Items

• 
  2020

  Exploration Camp Main Page

  This is the main page on the Golden Gate Area Council website about Exploration Camp, which was a virtual merit badge camp offered in the summer of 2020. The session information on the side notes the camp ran from June 15 to August 7.
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  2021-01

  Wolfeboro Storm Damage

  These are two screenshots of a post and comment from the official Camp Wolfeboro Facebook page talking about damage the camp sustained in January 2021 from storms. The post provides a donation link for people to donate money to fix the damage; the post notes the donation goal is $20,000. The post notes that 40 trees fell in camp and that the water heater shed was destroyed. A comment left by the camp account under the post says "At this time, about 40 trees down in camp and on the road. The water heater shed has also been destroyed. This information is as of Sunday, no news on the storms of the past 48 hours". The post was uploaded on January 27, 2021.
• 
  2021-01-25

  An atmospheric river could dump 10 feet of snow in California’s Sierra Nevada

  This article from the Washington Post discusses the possibility of snowstorms in the Sierra Nevadas at the end of January 2021. The article specifically mentions that the Sierra Nevada could see up to ten feet of snow. The article also forecasts the possibility of 80-mile-per-hour winds in California's eastern mountains. These storms turned out to be real and damaged Camp Wolfeboro's infrastructure.
• 
  2021-06-16

  Golden Gate Area Council Updated COVID-19 Policy

  This is a document made by Golden Gate Area Council in response to California's reopening on June 15, 2021. It discusses vaccination and testing status requirements for campers, masking requirements indoors, tenting, and dining service, all of which are mentioned in the Leader's Guide. The end of the document implores leaders to make sure their Scouts clean themselves at camp, and concerns about mental health that arise from Scouts not staying long periods of time away from home for over a year. Neither hygiene nor mental health is mentioned in the Leader's Guide, but both are mentioned here. The document softens some of the COVID restrictions that were planned for camp. The update states that dining halls will be open for normal dine-in meals, overriding the Leader's Guide which stated that some meals may be take-out. Additionally, the update specifies that masks are not required to be worn outdoors. The Leader's Guide said "while at camp each and every camper must wear a face covering over their mouth and nose", not addressing a difference between indoors and outdoors.
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  2021-05-14

  Golden Gate Area Council Summer Camp 2021 Camp Wolfeboro Parents’ Guide

  This is a guide for parents made by Golden Gate Area Council to inform parents about Camp Wolfeboro. The guide discusses the variety of changes made to camp for 2021 as a result of the pandemic, among other aspects of camp.
• 
  2021

  Drought at Camp Wolfeboro

  This National Integrated Drought Information System website shows a timeline map of drought conditions in the United States from 2000 to present by week. The map timeline shows that Camp Wolfeboro was located in the extreme drought category during the entire of the 2021 camp season. Extreme drought, according to NIDIS, means: "Livestock need expensive supplemental feed; cattle and horses are sold; little pasture remains; fruit trees bud early; producers begin irrigating in the winter Fire season lasts year-round; fires occur in typically wet parts of state; burn bans are implemented Water is inadequate for agriculture, wildlife, and urban needs; reservoirs are extremely low; hydropower is restricted". During the same time period most of the rest of California was also in drought conditions.
• 
  2021-07-22

  Hourly AQI Sacramento Region Thursday, July 22

  This is an animated map of air quality in the Sacramento, CA region on Thursday, July 22, 2021. The map shows the air quality in the region every twenty minutes during the day. From roughly 8:00 AM to 10:00 AM, Camp Wolfeboro is located in the "unhealthy" air quality index level. From 7:00 AM to 12:00 noon the air quality is "unhealthy for sensitive groups". The poor air quality in the region appears to originate in Alpine County based on the animation, the location of the Tamarack Fire.
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  2021-07

  Tamarack Smoke Outlook, Thursday, July 22

  This is a report from the USFS Wildland Fire Quality Response Program outlining the expected air quality impact of the Tamarack Fire near Lake Tahoe from Thursday-Friday, July 22-23, 2021. The reports discusses the possibility of increased smoke in the areas south of the Tamarack Fire, which includes Camp Wolfeboro. The report also notes the fire on Thursday had increased over 10,000 acres in size from the day before.
• 
  2021

