Camp Geiger - The Week in Pictures

Our giant Penske moving truck. If you ever decide to go on vacation with 100 of your friends, this is what you'll need.

There's not enough that can be said for Mrs. Perry and the time and effort she put into getting us all ready for camp. She started planning for Geiger more than six months ago and there wasn't an hour this week that wasn't made easier for all of us because of her efforts.

It's no surprise or secret that we have a lot of fun during the van rides to camp. We've all become good friends and there's a lot of love that goes around. Here we are leaving the parking lot in Lewisville.

Here we are entering Oklahoma!

10 hours and 568 miles after leaving Lewisville, we arrive at the front gate to Camp Geiger.

Ahhhhh, Troop 451 is back in St. Joe!

First up, raise the flags! We'd be doing a lot of that during the week. Each day we won uniform inspection, we were able to raise the Texas flag above the Geiger flag plaza the next morning. We're proud to say the flag was up the entire week.

After the flags, we set up the gateway to our campsite. Welcome to Arapaho - our home for the next seven days!

Mark B., Lee P., Austin T., Jacob P. and Wesley W. prepare to unpack.

Pick a tent and grab your stuff!

Camp's unpacked. Now, we're off to the swim test!

The view from certain bluffs around Camp Geiger are stunning. Sights like this shot down the Missouri river bring Lewis & Clark to mind and remind us just how beautiful the surrounding area really is.

The Council Ring is an impressive venue made of huge river rocks. There is much fun to be had whenever we're here. Our campsite is behind these trees about 200-300 yards up the hill.

At the Sunday night campfire, we got to meet the staff for the first time of the week. A truly impressive set of guys. Each day, one of them sat at each one of our tables and it was great fun getting to know them.

The Mic-O-Say Lodge is a very special place at camp.

Monday night brought the chance to go rapelling at the 32-foot tall Camp Geiger climbing tower.

Here, George P. makes his determined descent.

While there is much fun to be had at camp, there are also many service projects to be completed. Troop 451 has developed a reputation for doing great work and this week was no exception. In addition to painting a maintenance building and putting in a new flagpole, we helped finish the joists and decking for a new gazebo going in up the hill from the council ring. Mr. Troiani and Mr. Lowell (in the foreground here), both with tremendous construction knowledge, were great foremen and the resulting work showed it.

Elliot C., Joseph M. and Noah B. work on their SCUBA at the pool.

Team Troiani!

The hundreds of hours that all the Mic-O-Say members at camp put into their incredible costumes were on display numerous times during the week and it's never tiresome to look at every amazing, individual design.

John Granatino is one of the favorite counselors on staff. By day, he heads up the Nature classes. On Wednesday, for the Family Night Mic-O-Say part of the campfire, he made a very convincing dark spirit in the chief's dream indian dance. And yes, that's a real snake.

Matthew L. with the catch of the day.

The older scouts enjoy the advanced C.O.P.E. course in the mornings featuring tests of logic, strength and skill plus the chance to climb a hanging ladder to a tower 30-feet in the trees. From there, they clip in and jump off the tower ziplining about 100 yards over the creekbed below. Afterward, everyone is all smiles...until they have to climb the trail back up to camp. It's easily the most daunting in length and slope.

This brand new flagpole, courtesy of Mr. Taylor and Mr. Martin, will sit permanently outside of the Flaming Crow trading post. If you look just below the nameplate, there is a black shape that looks a lot like Texas. When the project was dry, the tape came off to reveal indeed, it's a full red, white and blue magnet of the state of Texas. It looks fantastic and will remind everyone where the flagpole came from.

You've seen this picture in another blog about camp, but it's been 24 hours and withdrawal is hard. Anybody want to make a Slushie run?

Mr. Verdi sports the 9-pointer on the wall at the Archery range. Happily, we all managed to tally more than 9 points in the adult Archery competition...but not by much.

Mr. Goodnight shows fine form winning the 451 inter-Troop Archery shootout. He only missed winning the whole shooting match by a few points.

Leon J. brings home the coveted title of "King Pee Wee" for the first time in Troop 451 history! Way to go Leon!

Big buddies enjoying the last day of camp. Time to head to the last day of Merit Badge classes.

Putting up the Lone Star flag one last time on the Geiger flag plaza outside the dining hall.

Michael H. with a final salute before Friday night's dinner.

And so, we end the week the way we began it with the double rainbow from last Saturday. We said then, it was going to be a great week and it was.