The East Coast Festival of Strenuosity
In 2019 I joined a group called The Strenuous Life - strenuouslife.co . “The Strenuous Life is an online/offline platform that helps members learn new skills, pursue new interests, and improve themselves in body, mind, and spirit.” It’s sort of like Boy Scouts for adults, but more self-directed. When I first joined, I was doing things by myself, but eventually met up with another member, Dustin, who had moved to Japan. Meanwhile in the US, a lot of local and regional groups were springing up and organizing events ranging from one day meet-ups to 5-day long camps. And thus, in 2022, I joined my first “Festival of Strenuosity”. I had such a blast that I returned this year, and all expectations were met and exceeded!
Day One - Thursday Aug. 8th
I drove 3 hours up to Bald Eagle State Park, which is just 30 minutes up the road from Penn State University and State College. The park is huge, with a large reservoir in the middle and campsites on both sides. Being the strenuous type, the group always camps in the “rustic” side, where the campsites have no power, no lights, and just pit toilets and water spigots.
The first night is mostly a time to get your camp set up. There is an opening ceremony where we put the ash from the previous festival into our campfire and we recognize members’ achievements during the precious year, whether that is something inside or outside the program.
Of course, the first night was when hurricane Debbie was scheduled to blow through the area. It was very rainy, but not too windy because our campsites were canopied by thick forest, so other than some pooling water that Dustin trenched out, our tents weathered the storm just fine.
Day Two - Friday Aug. 9
Events at ECFoS are member organized and led. We had about 22 people there this year and there was an amazing variety of members who shared some of their passions and expertise with the group.
Shakespeare in the Park -
Paul is a thespian by trade, and he selected various scenes from Shakespeare plays for us to briefly practice and perform. My group did a scene from the Tempest. It really brought me back to my high school theater days.
Muskets and more -
In the afternoon we moved venue to a State Game Land shooting range north of State College. Various members brought a large variety of handguns and rifles for members to practice with. We had several members with firearms instructor credentials and almost everybody had some level of range experience.
I got to shoot about 16 or 17 different firearms, we did 10 yards for pistols and 20 (25?) yards for rifles. Two highlights for me were shooting Alex’s replica Colonial-era musket and shooting Dustin’s ultra-modern AR. The technology has come a long way.
We had a mid-shoot visit from a Pennsylvania State Game Commission officer, but once we showed our range permits, we continued on with our practice.
The stars at night, are big and bright… -
Around 10:30 pm, we went to a campsite that we specifically rented for the purpose of astronomy, since our usual sites are totally covered by tall trees.
We had a great view of the Perseid meteor shower, as well as Saturn rising from the horizon. We practiced identifying the North Star, Polaris, and how to tell the hour of night using Polaris and the Big Dipper.
The sky was dark enough that we could see the Milky Way with the naked eye, which you need a very low level of light pollution to see.
Day Three - Saturday Aug. 10
Even though our dirt campsites remained a muddy mess, the weather was finally clear and gorgeous all day long. Dustin went full-on camp cook mode with his Dutch oven, making cinnamon rolls in the morning and deep-dish pizza at night. The final night he also made a fabulous peach cobbler that I nearly missed because it got scooped up so fast.
Strenlympics -
We split into teams of four and had a mini competition. The events were: fire building (all the wood and tinder were very wet), fireman’s carry relay, BFR (big freakin’ rock) relay, and a low crawl race. My team finished number one overall, but we only played for pride, no prizes.
We took a break from camp food and had lunch a the local pizza place in Howard.
Clouds and Trees -
We had an excellent talk from Ben about using clouds and wind to help predict local weather and spent some time identifying local trees in the park.
Wood carving -
In the evening, we relaxed around the campfire while doing some wood carving. Micheal brought all of his many tools and wood blocks for everybody. Last time I carved a spoon, this time I worked on a “try stick” which is simply a stick where you practice different wood carving techniques. I practiced rounding one end and squaring the other.
Many serious and absurd conversations were had around the campfire until deep into the night.
Day Four - Sunday Aug. 11
Flag Football -
A fairly official flag football game with real flag belts and field cones. We lost 3-2 (I think) and I got a hard elbow to the head and tweaked a hamstring, but had a great time along the way.
Meshtatic -
It was finally my time to contribute and lead a session. I chose to introduce the group to the LoRa Meshtastic radios that I have been building for the past several months. It’s too long to explain here, but Google it if you are interested. I brought 5 radios and people took turns connecting them to their phones to test out the messaging and gps capabilities. I was pleased with the reception my talk got, because I wasn’t sure if people would be interested in that topic or not.
Martial Arts -
There was a martial arts session mostly run by Chris and Brian, who do BJJ (Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu). They covered some basics like positioning and back control, so we all got to choke each other out.
I contributed by talking about self-defense awareness and covered some very basic Kajukenbo punching, blocking and stances.
The Legalities of Self Defense -
Dustin found the only public power outlets in the park and gave an excellent power point presentation on various aspects of both the criminal and civil ramifications of using force for self-defense. The group had many pertinent questions and opinions on the subject.
The final night we had an “empty your coolers” community cookout at the central campsite fire and a heartfelt closing ceremony, where we received our official 2024 ECFoS patch. Folks who were not leaving super early hung out until we were out of firewood and the fire was down to embers.
Monday morning is just clean up and goodbyes, with promises of gathering again in a year or sooner.
It’s amazing how such a busy event held while roughing it for four nights can make me feel so refreshed and invigorated. I look forward to going again next year!