  Map of Camp Wolfeboro

  This is a map of Camp Wolfeboro that was on the Golden Gate Area Council website during the summer of 2021. The map includes the various paths and trails, as well as the program areas, buildings, and campfires.
• 
  2021-05-26

  Boucke Campsite Debris

  This is a photograph of the Boucke campsite at Camp Wolfeboro in 2021, before camp had opened to any Scouts. There is a variety of natural debris on the ground, including pine needles, pine cones, and branches. This debris had to all be cleared off of the ground before camp started because this is a campsite used by Scouts and Scouters. The week of May 26 was "Chainsaw week #2", where volunteers went to camp and helped prepare camp to be ready for Scouts to arrive. The photo was taken during the week of May 26, 2021, and was submitted to the Camp Wolfeboro Shutterfly site by Chris Chapman, who is on the properties subcommittee for the Golden Gate Area Council, which owns Camp Wolfeboro.
• 
  2021-07-22T21:31

  24 Campsite Fire Pit

  This is a photo of a campfire at 24 campsite, at the eastern boundary of Camp Wolfeboro and on the Calaveras County side of the river. The photo was taken at a campfire held between Troop 21 and Troop 834. Troop 21 was staying at 24 campsite the week the photo was taken. The fire bowl is KUMA brand, presumably the same 19-inch fire bowl found at the Main Campfire and at Waterfront. The fire is propane fueled, like all other campfires held during the 2021 camp season at camp. The photo was taken on July 22 at 9:31 PM.
• 
  2021-07

  Main Campfire Propane Fire Bowls

  At Camp Wolfeboro, there were no wood-fueled campfires during the entire summer of 2021. Instead, the two central campfires (the Main Campfire, and Bravo How) and the campsite fire pits had propane campfires. One of the photos is of the Main Campfire during the Monday night campfire, with both of the propane fires visible. The photo was taken on July 19 at 8:40 PM. The other photo is of the easternmost of the two Main Campfire fire pits during the day, with a container of propane right next to it. The photo was taken on July 23 at 2:49 PM. In the daytime photo, it is clear that the fire pit is a KUMA Bear Blaze Fire Bowl - 19" in black.
• 
  2021-07-19T11:44

  Program Office Mask Sign

  This is a photo I took of a sign found on the inside of the door into the top (second) floor of the program office reminding Scouts and Scouters to wear a mask while in the building. The sign reads "Please remember to wear your mask in the P.O. Thanks for keeping camp safe!!!!", and has the Camp Wolfeboro logo on it. The photo was taken on July 19 at 11:44 AM.
• 
  2021-07-19T21:53

  Program Director's Monday Night Campfire Speech

  Every week during camp at Camp Wolfeboro, the Program Director gives a speech near the end of the Monday night campfire. This is an audio recording of the last portion of the speech given by 2021's Program Director, James Mizutani. He mentions and discusses the pandemic that has taken place over the past two years in his speech. Transcription: So, it, it was a lot when I got up here, uh, to work as program director in 2021, it was kind of a shock. Um, I had to— the med lodge was new, the camp director's cabin was not habitable anymore, uh, Kneeknocker¹ was all shiny. The nature lodge, my home for a year as Eco-Con² staff, is now like [in remittal?], and you can't put people in there anymore. So a lot of things have changed, some good, some less good. The less good things are fixable, we'll get a new nature lodge, it'll be fantastic and it'll be great and it'll be better than anything Eagle's End³ will ever have (audience says "woah"). But one of the things that didn't change was my feelings about camp. I love camp. I love everybody who's up here. I love working with my staff. Now I just call them my staff, instead of me being a part of staff, I still am staff [unintelligible]. And getting to see all of you every week, I get to see Scouts every week, I get to catch up with them, I get to see what they're doing while they're not at camp, and I get to see what they're enjoying about camp, why they come back every year. And I find that it's a lot of the same reasons why I come back every year. You're out here, you're away from a lot of distractions, you're with some of your friends, you're doing stuff that you don't normally do on the day-to-day. I don't mind normal days, the last two years have been wake up, move eight feet over onto the other side of my room, and sit down at my desk. Now I wake up and have to like, jog 800 feet to the PO⁴ in order to make it to the staff meeting on time. So, it's a very different lifestyle. And, I think it's a good thing for all of us to have been reintroduced into that lifestyle, into that camping lifestyle. And so I want you all to take advantage of everything that Wolfeboro has to offer. Make the Wolfeboro lifestyle a full lifestyle, a busy lifestyle filled with program, filled with excitement, filled with singing, filled with swimming at the Waterfront and shooting at the Rifle Range and going on hikes and being out here in this beautiful valley looking at the stars. There's no light, there's no artificial light in the valley after 10:30pm. And that's something that you can rarely get anymore. Um, I want you all to take hold of all the advantages that you have here at camp and make the most of it because after two years, you have a lot of catching up to do. So, have a good week everybody and I'd like to reintroduce the 2021 Camp Wolfeboro staff (applause). Footnotes: 1: A bathroom (with showers starting in 2021) found between the Program Office and the Mess Hall 2: Short for "Ecology and Conservation". A program area on the Tuolumne side of camp that handles nature-related merit badges and activities. 3: A program area that handles civic-related merit badges and activities. Eagle's End staff and Eco-Con staff were engaged in a prank war during the summer of 2021. 4: Program Office, where the camp director and program director offices can be found.
• 
  2021-07-22T09:50

