Council Merger

Effective January 1, 2013, the Monterey Bay Area Council and the Santa Clara County Council have merged to form the Silicon Valley Monterey Bay Council (SVMBC). The new, combined council is headquartered in San Jose but a Scout shop and service center has been opened on North Main in Salinas. The SVMBC now owns three Scout camps: Hi-Sierra in the Sierra Nevada off of Highway 108 north of Yosemite, Chesebrough Scout Reservation in the Santa Cruz Mountians, and Pico Blanco Scout Reservation.

The question you all probably have is, "what does this mean for Pico?"

Hopefully good things. The SVMBC has taken great interest in the camp and has already been working to improve it. One new feature is the camp website:
http://www.camppicoblanco.org/
This website is under construction so stay tuned for new features.

The Pico spirit is as strong as ever. The merger is simply an administrative change that will benefit the camp. Scouting is Scouting, the redwood trees still tower over camp, the Pico Dust still fills out lungs, and the Little Sur River still flows.

Register your unit for summer camp 2012!

Boy Scout Resident Camp will run for 3 weeks

Week 1: July 8-14

Week 2: July 15-21

Week 3: July 22-28

Cub Scout Dates will be posted soon on this post. Check back for updates

Site Reservation Form

Happy New Year!

We wish you a Happy New Year and hope all is well with your unit. We look forward to seeing you this summer or throughout the year.

Despite all that changes in the world:

"Today, Pico Blanco Scout Reservation stands on this land, set aside to the sole end that it is preserved as a primitive area where the American boy can have the inestimable experience of untouched wilderness and unspoiled natural beauty. It is a reservation for boys, away from civilization, intended to offset the softening influence of our modern social life, and to help in the development of America’s future men to be self-reliant, of strong character, and physically fit." -Men In The Making by Alfred Young"

Fire Restrictions Lifted

Effective Monday, November 14, fire restrictions have been lifted and open fires are now allowed in the backcountry. A free California Campfire Permit is still required. Please be careful with fire (it's part of the Outdoor Code) as there are still long periods of dryness in the winter.

CLICK HERE to print out a California Campfire Permit

Forest Order

Year Round Use of Pico Blanco

Does your group, company, organization, or Scout Unit want to camp in the Big Sur River? Pico Blanco Scout Reservation is a great place to camp and can be reserved year round. The camp offers facilities such as the newly completed Hayward Lodge and Mazzuca Campfire Bowl, a medical lodge, platform tents, a nature lodge, a chapel, and 12 spacious campsites. Pico Blanco is also located at a Forest Service trailhead, offering opportunities for hiking in the Los Padres National Forest and Ventana Wilderness. Rates vary by group size and facilities used, so it is very affordable.

Please fill out the following form to reserve Pico Blanco Scout Reservation for your Scout or non-Scout group:

Pico Blanco Year Round Use

In addition, hikers who wish to use Pico Blanco as a trailhead and avoid hiking 4 miles on the camp road each way from Bottchers Gap can call the council office in Salinas at 831-422-5338 for a parking permit. The rate is $8/day instead of $5/day at Bottchers Gap, which is a great deal in that it saves 1-2 hours of steep hiking in each direction.

The Hayward Lodge dining hall, photo credit: Jim Bowels

USFS Backcountry Fire Restrictions

It's that time of year again. While we were blessed with a wet and extended winter, the Los Padres National Forest has ordered backcountry fire restrictions. Normally this happens 1-2 month earlier.

The restriction that would really effect you is that there may be no open fires, campfires, or charcoal fires are allowed outside of designated campfire use sites such as a car campground like Bottchers Gap. If you are in the backcountry, you may still use a gas stove as long as you carry a free campfire permit. These are available at any USFS or CalFire facility such as from Larry at Bottchers Gap, Big Sur Station, or the Carmel Hill Fire Station or may be printed by following the link at the bottom of this post.

This order mainly affects you if you plan to travel into the backcountry. At Pico Blanco Scout Reservation, we still allow fires under our special Campfire Use Policy. This will be provided to you upon arrival.

