Summer Camp

Who it's for

Scouts BSA troops, camping as units. Scouts of every rank — a first-year camper working on the foundational skills and a sixteen-year-old finishing an Eagle-required badge are both in the right place.

What happens during the week

Camp Pirtle offers a wide array of learning activities and Scouting fun. Scouts build a personal schedule across the program areas:

• Aquatics — swimming, boating and small-craft handling on Lake Murvaul, plus the pool. GWP's lakefront setting is genuinely unusual; many camps cannot train Scouts on watercraft at all.
• Shooting sports — archery, rifle and shotgun at the camp's ranges, under qualified range staff.
• Climbing — for Scouts ready to get off the ground.
• Nature studies — in a deep East Texas pinewoods forest that does most of the teaching for you.
• Handicraft — the crafts that send something home with them.
• Outdoor skills — cooking, camping, pioneering, orienteering. The core of it.

Evenings belong to the whole camp: opening and closing campfires, troop time, and the traditions that Scouts remember decades later.

First-year campers

A Scout's first week at camp sets whether they stay in the program. New Scouts work through the foundational skills as a group, at a pace that assumes nothing, so they go home having genuinely earned what they earned.

Leaders

Units provide their own two-deep leadership for the week and camp in their own site. Adult leaders eat in the dining hall with their unit, and there is a leaders' meeting each morning. Camp staff runs the program; you run your troop.

What to bring

The full packing list is in the Leader's Guide once it is posted. The Plan Your Visit page has the general list — the essentials are a current BSA health and medical record, both uniforms, bedding, rain gear, closed-toe shoes, a refillable water bottle, and a swimsuit and towel for the waterfront.

Cost

Fees, early-bird pricing and the deposit schedule are set each year and published with the event on the council calendar. Camperships are typically available for Scouts who need help — ask your unit leader or the council office early rather than late.