Boy Scout Troop 325
Scoutmaster Minute
Laws of Summer Camp
July 17, 2007
Larry Polyak, Scoutmaster

We have been talking a lot about Summer Camp lately. Mr Hauschildt has been very busy trying to get everything in order. making reservations, taking payments, holding meetings for parents, meetings for leaders, answering questions. He even drove 3 hrs there and 3 hrs back on Sunday to check the camp out for us. This is the 8th year in a row that he is organizing and attending Summer Camp. I can safely say that there is no one in the troop that knows more about Summer Camp than Mr. Hauschildt (besides maybe his son). But even Mr. Hauschildt does not know everything.

I have here a list of something called the Universal Laws of Summer Camp, and I'd like to go over them with you now.

Law #1 The number of mosquitoes at any given location is inversely proportional to the amount of repellent remaining.

Law #2 The distance to a given campsite remains constant as twilight approaches.

Law #3 Any stone in a hiking boot will migrate to the point of maximum pressure.

Law #4 All tree branches in a forest grow outward from their respective trunks at exactly the height of a human eye.

Law #5 The weight of a backpack increases in direct proportion to the amount
of food consumed from it.

Law #6 Water bottles that are full when packed, will spontaneously deplete prior to arrival at campsite.

Law #7 Under any conditions, matches will find a way to get wet.

Law #8 The sun sets 3.5 times faster than normal when you're trying to set up camp.

LAW #9 A single rock located under any tent will also be located under the sleeping bag.

And finally...

Law #10 Tent stakes come only in the quantity "N-1" where N = the number of stakes required to stake down a tent.

These are all universal laws, there is nothing we can do about them. As they say, you can't fight physics. So doesn't it make sense to be prepared for all those other occurences that we DO have control over? Next week, we'll be doing some more planning for Summer Camp. The week after, we'll have a final gear check. Please do you part to live by the scout motto and "be prepared". You'll find that things always run smoother when you are.