Off the power grid

I just spent a week at Young Women's Camp at a "remote" Forest Service group campground, that was nonetheless part of the metro area address scheme (go figure). Running water (cold), two hole outhouse (his and hers, or in our case hers and hers and knock before you enter if you're male), and no cell phone service (except for Verizon on a couple of odd hills here & there).

I was able to power my CPAP machine for the week using one of the Festiva batteries with no problem, so I guess I'm back in the camping business - no need for an extension cord. I think winter camping may be a bit of a problem, though. My nose was a bit cold on a couple of the summer mornings with the cold fresh mountain air blowing on it. I was also able to charge my cell phone a couple of times; even with no service, there were times when I wanted to know what time it was or to play an MP3.

So, what does a Bishop do at YW Camp all week? YW leaders have things pretty well planned (and then some - nothing like when the boy's go camping). Monday was camp setup: a GP-Medium for a rain shelter, a second GP-Medium for the first year girls to sleep in, help set up shelter and stoves for the cooking area. Friday morning was break down. Other than that, it was mostly hang out, make a nuisance of myself, and have fun. Watch the girls work on various projects, help the cooks when needed, pass out plates in the food line, pour water for hot chocolate - all the high skilled tasks. My "specialty" was stomping on the trash in the dumpster (one dumpster is not enough for 150 girls for a whole week). Others in the Priesthood support team (there were usually three of us around at all times) went out with various groups on 5 mile hikes, but somebody had to stay behind and watch the grass grow. Other duties included instigating water fights and encouraging girls to drink to keep from becoming dehydrated (it was fairly hot in camp - likely in the 90's in the day). But after the second day, most of them figured out that drinking water was preferable to getting sick and barfing. I only went through two pair of gloves on the one cleanup that I was involved in. I also got to burn charcoal and start fires...

Wednesday night was Bishop's night - I had surveyed the youth for their top 5 favorite songs - any genre. The results were used as material for our own version of the Swedish TV game show "Så ska' det låta". It was a blast - the game was fairly evenly matched and was decided by a one point margin. The one strategic error that I made was having our girls in the GP-Medium tent. I'd picked the spot so that we could stay out of the rain, but as the rain had stopped, it served instead to keep the noise in. I think I was close to deaf by the end of the evening. Our Young Women's leaders were super and brought up ice cream treats.

Mileage from Sunday to Church to return from camp:187