by Bob Sparrow

With summer officially starting on Friday, I rarely think of summer without thinking of ‘summer camp’; specifically, the one I attended as a Boy Scout, Marin-Sierra Boy Scout Summer Camp at Chubb Lake, near Soda Springs in the Tahoe National Forrest. I attended in the summers after 6th, 7th and 8th grades. One could sign up for one session (two weeks), which I did my first year; two sessions (four weeks) which I did my second year or three sessions (six weeks) which I did my third year. I obviously loved it! It was, without a doubt, the best outdoor experience I’ve ever had, with hiking, camping, boating, swimming, learning about the flora and fauna of the Sierras, life-saving, first aid, outdoor cooking, crafting, learning about American Indian traditions, singing and telling stories around a campfire and more, there was never a dull moment, not even close! It was a great time to earn a lot of ‘merit badges’, which I did, but not all the right ones to become an Eagle Scout, which is one of my life regrets. I’ve since heard that behind every Eagle Scout is a mother pushing their son to achieve. No, I’m not blaming my mom, she worked long and hard hours, had two of us hooligans to deal with plus Suzanne who was only about five, so Mom had her hands full, but it’s a shout out to all those moms who ‘coached’ their son to become Eagle Scouts. For me, I think I just lost interest; once in high school I think sports and girls somehow replaced knot-tying and starting a fire by rubbing two sticks together.

I started wondering if all the things I enjoyed so much as a Boy Scout were still available to today’s Boy Scouts. My research into today’s Boys Scouts of America, saddened me a bit. Two major issues have significantly changed the program over the years:
- Bankruptcy and reorganization (it’s now called Scouting America)
Sexual abuse lawsuit claims (and apparently not just a few cases, over 80,000 cases were filed claiming abuse). The organization has established a $2.4 billion fund to compensate survivors of sexual abuse. It gave a whole new meaning to the Boy Scout slogan, “Be Prepared”.

2. Girls were initially allowed to join the Boy Scouts in 2019. So much for skinny dipping in the rivers we hiked to in the Sierras (which we did!). And no, just in case you’re wondering, boys still cannot join Girl Scouts.
At its peak in 1973 Boy Scouts of America had over four million participants; today Scouting America has just around one million, including about 175,000 girls.
It used to be that when you were too old for Boy Scouts, many went into the Explorers program, where activities were similar, but just with older guys. Brother, Jack was an Explorer, who was on the staff at Marin Sierra Camp in my final year there. So, spending six weeks in the Sierras was easier with my big brother along. Today, Exploring is divided into two programs: one called ‘Learning for Life’ which is focused on career-oriented programs. The other is Venturing programs which is the successor to the original Exploring program’s outdoor and adventure-oriented aspects.

Just for kicks, I looked to see if Chubb Lake was still a site where Scouts would go for summer camp, and it is. The camp is also open to non-profit groups for get-away events.
As I was researching for this blog, I ran across a comment on either the Boy Scouts or Chubb Lake site, from a guy who was an Eagle Scout and one of my counselors at Chubb Lake back in the 50s. I reached out to him on Facebook, but haven’t heard back – I knew I should have gotten my Eagle Scout badge!!!
Hope your summer is as good as mine was at Marin-Sierra Camp, sans the skinny dipping.