  Flag Area Mask Trash

  This is a littered mask I found just several dozen feet east of the flag area and the program office at Camp Wolfeboro. I had just finished my Forestry merit badge session on the Tuolumne County side of camp, when I crossed the river to head to my Shotgun Shooting merit badge session at 10:00 AM. On the way to the range, I found a mask laying on the ground. I was a bit baffled as to how this mask was still here, because dozens of people had to have walked by it that morning already, whether going to or from a merit badge class or heading back to their campsite. The mask is extremely obvious, so anyone who walked here would have seen it. The photo was taken at 9:50 AM on Thursday, July 22, 2021.
• 
  2021-07-23T15:31

  Shotgun Range Mask Trash

  In addition to finding mask trash at my campsite and in the common areas that Scouts and Scouters (adults in Scouting) walk through, I also found mask trash at program areas (meaning areas where merit badge sessions and other Scouting activities take place), like the shotgun range. Like the other photos, I picked up the mask after I took the photo. I am not as disappointed about this littered mask as I am about the others because it was in a fairly hidden location under a bench and I think most people at the range wouldn't have seen it. The photo was taken at 3:31 PM on Friday, July 23, 2021.
• 
  2021-07-19T06:58

  Boucke Mask Trash

  This is a photo I took of a mask littered on the ground at the Boucke campsite at Camp Wolfeboro. This is the campsite where my troop, Troop 834, stayed during the fifth week of camp, when I took the photo. I picked up the mask and threw it away after I took the photo, and I hope it wasn't anyone from our troop who forgot to pick up their garbage. I find it interesting that the pandemic prevented most human activity from taking place at the camp in 2020 and now that people have returned there are new types of trash. The photo was taken at 6:58 AM on Monday, July 19, 2021.
• 
  2021-07

  Wolfeboro PO Whiteboard

  The top of the program office at Camp Wolfeboro, where the camp director and program director offices are, has a large whiteboard every year where Scouts are invited to draw anything so long as it is Scouting-appropriate. The two photos of the whiteboard were taken at the middle and end of the fifth session of camp; IMG_5768.jpg was taken on Wednesday, July 21 at 11:41 AM, and IMG_5817.jpg was taken on Friday, July 23 at 4:17 PM. In the two and a half days between the photos, there were some additions made to the board. The whiteboard includes a variety of references to recent cultural trends, some of which include: -Upper left: text reading "whats [sic] so funny about Sussus Amongus", a reference to a YouTube video titled "What's so funny about sussus amogus?", itself an Among Us parody of the Biggus Dickus sketch from Monty Python's Life of Brian. -Center left, immediately next to the edge of the board: the word "SHEESH" in orange marker, which is used to show a sense of disbelief about something, with a positive tone (similar to how "dang" or "damn" might be used) -Upper center, slightly to the right: a dark green drawing of an open eye crying laughing emoji, an edited version of the laughing crying emoji that is used in memes to signify an emotional reaction to something -Bottom right: an orange-colored set of Olympic rings, with the words "Olympians [illegible]" in blue beneath it Some of the additions between Wednesday and Friday include: -Center left: an Among Us crewmate next to a text bubble saying "SUSSY!" (a reference to the slang term "sus", meaning suspicious, often used alongside references to Among Us) Many of the specific cultural references refer to the video game Among Us. According to the program director, the massive Garfield drawing at the bottom left was drawn during the 2019 camp season but became unerasable by the time camp opened in 2021 (camp did not take place in-person in 2020).
• 
  2021-04-13

