Diamond Fork Hot Springs Campout

We did our annual November Hot Springs Campout this year at Diamond Fork Hot Springs.  When we go there, we typically camp at the campgrounds nearby, and hike up to the springs Saturday morning early.  But this year there were so many scout groups camping nearby, that we were afraid there wouldn't be any room in the springs when we got there in the morning.  Other troops do the same thing, going up in the morning.
So we got camp setup, and had dinner, then we drove to the trailhead and hiked the 2 miles to the springs in the evening.  We got there around 8pm, and pretty much had the place to ourselves till around 9:30 when the night life co'ed's started coming.  By then we had gotten out and were changed and ready to hike back home!  (good thing too since the newcomers weren't dressed as modestly as we would like, and lit up smokes as soon as they got there).

2 of the pools at Diamond Fork

So we hiked back down to the trailhead and drove back to camp.  Back at camp, our neighbor in the campground had a tent trailer, and was apparently cold, cause he had his very loud generator running almost the whole night!  So we didn't worry about staying up till midnight roasting twinkies around the fire, we could barely hear ourselves over the generator, we weren't keeping anyone else awake.
Saturday morning we got up, cleaned up camp, had breakfast, and played a game of ultima frisbee before driving home - all the while glad that we were done with the hot springs and didn't have to fight the other scout troops that were heading up there for a spot!

Lumberjack Campout

Last year we did a Lumberjack Campout where we camped near where we could harvest firewood (with a permit, which we had).  We had some families in our neighborhood that needed firewood to heat their house for the winter, so we cut 4 cords of firewood and brought it to them and some other families.

That was one of our scout's favorite campouts last year, so we did it again this year!
We had the leaders working with the chainsaws to cut up the logs, and then the boys hauled it to the trailers, and split the wood before stacking it in the trailer.  We were able to take about 80% of the wood back home already split (the leaders helped split some)!  They were working hard!

It was UEA Weekend, so they didn't have school on Friday.  We were able to leave early and get started working Friday early.  We got all the firewood cut split and loaded on Friday, then drove down into the nearest town and played wallyball at the rec center, and then swam and sat in the hot tub to soothe our aching muscles from a hard day's work.  Then we drove back up the mountain to camp, had our campfire and went to bed.

Then next morning we had a lumberjack breakfast (pancakes, eggs and sausage), and packed up and came home.  Before dropping off everyone we unloaded the trailers and stacked the wood for the families that needed it.

It was fun to go on a trip that was centered around work, and to have the boys enjoy it!  They enjoyed working hard!  I think they're too sheltered and don't get to work hard very often, but they enjoyed it on this trip!

A Century of Honor

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is celebrating that they've been a part of Boy Scouts of America for 100 years now!  They are having a celebration titled "A Century of Honor" on October 29th with a program that's going to be awesome!

They have a Eagle Scout Choir of 394 Eagle Scouts that will be singing songs written for the event, and lots of awesome stuff!  I just found out that I get to be on that choir!  I'm pretty excited!

For more information, go to:
http://scouts100.lds.org/

Jamboral

We went to the council camp Jamboral last weekend and had a blast!  There were so many troops there!  They gave each boy a set of 15 trading cards that were all the same, and challenged them to go out and trade cards with the other 14 districts to get 15 different cards!  The cards were different Scout Handbook covers through the years, so it was fun to see what they looked like back to 1910!  And it got the boys talking to other scouts from other troops!

Lots of scouts, and this is just one camping area out of 20!

At the Jamboral they had tons of booths with stuff to do, some of the ones that looked the most fun were the slack line, BMX Racing, Bike Riding on the racetrack, and the color run. 

The color run was an obstacle course (probably close to 1/2 mile long) that had places where they threw colored chalk at you as you ran by.  We were covered in chalk by the end of the course, and we had a blast!  We had to climb over walls and hay bales, crawl thru tunnels, climb nets to ring a bell at the top, climb ropes, swing across things, pull a spare tire across a gravel yard and back, etc.  It was really well done, and a lot of fun!

