First Impressions



Bruce strikes a manly pose at the very top of our mountain. :-)

 So here we are at Hinckley Scout Ranch. I'm not really sure what I think, but I know what my first impression is:  I liked Steiner better.  

HSR is about thirty miles north around the mountain from Steiner, and about 1000 feet lower in elevation.  You can get here by driving up past Evanston, Wyoming, but Google maps says it is a shorter drive to go through Kamas—the same way we drove to Steiner last summer—so we came that way.  I fell asleep on the drive and woke up just in time to see the road into Kamas; it was just like driving home, it was so familiar!  The winding road up the mountain wasn't scary at all except for the really curvy part at the very top of the mountain where Bruce kept going 50 to 60 miles per hour and I thought he should be going 35 at the most.

Up at Steiner it was too cold for any deciduous trees to grow; here at HSR we have quakies.  It is springtime here and about ten to fifteen—maybe even twenty—degrees cooler than it is in the Salt Lake Valley.  We got here just in time to avoid the first big heat wave of summer (I heard it was already up to 99 degrees in Salt Lake by the time we left last Friday).  There are lots of little flowers blooming—tons of dandelions—and we found strawberry plants in few spots too.  Some of the strawberries are flowering, so the girls are pretty excited to see some strawberries grow.  So is Jason, who is supposed to teach mountain-man skills. (Stephen says that really Jason's job is just to make sure the scouts have fun for three hours; Jason is afraid he’s gotten a summer babysitting job.)



looking in at the front door of our cabin

 We have a really nice cabin. The front living area--living room and kitchenette--are as big as our whole cabin at Steiner was.  We have electricity and even some (very limited) internet access.  The living room has a little couch/hide-a-bed and a recliner, and the kitchenette has a table with four chairs, an electric range and a sink with running water.  (There were three TVs in our cabin--one of the first things we did was shove them into the closets.)  We have two bedrooms--one with a queen-size bed, two dressers and a closet, and another with bunk beds, a dresser and a closet.   Best of all is a bathroom with our own shower  and a flushing toilet! :-)

The two doors behind Michael are the bedrooms.  The door at his left is the bathroom—complete with shower and flushing toilet! :-)

In spite of all the niceties, I think we are losing some of the charm of last summer's camp at Steiner.  Here it is not really like camping at all—not that I am a big camper by any means.  But I didn't mind our rustic little, cramped, broken-down cabin with chipmunks occasionally running through it—although it is super nice that  Bruce and I don't have to share a room with any of our kids!  And I didn't mind being without electricity—as long as I could use my generator for some early-morning light in the kitchen.

But the biggest bummer is that Hinckley is so big!  The BSA took several camps here at East Fork of the Bear and made them into the new, huge Hinckley Scout Ranch.  Stephen's  job is to make it look super-awesome and attractive to scout troops, and I guess we are here to help.  I am working in the commissary, not cooking, which is OK with me because I would have had to cook for about 300 to 400 people a week here once the scouts start coming. Stephen says I will have lots more free time this summer than I did as the cook at Steiner.  But I liked being the cook there; I was always in the middle of things, it was easy to hike to any of my family's areas and visit them, and I enjoyed my staff-family of fifty or so people; I knew all their names and I think they all liked me too.  I have the feeling that here I will be on my own a lot.

I was dismayed this morning when, at our first staff breakfast, they divided us into patrols, told us that we had to eat all our meals with our patrols, and then found out that Bruce and I were put into different patrols.  I can't eat with my husband?  Not cool!  I talked to Courtney (my supervisor) about it, and she said that the patrols for her and for me were "kind of optional."  I hope so.  Bruce said he was eating with his wife. Period. :-) 

So my first impression is that this camp is pretty, but not as pretty as Steiner. I might end up being bored or frustrated with my job, I probably won't get to know the staff very well just because of the camp size and the particular area I work in, and I won't see a lot of my family.  Only time will tell how it will really be.  Wish me luck!