of the hill amid a grove of oak trees with
a spectacular view of the valley. Although half of our boys had never been
camping we buddied them up with more experienced boys and camp was set up
just in time for an early dinner cooked up by the boys. The burgers were a
little on the done side (cooking over an open fire takes practice) but
somehow that didn't seem to matter. Theres something obout simply
accomplishing something for yourself that smooths over any distaste for
overcooked burgers and any way we were all looking forward to Ranger Steves
wilderness survival talk.
Gotta go - stay tuned for more details on wilderness survival, stories and
devotions by firelight, and a pack of wild coyotes - all on our 1st night!!
Sr. Commander Dewayne
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