National Outdoor Award

So our troop is working on the National Outdoor Award through BSA right now.  I put together all the camping nights and miles hiked, and requirements necessary to get the badges, and we should have 5 boys earning the Camping Segment at our Court of Honor at the end of the month!
The badge requirements are:

The five National Outdoor Awards badges recognize a Boy Scout or Varsity Scout who demonstrates knowledge and experience in camping, hiking, aquatics,riding, or adventure. Scouts earning the National Outdoor Awards badges have demonstrated that they are knowledgeable, safe, and comfortable in the outdoor activity covered by the badge.

National Outdoor Awards badges may be earned in the following areas:

Camping. A Boy Scout or Varsity Scout may earn the National Outdoor Badge for Camping upon successfully completing the following requirements:

1. Earn the First Class rank.
2. Earn the Camping merit badge.
3. Earn two of the following three merit badges: Cooking, First Aid, Pioneering.
4. Complete 25 days and nights of camping—including six consecutive days (five nights) of resident camping, approved and under the auspices and standards of the Boy Scouts of America—including nights camped as part of requirements 1 through 3 above.

A gold device may be earned for each additional 25 nights of camping. A silver device is earned for each additional 100 nights of camping. The Scout may wear any combination of devices totaling his current number of nights camping.

Hiking. A Boy Scout or Varsity Scout may earn the National Outdoor Badge for Hiking upon successfully completing the following requirements:

1. Earn the First Class rank.
2. Earn the Hiking and Orienteering merit badges.
3. Complete 100 miles of hiking or backpacking under the auspices of the Boy Scouts of America, including miles hiked as part of requirement 2.

A gold device may be earned for each additional 50 miles hiked. A silver device is earned for each additional 200 miles of hiking. The Scout may wear any combination of devices totaling his current number of miles hiking.

Aquatics. A Boy Scout or Varsity Scout may earn the National Outdoor Badge for Aquatics upon successfully completing the following requirements:

1. Earn the First Class rank.
2. Earn the Swimming and Lifesaving merit badges.
3. Earn the Mile Swim BSA Award.
4. Earn at least one of the following merit badges: Canoeing, Kayaking, Rowing, Small-Boat Sailing, Whitewater. Complete at least 25 hours of on-the-water time, applying the skills that you learned in the merit badges.
5. Complete at least 50 hours of any combination of swimming, canoeing, kayaking, rowing, small-boat sailing, or whitewater activity under the auspices of the Boy Scouts of America, including time spent in requirements 2 through 4.

A gold device may be earned for each additional 25 hours of aquatic activity. A silver device is earned for each additional 100 hours of aquatic activity. The Scout may wear any combination of devices totaling his current number of hours of aquatic activity.

Riding. A Boy Scout or Varsity Scout may earn the National Outdoor Badge for Riding upon successfully completing the following requirements:

1. Earn the First Class rank.
2. Complete at least one of the following:

1. Cycling merit badge and 100 miles of cycling; or
2. Horsemanship merit badge and 50 miles of horseback riding.

• Complete 200 miles of riding activities, either on a non-motorized bike or a stock animal, under the auspices of the Boy Scouts of America, including the miles in requirement 2.

A gold device may be earned for each additional 100 miles of riding. A silver device is earned for each additional 400 miles of riding. The Scout may wear any combination of devices totaling his current number of miles of riding.

