Event Name:	Spring Campout 2008		Event Date: May 30-June 1
The Event
Event Description:		Pack Campout at John Bryan State Park/Clifton Gorge
Main activities:		Camping in Group Site (2 nights), 2 organized Hikes
(Attach Agenda)
Awards Given Out:
Event Duration:		Friday evening through Sunday midday
The People Involved
Event Coordinator:		Kyle Seymour
Event Helpers Needed:		Brian Blunt (Police Chief) + 4 clean up helpers including Dirty Bin washer - /Police Chief Responsibilities.doc /The Police Squad.doc
		Brian Johnson (Fire Chief) – Led campfire program - /Fire Chief Responsibilities.doc
		Mark Frank (Water Chief) – Did coffee, water, and punch, also did all hot dogs and smores and Saturday morning breakfast - /Water Chief Responsibilities.doc
		Rob Lawson (Chuckwagon Chair) – Planned and made Saturday evening meal and Sunday morning breakfast Needed 7 helpers, but did not get quite that many. - /THE IRON CHEFS.doc
		Kyle Seymour (Quartermaster) – Brought all equipment from shed
		Kyle Seymour (Camp Ranger) – Planned and led 2 hikes
Third Party Contacts:		Park Office /Park Receipts.pdf
(Phone Numbers)		(937) 767-1274
Number of participants:		/Spring Campout Roster.xls
Event Set up
Event Venue:		John Bryan State Park http://www.johnbryan.org/
Facilities required:		Group Campsite. See Pictures: /pictures.pdf
Equipment required:		Covered shelter (for equipment and supplies) Picnic tables (needed 6) Canopy for drink table Fire pit Nearby source of potable water Outhouse with separate non-potable water site 2 propane stoves 2 propane lanterns with stands 2 Cast Iron Cookware sets Cooking Utensils Gloves, matches, firestarter logs, campfire coffee urn
Supplies required:		Styrofoam divider plates, bowls, and small plates Plastic cups, forks, spoons, and knives Paper napkins Large and Small garbage bags. (Used two large ones and 8 small ones. Need 2.5 of each per camper
Event Communications
Communications Used:		3 emails sent.
(Attach Copies)		Email 1.pdf Email 2.pdf Email 3.pdf
Flyers used:		/Spring Campout Flyer.pdf
(Attach copies)
Lessons Learned
Key issues for next time:		Need an “activity coordinator” for games and things in the camping area. (bring sports equipment, organize games, etc.). Need someone to organize the supplies that support the meals. The Quartermaster should go get the equipment a week or so in advance of the event and inventory it and be responsible for it at the campout. Should consider inviting Boy Scouts to lead the activities or the campfire program. How about the Den Chiefs that will be helping with the Den activities.
		John Bryan has a group camping area that accommodates 100 campers. There are two large areas with shelters and fire pits and then multiple smaller tent-only areas in close proximity to them. The larger of the two shelter areas would accommodate about 40 people in the main area and the smaller would accommodate about 25. We got the smaller of the two, then used 4 other close by tent-only areas.
		We got only a small group for the Friday night and the larger shelter area was already taken by a big group for that night. If we did this again, would want to set up a mini-camp for Friday, and then move to the big shelter area for Saturday. As things worked out, the smaller shelter area was okay for our group size, but there were three tents that were too far from the main area.
		Hike 1 – On Saturday afternoon, we did a 4 mile hike, starting at the camp site, walking through the general camping area to the entrance to the North Rim trail, continuing on the North Rim trail to the North Bridge area, across the north bridge, down the South Gorge trail, across the south bridge, up the stagecoach trail to the road and back to the campsite. This was a health walk, but there were several good stopping sites on the south trail where the kids could explore and climb on rocks. Someone needs to do the trail in advance so they will know where to make the turns to descend into the gorge from the rim trail. The rest is pretty straight forward. Total hike took 2 hours.
		Hike 2 – On Sunday morning, we drove to the parking lot at the north end of the gorge on rt 343. From here we took the stairs down into the gorge and followed the gorge trail west along the water to the branch point where there is an ascent to the Orton picnic area. We followed the ascent to the Rim trail, then headed East on the rim trail back to our starting point. Tricky part is identifying the ascent trail and the rim trail turns. Total hike took 30 minutes.
		We tried Clifton Mill, but there was nothing but a restaurant. Could not tour the operating mill, so it was a bust.
		Youngs Dairy was several miles away on 68 north of Yellow Springs. It is a fun place to go with a restaurant, ice cream store, miniature golf, batting cage, driving range, barn yard animal petting zoo, and little rides. Nice place for lunch on Saturday or Sunday.
		There is a person who lives on 370 east of the camp site who sells bundles of firewood (Greene County is NOT an ash borer quarantine county so you have to buy locally). He has the wood stack in bundles in a cart in his front yard and relies on the honor system for the $5 per bundle charge. We cleaned the guy out twice, so get to him rather early. There is a hardware store in the center of Yellow Springs that has general camping supplies, but not in large quantities. We cleaned them out of propane tanks, and still almost didn’t have enough.
		Sign up sheets for camp duties didn’t work that well but it did raise the awareness of the need for helping out around the site and was worthwhile for that reason alone. Would be very helpful if the group size were much bigger. We concluded that if the group size is 70-80, we really need a site that has electricity and a bigger pavilion like what we had at Caesar Creek.