Daily Prompt: Camping

Since I was in the boy scouts for a few years, we did a lot of camping. Some of my most memorable time camping was at Tanah Keeta Scout Reservation. At the camp they offered a lot of activities for scouts to get badges over a whole weekend. We stayed in prebuilt, green fabric tents and slept on cots. Many firsts for me happened here. We learned how to put up mosquito nets, climbing up and repelling off a rock wall, and playing huge games of laser tag with different troops. An activity I signed up for was a night hike through the remote parts of the campsite. None of my friends wanted to come along with me but my father, who was teaching cub scouts pulley systems, insisted that I go. Not knowing where we were meeting, I started down the trail by myself. There was a giant black willow trees bending over my head on the dirt path that had no end in sight. I hit an intersection that was unfamiliar to me so I just sat and waited. As I sat, my head turned back and forth, I felt as though I was being chased by something. I heard some running in the distant woods. It was getting louder and louder so I stood up and started to run away, deeper into the black willow trees and sticky muck. I heard someone yell “Hey, what are you doing up there?” I turned around and saw a large pack of boy scouts walking with flashlights.

“Are you guys part on the night time excursion?” I said.

“Yeah, I’m leading the group.” A tall, buzz cut, older scout responded,

“We were supposed to meet at the meal tents, but it’s alright I’ll still give you credit for the excursion.” He said as we started down the path that is the settings of scary stories.

We stopped at one of the last alcoves and the guide told us about a cabin where a scoutmaster had murdered his whole troop. Farther down the path, we were up to our knees in mud from rain earlier that day. Our guide had us turn our headlamps off and pointed his flashlight toward the ground. Tons of tiny glistening dots covered the ground, our guide explained that those dots are the eyes of brown recluse spiders. We made it back to camp around midnight and all of my friends were already sleeping. I was drenched in so much mud that my dad hosed me off before I took a shower. The experiences I had at Tanah Keeta would carry with me as a came of age.