Adventure. A Boy Scout or Varsity Scout may earn the National Outdoor Badge for Adventure upon successfully completing the following requirements:

1. Earn the First Class rank.
2. Complete the Wilderness Survival, Search and Rescue, or Emergency Preparedness merit badge.
3. Complete 10 of any combination or repetition of the following adventure activities under the auspices of the Boy Scouts of America:

1. A backpacking trip lasting three or more days and covering more than 20 miles without food resupply
2. A canoeing, rowing, or sailing trip lasting three or more days and covering more than 50 miles without food resupply
3. A whitewater trip lasting two or more days and covering more than 20 miles without food resupply
4. A climbing activity on open rock, following Climb On Safely principles, that includes camping overnight
5. Earn the National Historic Trails Award.
6. Earn the 50-Miler Award.
7. Attend any national high-adventure base or any nationally recognized local high-adventure or specialty-adventure program.

Items 3a-g may be repeated as desired. A single activity that satisfies multiple items in 3a-g may be counted as separate activities at the discretion of the unit leader. Similarly, a single activity that doubles an item in 3a-d may be counted as two activities at the discretion of the unit leader. A gold device may be earned for each additional five activities. A silver device is earned for each additional 20 activities. The Scout may wear any combination of devices totaling his current number of activities.

Pioneer Trek 2013

I am a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, and live in Utah.  150+ years ago Latter Day Saint (LDS) pioneers walked over 1,000 miles to cross the plains to settle Utah.  Every few years the youth in our area get the chance to see - even if just a little - what it was like for those pioneers for 3 days.  They pull handcarts for 3 days in the plains of Wyoming, and sleep out under the stars (or under a tarp).  It's a great experience for the youth and leaders as we remember the hardships our pioneer ancestors went through to get to a place where they could worship in peace.

The first day of the trip the youth are split up into families, each of them being a brother or sister in a family.  They try to put them with "siblings" that they don't even know.  My wife and I got the chance to be "Ma's and Pa's" of 5 teenage boys and 4 teenage girls.  We were so excited!

We had the best kids!  We walked a total of 20 miles, and cooked our own food (mostly, there was a food committee that prepared stuff and gave it to us in boxes for us to cook to simplify), and slept on the hard ground with no pads, and we never heard a complaint!  They were awesome!

10 Mile Hike for Hiking Merit Badge

I had a scout last week ask me if I could do a 10 mile hike with him for his Hiking Merit Badge.  He has the 20 mile hike done, and 3 of the 10 mile hikes done, so we only need to do 2 more.  I told him I would have time Saturday morning from 5:30AM to 11:00AM before a family reunion, thinking he might not want to get up that early on a Saturday, but he said that sounded good to him!  So I was able to get another scout leader to join us, and we met at my house at 5:30 am, and drove to the trailhead an hiked 10 miles in 3 hours!  We were done way before 11, but really got to enjoy the sunrise, and quiet serenity of the mountains in the early morning.
I really enjoyed it!

High Adventure 2013 - Yellowstone Canyons Area

On the last day of our week long High Adventure to Yellowstone National Park we went to the Canyon area of Yellowstone.  The Grand Canyon of Yellowstone is a beautiful canyon with 2 beautiful waterfalls and definitely worth the visit!

Lower Falls in Yellowstone

We checked out the view from the view points along the north rim, and hiked down to the brink of the lower falls.  It was amazing to be that close to the edge as that much water went over the falls!

Then we hiked the South Rim Trail from the start, down the the Artist Point Lookout, then looped around by Clear Lake and back up to the top where we were parked.  It was a beautiful hike!  Every corner you turned gave a new, awesome view!

High Adventure 2013 - Yellowstone Old Faithful Area!

We got up early (4:45am) because we knew that the Old Faithful area gets busy!  We brought muffins to eat once we got there, and loaded up into the vehicles.  It took a little longer to get going than we had hoped, but were still able to get to Old Faithful just before 6am!  The drive in was so peaceful!  We saw only 1 other vehicle on the road the whole way in.  It was like we had the park to ourselves!

One of our leaders found a website that posts the latest geyser eruptions and the predicted times for the next eruption, and since there is 3G internet in the Old Faithful Area (not so much anywhere else), we were able to use a smart phone to hit all the right spots at the right times to maximize our geyser viewing enjoyment!  The site is www.geysertimes.org and it helped us a lot!

