I was invited to attend the Klondike camp out with my son last weekend. I’ve only participated in a single official klondike camping trip prior to this one. This was a pretty big event with lots of scouts coming along.
We left to drive up the canyon earlier than I would have ever planned to, but we still ended up having to be one of the highest camp sites in the place. I spent the first several hours hiking up and down the hill dragging gear up to camp. That kept me warm anyway, and gave me some decent exercising.
The scouts all helped us set up the tent and get things ready for the night. We had a little dinner, and then the boys all climbed in the tent for the night. The other adults and I spent a bit of time around the fire talking. We settled down for bed at a pretty decent hour which was awesome. I managed to stay warm all night, but I still didn’t sleep amazingly.
In the morning it was very difficult to get out of the sleeping bag. My boots were basically frozen, and that wasn’t very comfortable. It took a little while for my feet to warm up, but by the time we got the first load of gear to the cars I was feeling pretty great.
We had a bunch of fun activities for the boys to participate in. They got to have a sled race, shoot rifles, paint ball guns, throw hatchets, shoot a bow and arrow, cut a log, and go down a zip line. The boys had a great time and everyone kept up and got along well.
I’m not sure a klondike is really my thing, but this one was alright. Would I sign up for something like that if I was in charge, probably not. It was fun to be with my son though, and he’s totally worth it.
