by Ted Onulak

Created on: July 08, 2009

We began the preparations for the evenings campfire early that afternoon while the sun was still fairly high in the sky, just beginning it's descent. The woods themselves seemed to be on fire as the early October sun set the leaves ablaze as it shown through the oranges, reds, yellows and browns.

We had arrived that morning, in several cars like an invasion of little green soldiers on an open field near a slow-moving creek. This creek fed the huge lake that we had passed as we entered the state forest.

Most of us were armed with pocketknives at the least and others with more fearsome hatchets.

I was particularly proud of my hatchet, which was new and sharp and had never been used. It hung from my belt in a tooled leather case, like a Conquistadors saddle and banged against my leg reminding me of its close proximity at all times.

My Boy Scout uniform was devoid of any distinguishing insignia, as I was a new comer and on my first overnight camping trip. The only claim I could make was membership to troop 85 on my left shoulder and a blood red disc embroidered in black with a coiled rattlesnake on my right. This was the emblem of the infamous Rattlesnake Patrol.

Our Patrol Leader was Kenny O'Brien, who was known as 'Big Red' as at 14, he was already over six-feet tall and was covered with red-gold hair from head to foot. He was worldly and was soon to leave us for his career as a High School student. But as long as Red was our leader, we were untouchable from anyone's potential hazing.

As I had come from a big city and was already tougher and badder than most of the local kids my age, Red snapped me up for the Rattlesnakes. But, I was a complete city slicker lost in the woods and followed every instruction and absorbed all the woodcraft that I could.

As Red was the Senior Patrol Leader, it fell to us to build the huge evening campfire. We found a bare rocky site about 50 yards from the tents and the tree line, and then cleared the immediate area of twigs and leaves.

Red ordered some of us to begin gathering stones to build a circular firewall. He took the rock hunters near the creek and the side of the road and showed them the kind of stones he had in mind. We would combine flat shale pieces with irregular rocks to build a foot high wall.

Others went to gather branches and dead limbs and dragged them to the site. Red himself went to find some sturdy logs to build the base of the fire.

What

• 1
• 2
• 3
• Next Page >>