Camping Wente

After several years of Hi-Sierra and conflicts with summer school and little league, the troop decided to try a different camp in August. After reviewing a lot of different camps, we thought that Wente provided some major differences.

Some key things about Wente:

2,200 acre campgrounds
80-acre warm-water lake
Fishing for bass and bluegills
Large corral with horseback riding
Real rocks to climb and rappel
Kayaking, canoeing, rowing and sailing is offered
White water merit badge is available on the Russian River
Large covered open air dining hall
Wente issues a new patch each year. This year's patch featured a bat and the lake and celebrated the 40th year as a summer camp.

Wente is also known for their Kali Ama posts. They give you a topo map with numbers on it and you hike to find it. When you arrive at the spot, you'll find a stamp suspending from a red orange stake and you use it to stamp the map to indicate that you've found the spot. For the Kali Ama, there were 15 posts. The farthest ones out were about 2 1/2 miles from camp. Hiking the Kali Ama provided great exercise, a chance to see the scenery, but was really time-consuming. Besides the Kali Ama, there's the King Kali Ama and you need to complete the Kali Ama before they give you the map for the King.

Finney Valley Award. The award is named after the lumber company that harvested timber from the site. As with many other summer camps, you earn different ranks based on tenure and accomplishing different requirements. All 23 scouts and 3 adults attained the "Choke Setter" for first year campers at Wente.

Wente offered 43 merit badges ranging from archery to horsemanship. They also had many activities organized as 'outposts' including overnight trail rides, rock climbing and white water rafting. Our scouts earned 66 merit badges at Wente with 11 rank advancements. We had two patrols manned for Wente and both earned Honor Patrol status and the unit earned the Honor Troop award.

The troop participated on a lunch-across-the-lake, black powder shooting, rock climbing, two service projects and a rifle shoot. We also took care of the evening colors on the final night of camp. We were the only troop that played bugles during the colors and also had one of our scouts lead grace for dinner that night.

The troop also participated in the Wentathalon, a relay race that included running, kayaking, archery and swimming. Our scouts finished 2nd in their heat.

Map to Wente Scout Reserve: http://www.sfbac.org/files/images/camping/Map_-_MapToWente_2012.pdf

Map of Wente Scout Reserve: http://www.sfbac.org/files/images/map_of_wente_with_stamos_lake_labeled.pdf (Be sure to check the map's compass to get the proper orientation)

SFBAC website for Wente: http://wentescoutreservation.org/

Trip report by one of our scouts: Wente

Overall, we had a great time, both scouts and adult leaders!!!! Two thumbs up!