Threat of freezing rain fails to dampen spirits of 1,300 Boy Scouts

Brad Hoheisel found bad news when he arrived at the porta-potties early Saturday morning. There were few people around the line of little green buildings at the 41st annual Boy Scout Trappers Rendezvous weekend campout.

“Normally there are lines, big lines,” said Hoheisel, director of the campout in western Harvey County. “We won’t have any big lines this year.”

Two years ago the event sponsored by local Boy Scout troops drew about 6,300 Scouts and leaders from as far as Mississippi. As of Saturday noon, 1,370 had registered and arrived for this year’s event.

Concerns of bad weather kept many troops home, but it didn’t cool the enthusiasm of Scouts in attendance.

“It’s fun, and the weather’s not that bad if you bundle up,” said Sam Benz, a Valley Center Boy Scout at his third rendezvous. “I threw a bunch of hand warmers in my sleeping bag last night. It helps if you have a bunch of people in your tent, too.”

What Hoheisel billed as “the world’s biggest annual Scout campout” is held in the dead of winter for a reason.

Stan Dexter has been to all but three of the campouts. His father helped start the program in 1977.

“One of the main reasons for the event has been to show kids how to camp in the cold, how to prepare and be comfortable in the cold,” said Dexter. “We’ve had 60 degrees and we’ve seen 10 below, but it’s supposed to be cold.”

Hoheisel said it was the threat of icy roads that kept many home, not the cold.

Most attending troops have enough veteran Scouts and leaders to teach others how to dress and spend a night comfortably. Robert Haig’s stats prove they’re doing just fine.

“In all these years we’ve only had two cases of frostbite and two cases of moderate hypothermia,” said Haig, a professional emergency medical technician who has volunteered at the rendezvous’ first aid station for 26 years. “We’ve only had an ambulance come out twice, and once was when a ranger feel off a roof.” Supervised older Scouts provide much of the assistance in the first aid station.

The rendezvous also gives Scouts a look at what life was like in the Rocky Mountains in the early 1800s, when trappers gathered to compete in games and trade furs and other goods.

Dressed in garb from that period, 10 re-enactors wandered the grounds, talking about the lives of people like Hugh Glass and Kit Carson. At small campsites, complete with large canvas tents, warm campfires and hot cups of cider, craftsmen like Dexter demonstrated things like campfire cooking, flint-and-steel fire making and tomahawk throwing. But the old-fashioned trading between Scouts is the most popular thing at the event, which began Friday and ends Sunday afternoon.

Normally blankets spread on the ground and tables covered in goods line the road that bisects the park. This year the trading area had plenty of open areas. Benz, and Scouting friends Garrett Ashcraft and Victor LeRock, made the trading rounds. Benz walked bare-headed, ears and cheeks bright red. Ashcraft only had thin slivers of facial skin showing between caps, hoods and a facial mask.

Benz said knives used for camping, hunting and fishing were annually the most popular trading item. Deer antlers, tanned animal hides, feathers and fishing outfits were on many tables or blankets. There were also computer parts, video games, giant squirt guns, lamps, lanterns, trading cards, “Star Wars” memorabilia and the grill from some old GMC vehicle.

“Sometimes it looks more like a garage sale,” Hoheisel said. “One year I think somebody brought a couch to trade.”

On their first trip to the rendezvous, a group of Scouts from around Fort Collins, Colo., had nothing to compare this weekend’s experience to.

Catherine Hendricks, leader of a co-ed Scout crew, said they’d heard about the event from another Scout, and decided it would be worth the trip. Even with the lowest attendance in many years, she and others were glad they’d made the eight-hour drive.

“When they told us about something with 6,000 Scouts, we figured we had to see it,” said Roy Huddleston, one of the troop’s adult leaders, who said a gathering of 300 to 500 was deemed huge in Colorado. “I guess we’ll have to come back next year and see what it’s like. Maybe the weather will be better.”

This story was originally published January 14, 2017 at 6:03 PM with the headline "Threat of freezing rain fails to dampen spirits of 1,300 Boy Scouts."