Personal Narrative: My First Week At The Lake Of The Ozarks Scout Reservation

My first week at the Lake of the Ozarks Scout Reservation, or Camp Hohn as everyone called it, was probably one of the worst weeks of my life. The camp looked nice on paper; it was described as a 120-acre camp on the banks of the Lake of the Ozarks, with bluffs overlooking the lake and many campsites,all surrounded by a five mile nature trail. However, they failed to include in the brochure that due to the camps size, the classes available to take were extremely spread out. To get to the waterfront, hiking down switchbacks was necessary. Also, the bluff was difficult to reach and had no railing, which offered no protection from the one hundred foot drop to the water below. As far as the trail goes, I will discuss that later. To say the least, …show more content…
My friend Mason and I went to our first day of Brownsea, a first year program at the camp. In the afternoon we went to the waterfront to start our swimming merit badge. My Mother had always been very clear that since I was spending my afternoons out in the water, that I was to wear sunscreen. My friend did not take my advice on the subject and by the end of the third day of camp he had gotten third-degree sunburn, which caused his shoulders to blister. The days seemed repetitive and by the end of the third day of camp, the only thing that seemed to change was my sleeping situation. The older scouts in the troop had learned years ago that the tents were best used for supply storage, and so they slept outside under one of the campsites dining pavilions in the evenings. My friend and I joined them the third night of camp and as fell to sleep I heard the older boys laughing and whispering to each other. I thought nothing of it and went to sleep. I awoke the next morning to find my friend and his cot had disappeared. I found out later on that the older scouts had saran-wrapped my friend to his caught and moved him to a nearby clearing in the woods, and that the only reason I had not befallen the same fate was because they had run out of saran-wrap. That was the closest thing to hazing that has ever happened to …show more content…
On Friday my troop was in charge of cleaning the shower houses, and I was forced to take the trash up to the dumpsters at a mile away at the gates of the camp. Once the shower houses were cleaned the older boys went off to go play horseshoes and my friend went on the trail. I was still in shock from the night before so I did not go with him. I was alone reading in the campsite for an hour when a doe and two fauns came out into a small clearing by my tent. I managed to inch close enough to touch one of the fauns before they were scared off by the others returning. That night I had to sleep alone in my tent because my friend’s dad had stayed after Thursday and he was sleeping with him. I barely slept and woke up at four A.M. to take a shower and wait for everyone else to wake up so that we could leave. I finally arrived home at noon on July fourth and I did not leave the house for a week. Although my overall uneasiness for the camp remained, I went back to Hohn another four times throughout my career in Boy Scouts. I actually enjoyed my last year; I took Golf and metalworking merit badges, so I got to go play nine holes one afternoon and made a metal marshmallow skewer from a metal rod in the mornings. I believe that going there has helped me conquer some fears and made me grow as a person. I definitely would not want to go back for another week, but I am glad I