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Encyclopedia WinterCampica - Suggest Change
Current Entry: Bugout
At Winter Camp XXXII, Dave Morosky passed through the Winter Camp grounds on Sunday morning, December 28, and was surprised to find that Beaver Creek subcamp was the only part of D-A that still had electric power. As campers gathered after breakfast for the Scout's Own service, the electricity failed in Beaver Creek and Clearwater cabins as well, leading Steve Donohue to lament that he hadn't printed the program for the service in a larger font size.
Thus began an unusual chapter in Winter Camp's complex history.
Buoyed by the optimism that electricity would soon be restored, the morning's activities proceeded as planned, with Cross-Country Golf following the service. Steve and Doug Wilson set out to prepare lunch, and while the gas for the stove was uninterrupted, the lack of power meant that the cabin was slowly losing heat and there was no running water. D-A Food Service Director Kevin Fox sent 54 gallons of water-hot and cold-down to Beaver Creek to support Winter Camp, and the Sunday activities continued.
By late afternoon, the power was back on in much of D-A, although not at the Winter Camp grounds. Mark Bollman--> used a radio with a hand-cranked generator to monitor the end of the Detroit Lions' final loss of their 0-16 season. The Caveman Dinner, once prepared, was not impeded by the lack of electricity, but the long-term question of what to do about the darkness and cold remained. Dave Morosky offered Winter Camp the use of the Trout Lake building, which had been vacated on Sunday with the end of the Cub Scout event that shared D-A with Winter Camp during the weekend of December 26-28. After some discussion among the camp elders, it was decided to run the Blind Hike to Trout Lake cabin and relocate the evening events-Paper Airplane Contest, Casino Night, and Casino Snack-to TL. Mark Bollman--> and Steve Donohue set out in Mark-->'s car to set up the activities, and both were cheered as they drove downhill toward the Trout Lake dam by the glow of the Pepsi machine-indicating the flow of electricity-at the Trout Lake Scoutcraft building. Following the evening activities, campers then returned to Beaver Creek and Clearwater for a night in a cold cabin.
The morning of December 29 saw a successful breakfast prepared at Beaver Creek as a prelude to the service project, though power and heat remained absent. Keith King and Ethan Rein took the lead in preparing the Electric Lunch at Trout Lake, where campers serving in camp met for lunch. By the end of the service project, the best-case scenario saw power returning to Beaver Creek only by the end of Tuesday, December 30-and so Winter Camp quickly packed up in the fading daylight and relocated, more or less in full, to Trout Lake. Some camp gear-most notably the pinball machine and Winter Camp museum-remained behind. Keith and Ethan relocated the kitchen to Trout Lake early in the exodus, and Bollmano's Pizza's operations were enhanced by the double oven at TL. However, the lack of a freezer in Trout Lake proved a small impediment to Winter Camp's kitchen operations.
For the first time since Winter Camp III, all campers were housed in a single cabin-although Jeff Rand resisted the move by continuing to sleep in Beaver Creek subcamp, either in a tent at Brookside or the BC building itself.
In a very real sense, the bugout of 2008 provided a test of a proposal that had been kicking around for years: to move Winter Camp from Beaver Creek to Jack Lord or Trout Lake cabins- single buildings that could accommodate the entire crew. While the "great room" at Trout Lake was certainly an asset for the last 46 hours of Winter Camp XXXII, cost and access issues were thought to be a barrier to future camp use of the cabin. The great room did host a revival of 4-Square, which made its first Winter Camp appearance since Winter Camp XVI. Winter Camp returned to Trout Lake, on what was thought to be a continuing basis, beginning with Winter Camp XLI in 2017.