The 2008 Longbow Campout

Now Scheduled Its 41st Year
It comes sooner than you think:

Start: Monday, July 28th, 2008
End: Thursday, August 7th, 2008

Longbow Camp out is some members' favorite Mensa event. A longstanding Oregon Mensa tradition, it's a much-anticipated high point of the year for vacationing Ms from all over the West.

Longbow doesn't mean roughing it; unless you consider anything more primitive than a Holiday Inn to be too rough. Actually, if you are squeamish about camping where there's no plumbing, it's best you don't attend. The rest of us don't want to listen to you groan and moan all day about your hair. (chortle)

For the rest of you, Longbow is an Organizational Camp. Therein lies the key to its wonderfulness. Organizational Camps are not open to the public. An Org Camp is rented only to groups or organizations, and only to one group or organization at a time. The result is a camping experience that is an enormous improvement over your typical public campground environment. At Longbow, it's just us Mensans.

Longbow offers swimming, hiking, nature study, conversation, gaming, and best of all, pure no-regrets vegging at times of your own choosing. You can't snore loud enough to scare off the chipmunks. Longbow provides an opportunity to catch up on all those books you've been piling up in that mean- to-read stack. Bring the stack and watch it shrink.

Longbow provides six three-sided bunkhouses sleeping up to eight in each. There are a few sites on the grounds suitable for tents. The camp has a large central covered area with cooking space and two massive log tables for eating, gaming and other forms of fellowship. There's a pantry for food storage, but the occasional rodent or riverine visits make it prudent to have all your food in well-sealed containers.

You should plan to bring:

Sleeping bag or bedroll
Food to last your stay, including camp stoves and utensils
Books and games
A minimum of one flashlight per person in your party
One folding chair per person (optional)

Longbow is pretty inexpensive, and gets cheaper the larger the group. The total cost for the camp and firewood generally runs about $67 a night. Divided up among, say, 20 people, that's under 4 bucks per head per night.

The campground is located some twenty-odd miles east of Sweet Home off Highway 20. Getting there is simple; just watch for Milepost 46 - a right turn within yards of that marker puts you on the gravel road, and the next two well-signed lefts bring you to the camp.

You do not need to make advance arrangements. The reservations were made, and paid for, last summer. You do not need permission from the Longbow Coordinator (or your mother) to attend. You may contact the Coordinator if you want more information.

W. Brewster Gillett
Longbow Coordinator
P.O. Box 3707
Portland, OR 97208-3707
(503) 245-3707
E-Mail: bg@fdi.us