YSA Bear Lake Camp

Wow.  We are back from YSA camp and we are exhausted.  Wednesday was spent all day buying food, prepping food, packing and getting ready for camp Thursday thru Saturday.  Thank goodness for the Belnap’s Horse trailer which was loaded down with all of the equipment and food and the best part is the sleeping chamber in the front of it.  We drove up early on Thursday morning with 35 YSA’s to a field in Laketown. That was our campsite. A field with no hot water, running water from a spigot and 3 outhouses.  It felt like Pioneer trek.

We set up our tents and shades in the intense sun...and then loaded up cars for a tour of Minnetonka Cave, in St. Charles, Idaho. We hadn’t been to this cave in decades and it was impressive. It’s an hour and a half tour with 40-degree temps in the cave. So many intact stalactites and stalagmites and really cool open cave rooms. It was good to cool down too. Then we got Bear Lake Pizza on our way back to Lake Town and camp.  We played games, had a campfire devotional and went to bed around 11. It’s great to be with other adults at camp because I don’t have to babysit anyone or get everyone to bed so that I can go to bed. I just go to bed. YAY.   

 Friday was beach day at Rendezvous beach in Laketown all day-- from 9am -8pm.  We had lunch and dinner there and we had 3 boats that were running constantly along with canoes and paddle boards, 2 wave runners.   We had 63 YSA’s with us at this point. We stayed on the beach because it was a gorgeous day and because there were showers and flush toilets there.  So many sunburns… bright red and in pain people..no matter how much you tell them to put sunscreen on again and again...but they are adults and I’m not in charge. 

 Saturday we were down to 45 of us broke camp and drove back up to Idaho to hike into Bloomington Lake which was gorgeous and still had snow around it.  It was freezing cold, glacier-fed and we still had 12 of our YSA’s jump on a tree swing and swing out over the cold lake and drop in.  We all cheered! We ate our lunch and hiked back out and then we all had raspberry shakes at Le Beaus….delicious. dropped into BED!  

What I loved about this camp is how kind everyone is to each other.  How beautifully these YSA’s take care of the special needs kids...even cleaning up throw up  etc...with out getting the bishop involved. I loved how they just make everything work ( no hot water, sunburns, outhouses) with a good attitude and I love how excited they are to try new things- wake surfing, canoeing, food, tree swinging, caving etc...  It was a great camp.