Jamboree Day 8

Woke a bit before seven and ate the breakfast. Partik was so kind that he made Hamburgers for everyone in the morning. I managed to get one with Brie 🙂

First activity was kayaking. Speed racing with others in the team. Then at 10:45 we had an official photo shoot from the 'highest point' at Summit. Today they drove us up. Yeah air-conditioned shuttle was way better then a hike and an orienting map from yesterday. We drove through all the security check points that forbid you to enter the VP lounge. Sorry guys but there were no security guards and forbidden signs on the orienteering map. VP lounge serves as a place where they bring potential and current donors.

At the top we took a few shots and chatted with the head of the philanthropy. In 2010 BSA bought the Summit reserve and had since then invested 370 million dollars into the Summit. They plan to invest around 1.5 billion into the Summit till 2023 in order to build a permanent accommodations and dining house for the staff. Oh and BSA has three more camp sites like Summit. One in New Mexico, one in Minnesota and the sea base at Florida. Summit's role is to provide a high adventure facility for every USA national Jamboree. Area of the Summit was a former coal mine. The forest on it's grounds is still very young. Around 40 years old. It's pretty thick and dense so forget walking or running through it.

Oh and from the top you can see one more big camp in the reserve. It hosts the National guard that stays at the Jamboree site for free and helps with all logistics, security and medical support.

Once we came back to the Jamboree site I took a quick tour of the BSA museum and the trading post near by. You get a feeling that you entered a middle eastern bazaar. Americans really are nuts about swapping. One guy had like 10 scouting uniforms for swapping. I had 3 uniforms in my entire life 😂 OK in 18 years of scouting.

Next was a tour to the small zip-line. Marko who helped with the logistics of the adventure program asked for help so I knew there are going to be a few Slovenians there to hang with. Luckily I arrived just before it started to rain. Zip-line operates in any weather except when there are thunderstorms. If a lighting is detected every air activity is suspended for the next 30 minutes. When 30 min was almost over another lighting stroke and the zip-line staff cheered. They knew that meant 30 more minutes of break for them.

Alright a bit of story how the whole zip-line thing goes. First you need to get the time slot before you can even pick up the gear. Once you get the gear you need to bring it up to the departure site. You put on the belt and helmet:

Get the gear for the zip. Marko and Travis in action:

Once you are ready you have to wait for another few minutes:

Before the zip-line boss calls you:

Then one of the 10 operators strips you in and you are ready to go:

I have to admit that the whole system works like clock work. Polished to the core. The empty bags for the gear are transported back down to the lading site as backpacks.

At around 15:00 I headed back to the camp site and stopped at the canopy (system of zip-lines) to arrange a photo shoot for the next day. At the camp site one of the participants told me that he managed to film during the night with the go-pro camera two black bears and two foxes. Great they were 50 meters form our camp site.

Next shock was that the line for the grocery shop was crazy long. What's going on? OK maybe just everyone decided to go shopping at the same time. It started to rain as hell so I took the time to get a shower then headed back to the Jamboree main arena. I got there a bit wet but spare dry clothes fixed that. I headed with Emil to the Swiss reception. We meet two Croatians and two Slovenian IST members. Food was so-so. The rest of the event was pretty boring:

Once I came back to the camp site we headed for a bubble party. They made a spectacular fog (OK nature helped a bit 🙂 ). It was the best concert since the start of the Jamboree.

I wanted to take a few shots in-front of stage and asked a fire marshal for permission. He replied that he had a medical emergency right now and he doesn't have time. Sorry. Yeah I know photographers can be annoying creatures.

Since the party was fun the leaders kind of fell into the mood. So we decided with Laura to shift our evening meeting to 22:45. Of course we had sent out the information to late and the participants complained. When we came back to the camp site they told us they made the plan for the next day already and are now going to sleep 🙈. Huh I guess they are organised to well already 🙂