Young Men's Encampment (2 of 2)

So what do you do when you are in such a beautiful place? You help make it a little bit better through service. Samuel and his Deacons Quorum helped clear paths at a nearby historical park. It was at the coal mine in Nordegg, Alberta. They also cleared litter and then got to see some of the old mine and equipment.
Camp wouldn't really be camp without a great hike. The Scouts scaled a local peak to eat lunch one day. After the hike up, they slid down the snow patches on their bums. At one point, the guide slid down a portion of the snow, planted his feet and vaulted/summer saulted over a boulder, then finished the slide down to the dry area. The boys were very impressed.
Since you cannot hike everyday, all day, why not go mountain biking? The Scouts took a ride on the White Rabbit Loop on the last day in camp. They had a great ride, and all of them finished the trip without injury, (except for one of the adults who cut his thumb when he bonked). Samuel managed to break the derailleur on his bike, so he only had 3 gears to ride in.
While the Scouts stayed in camp, or were close by on day trips, the Venturers (Teachers and Priests) spent most of their time out of camp. The first excursion was to rock climb and rappel. See Joseph (nick named "mountain goat" by the guides) above? This was his second climb. The guides asked him to clean the route of loose stones. His first ascent of approximately 45 feet took him all of 1 minute and 10 seconds. After the climb, the boys could hike up another 65 feet to rappel down 110 feet to the starting point. I got to rappel as well.
The venturers also took a 2 day canoe trip down the North Saskatchewan River for about 75 kilometers (47 miles more or less). The scenery was great. There were about 40 class 1 rapids, and about 7 class 2 rapids, and 3 class 3 rapids. Everyone of our group ended up in the water (snow melt from mountains that never loose all their snow) swimming for their lives. It was a difficult trip, and very challenging, but very rewarding. I ended up pulling one young man from the water, and he later told me he thought he was going to die until I got to him to help him.

The Venturers also built a section of fence to keep the bears in camp. I'm sure the fence was originally intended keep them out, but since we already had one (or more) in camp, the fence must have been to keep them there. The camp leaders called the Rangers, who ended up shooting the bear with rock salt and making him mad. The bear then played hide and seek with the Rangers for 3 hours, and eventually won. One Tranquilizer, or one 30-30 would have been better in my opinion.