Sunday, July 1, 2012

Camp Geek

Clark is turning 13 in just a few days (oh, give me strength!).  For his birthday he decided on an overnight backpacking trip with Abe and a few friends.
They gathered at our house Friday for lunch and then they were off.
They hiked about 3 miles to Long Lake in the Uintas.
Before they left I told these charming young men not to report back to me any dangerous activities they might choose to engage in.  Note that I did not tell them not to do anything dangerous--as I'm sure their definition of dangerous would not equate with my idea of dangerous.  I know they are adventurous young men and I don't want to crush that spirit, but I'd rather not hear about it. 

Case in point:
Cliff jumping.
Very very dangerous.  I don't want to know.
Abe "assures" me that the angle of this picture makes it look like a bigger cliff than it actually was.

I say the camera don't lie.
I will grant that this is a very cool picture of a triple jump, BUT STILL!
How about just fishing???
That's a good safe activity!
You can experience the thrill of success with fishing with absolutely no danger.
You can even cook it on a little camp stove with the possibility of burning yourself.  I'm okay with that.
I'm not okay with cliff jumping.
Paddling makeshift log rafts near the shore is good.
Paddling out into the middle of the lake makes me a little more nervous.
The boys named their camp "Camp Geek".  I understand their discussion centered on the characteristics of zombies, Star Trek, Dungeons and Dragons, mutant alien space invasions,  and the like. 
Now I ask you, was their camp aptly named?  
I think so. 

But I love them all anyway!  I cannot imagine a nicer group of young men for Clark to associate with.  They all hope to return to Camp Geek next summer, where I'm sure they will all respect my wishes and not even think about jumping off those cliffs again.

5 comments:

Gabrielle Kim said...

It looks like much fun was had. Since I am not a geek I don't understand why the fire pit is hooked up to the propane tank? Would some engineer please explain this to me? Thank you...


And Happy Birthday Clark!

Ali said...

To me Clark will always be the little boy who took me hunting for bugs under rocks at your Draper house ... so hard to imagine that he is going to be a teenager this week. Clark, I love you! And Betsy & Abe congrats on raising a pretty awesome young man.

Abe Fox said...

Ali, Thanks!! Clark was in young-man HEAVEN!!

And Gabrielle, As far as the propane tank goes, I lugged that huge thing way into the mountains so that we could have something of a camp fire in the evening.....due to the ban on regular fires.

Schramm Family said...

Betsy, I could not agree more with your thoughts on the entire outing. Im grateful Jakob went. I love that Jakob has good friends to hang out with. I do not want to know any of the details. The first thing Jakob said when he got home was "I jumped off a cliff!" Our conversation went something like this:
Jakob: I jumped off a cliff!
Me: Are you hurt in any way?
Jakob: No.
Me: Did you have a good time?
Jakob: YES!
Me: Then, I don't want to hear any more about it.

He has his scout High Adventure and I told Jakob and his leaders I did not want to know any of the details. Just bring him home safe.

Thank you for taking Jakob. He had a great time!
~Camille

Amy F. said...

Clark is one lucky boy! It looks like he and his friends had a fantastic time!!