  Camp Wolfeboro Status Update Monday, April 13, 2020

  This is a letter from Monday, April 13, 2020 that was sent out by the Mt. Diablo Silverado Council of the Boy Scouts of America outlining three possibilities for the 2021 Camp Wolfeboro season, depending on when California lifted its stay-at-home orders. The letter also discusses an online opportunity to earn merit badges that would be hosted in the summer of 2020 if camp could not occur in person or if it only occurred for a reduced amount of time in person. The letter discusses how refunds would be handled if camp was canceled. Camp was canceled entirely in 2020 because the stay-at-home order extended past June 1, 2020, which is stated in the letter.
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  2021-06-24

  Stanislaus National Forest Forest Order No. STF-16-2021-06

  The Forest Supervisor of Stanislaus National Forest issued a Forest Order on June 24, 2021 that prevented "using a fire, campfire, or stove fire" in most of the Moderate Fire Hazard Area of Stanislaus National Forest. This impacted the Calaveras County portion of Camp Wolfeboro, which is located entirely within the Moderate Fire Hazard Area. Although the Tuolumne County half of Camp Wolfeboro is in the Low Fire Hazard Area, meaning wood fires were technically allowed, the Golden Gate Area Council prohibited any wood fires at any of its summer camps for the 2021 camp season. Also attached is a photograph of a copy of Forest Order No. STF-16-2021-06 hanging at the top of the Camp Wolfeboro Program Office, taken on July 21, 2021.
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  2021-07-20

  Troop 621 in the Mess Hall

  This is a photo of some Scouts from Troop 621, in San Ramon, eating dinner at the Camp Wolfeboro mess hall. The Scouts have masks around their necks. The photo was found on the troop's public website. The photo is identifiable as being taken on July 20, 2021 between 6:15 and 7:00, because Troop 621 attended camp during the fifth session (July 18 to July 24) and ate B shift dinner from 6:15 to 7:00, and part of Tuesday night's dinner was stuffing and mashed yams, which are visible on the Scouts' plates.
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  2021-07-24

  In-N-Out Touchless Drink Dispenser

  On the way home from Camp Wolfeboro, it is a tradition in Troop 834 (and other troops) to stop at In-N-Out on the way home, which is often appreciated after a week of eating at the mess hall. When my car stopped at the Stockton In-N-Out to pick up lunch, I saw touchless drink dispensers that I hadn't seen before. Above each nozzle that dispenses soda there are two small bumps, and putting a finger between the two bumps, without touching them, causes the soda to flow. While we were there, we also saw some Scouts from Troop 7062, in American Canyon.
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  2021-07-19T11:41

  Trading Post Maximum Occupancy Sign

  This photograph shows a sign at the Camp Wolfeboro Trading Post that says "Trading Post Maximum Occupancy: 5", with the Camp Wolfeboro logo before it. The sign also accompanies a nut allergy sign that is present every year. The Trading Post only allowed five people to enter at a time, and any overflow had to wait outside for someone to leave the building. Masks were also required in the Trading Post, regardless of vaccination status. The photograph was taken on July 19, 2021 at 11:41 AM.
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  2021-07-23T16:08

  Forest Service Burn Pile

  These are three photos of a set of logs, located between the archery range and shotgun range at Camp Wolfeboro. In all of the photos the Handicraft building is visible on the left in the distance. According to the in-camp president of the Wolfeboro Pioneers, the pile of logs was created as a burn pile by the Forest Service. At the 7:30 Pioneer meeting on Monday evening, July 19th, 2021, a Scout proposed clearing the burn pile as part of the Wolfeboro Work Party, an hour-long work party running from 7:30 to 8:30 on every Tuesday night at camp where each Scout troop helps clean up part of camp. He didn't know the pile was made by the Forest Service, so the president said so and said the camp couldn't clear it. The photographs were taken on Friday, July 23, 2021 at 4:08 PM.