Camp Quest AZ is over for 2016. It was great! There was a wide variety of activities for the campers and the Counselors were always on the run making things happen. As before, the staff had the help of the older campers called LTs. This year there were 9 LTs and 45 younger campers. Many were returnees and some previous attendees came back as LTs. I was in the cabin with the older boys. As a program counselor, I was responsible for running my programs and filling in when the cabin counselor had other duties. Rick was the cabin counselor but also ran programs. He was VERY busy during the week. If you want to know more about Camp Quest and Camp Quest Arizona, check out https://campquest.org/about.

My last four blogs have been about Camp Quest Arizona and the Tin Can Creations program. The object of the program is to have the campers take empty cans and other random hardware and make robots. It was an elective activity and there were 13 campers that signed up. I’m sure that you will agree that they produced some very creative robots.

Other elective activities included archery, fishing, mythical creatures, mask making, mission to Mars, survival skills, and drama. Each elective consisted of four one hour sessions. There were other activities called “Quest Zones” in which all the campers participated. Each Quest Zone was one hour long. The campers were divided into four teams. Each team rotated through the Quest Zones. One of the Quest Zones I ran involved building 8 x 10” shadow boxes. Each day for four days I had another set of 12 campers pounding nails into pine boards. Most remained unfinished but a few were decorated during free time. Other Quest Zone activities included: using microscopes, leather work, studying fossils, and bristlebot robots.

The week went quickly. The weather was great at 6400 feet in the Prescott National Forest near Mingus Mountain. There was no internet or phone service (unless you climbed about a hundred feet up the side of the valley) but the remote location had a charm of its own. Power was available from about 6:30 AM until the diesel generator was turned off at 10 PM.

My first year at Camp Quest Arizona was 2014. There have been a few improvements since then. This year the beds were regular 4” thick mattresses on top of wire link springs instead of a 2” mattress pad on ¾” plywood. Great improvement! The bathroom and dining hall had solar collectors that provided lights after the generator was shut down. Finally, the solar powered composting toilet was a BIG improvement over the blue Port-a-potties that we had near the upper bunkhouse.

I had a great time that ended way too soon. CQAZ 2017 will be held the last week of June…Can’t wait.