Of course we had to go see Old Faithful and watch it go off.  The window they gave us was like 6:40 plus or minus 17 minutes.  So we got there 20 minutes early, and ended up waiting almost 40 minutes for it to go.  It was impressive to watch it go off, but we enjoyed watching others more.  Our favorite was Beehive Geyser.  It's only like 25 feet off the boardwalk, and hit has a little geyser next to it that goes off a little before Beehive does.  We waited there and watched it go off, and the wind changed directions and it actually soaked us!  By the time the water goes up 150 feet and comes back down the water was cold, but it was still fun!

Beehive Geyser

We ended up getting to see quite a few geysers!  We saw:

• Lion
• Anenome
• Beehive
• Old Faithful
• Riverside
• Daisy

We walked all the way up to Morning Glory Pool:

Morning Glory

And we got to see our only sign of bear on the whole trip!  We saw bear tracks right alongside the boardwalk!

Bear Tracks along the Old Faithful Boardwalk

After our time in on the boardwalk, we checked out the Old Faithful Lodge - it's pretty cool to check out! It so creative how they made almost everything in there out of logs!

Then it was getting crowded and hard to find parking, so we made one stop on the way back to camp, then called it a day!

High Adventure 2013 - Yellowstone Mammoth Area!

After our 2 days of backcountry backpacking, we decided to see some of the other sights that Yellowstone is known for.  There's no way you can see everything in Yellowstone in a week, so we had to pick and choose what we would go to see.  We decided to visit:

• Mammoth Area Wednesday
• Old Faithful Area Thursday
• Canyon Area Friday
• Then come home on Saturday.

In Mammoth, we didn't get an early start, so by the time we got to Mammoth it was already getting very busy!  With 3 vehicles trying to find a parking spot it makes it hard!  We were able to park by and walk the boardwalks over Mammoth Springs.  Mammoth Hot Springs is a huge hill of travertine left over from the sediments in springs on the hill.  They say that the sediment grows 3 feet per year in some places!  There was quite a bit of boardwalks, and we were able to see quite a lot of the spring!  It was fun to see all the different colors, but next time we need to make sure everyone has sunglasses, cause most of the hill is white, and bright!

Mammoth Springs

After Mammoth, we went into the "town" of Mammoth and had our sack lunch on the lawn.  We were able to watch the Elk that were walking around town like they owned the place, and we enjoyed the shade under the trees (it was already pretty hot!).

Then we went to the Boiling River.  It's a spot where a hot spring dumps into the river and they've created a soaking area, where the spring dumps in on one side, and the river dumps in on the other so you can pick the temperature you want to soak in - it ranges from too hot to handle, to too cold to handle!  There's a 1/2 mile hike to the soaking spot, and it's very busy and well known, but it was worth going to cool off, and soak for awhile!

Boiling River

After that it was too busy so we worked our way back to camp.  We did stop at the Artists Paint Pots and did the 1/2 mile walk there to see the boiling mud, and we stopped at another point, but we wanted to get back to camp so we could get dinner over with quickly and get to bed early.  We planned to get up at 4:45AM the next morning to hit Old Faithful!

High Adventure 2013 - Yellowstone National Park!

This year for High Adventure we went to Yellowstone National Park for a week.  We started out the week with an overnighter backpacking trip into the backcountry to Union Falls in the lower portion of the park.  This required back country permits and reservations, but it was worth it!  We backpacked in 6-7 miles to our reseved campsites, and spend the night, then did a day hike to Union Falls, the second tallest waterfall in the park!

Union Falls

After Union Falls we hiked back down and over to Scout Pool (also known as Ouzel Pool) to soak in the warm river there, sit under the waterfall, and jump off the rocks into the water.  After trying over and over again to swim upcurrent to the waterfall (you can go on the sides, holding the rocks, but we like to challenge ourselves), one of the scouts found out that you can drop down to the bottom of the river and swim along the rocks at the bottom up to the waterfall quite easily.  So we started doing that for fun and a challenge.