While fires can be a great addition to a camping trip, we also must think back to 2008 when we almost lost our camp due to wildfire. As Scouts, we must do our part in protecting our environment.

The order will remain in effect until there has been sufficient rainfall forestwide (from the Ventura/Los Angeles County Line to Carmel). This is usually in November.

LPNF Order 11-02

Effective August 18, 2011

California Campfire Permit

New Monterey Bay Area Council Website

The council has done an overhaul of their website and the url is a bit easier to remember. It is now http://mbacbsa.org.

The Summer Season has Started!

The 2009 Camping season is upon us, so expect a lot more updates in the coming months.
Expect a ton of pictures including fire damage and a ginormous amount of albino redwood newgrowth.

A Quick Little Update

Life has been quite busy in the past month, so crew and camp activity on my part has stagnated a bit. But I am finally getting my act together as Secretary of 699. Expect pictures and some info about the Staff Reunion. I'm also gonna try to drag in some more contributors.

Hey kids!

If you have any strong ties to PBSR, be it as a former staffer, camper, scoutmaster or the like, this blog would love to have your input. Email me at christopher.basil.jon.sandoval@gmail.com if you would like to contribute to this blog or are interested in making another camp specific blog within the network. Every little bit helps.
Specifically, this project will fare much better if we have a mix of perspective, and more importantly, photos. A lack of pictures on the council website was an impetus in this blog's creation. So please, if you have photos of camp and camp activities, please contribute them! Full credit will be given to the photographer.
We've just hit the offseason and a certain momentum is going to be required to fully promote camp, especially considering recent events with the fire. Many of us aren't in a good position to contribute physically or even financially right now, but anybody with a history at camp can help tell its story.

Viva la compagnie! (not the song)

Today, I added our blog network's first collaborator, the almighty Liz Lucas. In the near future, the plan is to have many more people involved with this project so that we can digitally recreate a camp community that transcends our shared geographic obstacles.

That said, in order to convey information properly, a certain unison will be required in order to avoid disorganization and atrophy.

Firstly, this is a blog regarding things pertinent to Camp Pico Blanco in general. There are other blogs in the network, and hopefully more will be added. So, if you have an interesting how to guide to build the perfect campfire, contribute it to the Scoutcraft blog, not here. The same goes for crew 699 business. If you have something to contribute that doesn't fit within any of the established blogs, you are more than welcome to create your own and add it to the network, specifically for the interests of the other areas in camp like nature or aquatics.

So, what should be added to this blog? That answer is found by going back to the details of a Crew 699 meeting in camp at the end of staff week. It was determined by the crew members that the council website has been insufficient with its promotion of camp. As camp staffers, we are in a better position to provide all the juicy details about how awesome our neck of the woods is. So it was decided to work on some sort of promotional material to distribute around and garner interest in Camp Pico Blanco. Later that summer, I came up with the idea of utilizing digital collaboration methods in order to help Crew 699 maintain activity in the off season and keep its momentum running throughout the year. And thus, I started the blog network. This particular weblog is to achieve the means of a crew goal from that meeting.

This blog's purpose to to promote Camp Pico Blanco as well as its traditions and history. Therefore, only posts that follow that statement will be kept posted.

For organizational structure, certain tags are to be followed. So far, we have the News tag for developing information regarding camp, a Songbook tag for the songs, and an Admin tag for administrative notices such as this post. If a new tag is needed, go ahead and make a new one, but all posts will be subject to retagging.

As for grammar and syntax, don't worry too much. If you have something important to contribute, go ahead and contribute. We'll get around to fixing errors like that eventually. It's better to have vital news littered with spelling and grammatical errors than to have no news at all.

In regards to opinion posts, those are welcome in the posts and comment sections, for now. If you have an opinion post, please tag it as such. This is all subject to change if things get ugly or if people start trying to pass opinion as news.

And so, I welcome you all to the Camp Pico Blanco Blog!