Boy Scouts return from national jamboree

Fifty Boy Scouts from across the Upper Peninsula have returned from a two-and-a-half-week trip to the National Boy Scout Jamboree.

The jamboree took place near Beckley, West Virginia and lasted for ten days.

After returning, several of the U.P. scouts who attended were visiting Camp Hiawatha in Alger County.

“It was a high adventure base, so we could do anything from whitewater rafting to shooting handguns, actually; they had archery,” Robert Stenger of Lake Linden said.

“I really liked mountain biking low-gear, going through all the trails and all the mountains, and I really enjoyed rock climbing,” Shane Poisson of Escanaba said. “There’s a certain part in rock climbing called the leap of faith, and you would jump off and there’d be an auto-belay, so you’d leave your life in the hands of a machine, but it was really fun.”

“I BMX biked. It was quite some fun, even though I did get injured,” David Webber of Gladstone said. “I suggest, if anybody gets the chance to go as a scout, to do it. It’s pretty much a life-changing experience.”

The national jamboree takes place every four years.