Scout Pool

After getting our fill with the falls there, we hiked back to our campsite, had lunch and backpacked back to the vehicles.  

So what was so amazing about this trip?  We did it with our scout with Spina Bifida, so we carried him the entire way!  We used our scout carrier to pack him up there and back, but that means that he, plus the two carriers don't have backpacks.  That meant we had to spread the weight of three people's equipment into the other packs.  Most people had their stuff plus someone else's stuff (I had all mine plus another sleeping bag for someone else).  Then as we went, we traded off on the scout carrier and with the packs.  It was an awesome experience!  It was very difficult for some of those involved, but that's what makes it amazing!  It WAS HARD, but everyone did it anyway, and nobody complained!  It was an awesome trip!

Musings

Ahem.  Yep, I just finished my BSA Physical for High Adventure. Passed with flying colors even!  Except for one small thing.  My doctor asked if I regularly exercise. . .
I gave my doctor my exercise routine: "I climb the stairs at work instead of taking the elevator, and a week ago I backpacked 8 miles." (don't tell the doc that my work only has 2 floors, and no elevator).  Doc said, "so you're active, but do you exercise?"

So now my doc's got me wondering what I should be doing to stay in shape (more than once a month at campouts).

I can still out backpack, out hike, out climb out swim any of my scouts (even the 17-18 year olds).  But I need to start exercising.  I used to jog, but my knees can't take it anymore.  I think I'll start biking in the mornings, but that means getting up earlier (I already get up at 5:40am).

We'll see how it goes, but I am going to try to be better.

Little Sahara Sand Dunes 2013

We made it to Little Sahara Sand Dunes again this year and had a blast!  I was able to take my "new" Suburban, and pull the scout trailer as can be seen below.  I got 13 mpg pulling the trailer.  Not as good as I had hoped, but pretty good when you consider I can have 9 people inside.

Once we got there and set up tents we played some football on the sand for awhile then had dinner.  Our typical dinner is to have everyone bring a can of stew, mix it all together and heat it up.  The troop provides rolls and something to roast over the fire for dessert.  The boys (on their own) have decided that Dinty Moore stew is the best, with the biggest chunks of meat, and it usually comes with a handy pop top so they don't have to use a can opener.

We had to deviate from the usual fire roasting dessert this time.  We have in the past brought Twinkies and roasted them over the fire.  They get carmelly and crispy on the outside and it's really quite good!  But since we couldn't get Twinkies right now, we decided to try Cloud Cakes from Little Debbie:

They were actually just about the same as a Hostess Twinkie, so our dessert tradition is preserved!
We didn't bring hot dog sticks, and there aren't any trees or sticks out there, so we got creative with our sticks, carving them out of slices of wood from the firewood:

They worked pretty well as long as you switched hands often so you didn't burn your hand.

We played capture the flag out in the dunes at night, and this time we moved the flags further away from each other and had the guards move further away from the flags and jails.  Sometimes we're too close together and people just stand around looking at each other instead of trying to get the flag.  This time there was a lot of sneaking around around sand hills and such to get to the flags.  It was a lot of fun!

Unfortunately the 4-wheelers thought that they owned the sand and kept driving right through the "field" even though they knew we were there, and there was tons of other places they could go.  Next time we'll try to go somewhere that is less of a 4-wheeler haven.

Suburban

For the longest time my biggest challenge has been to find drivers for campouts that require a truck and four wheel drive. One campout we borrowed 3 vehicles for the trip! I've wanted to get me a 4 door truck so I could haul 5-6 boys and haul a bunch of stuff in the back.
Last Fall we bought a scout trailer, and built shelves inside and stocked it up with our equipment, so now we mainly need something to haul boys and pull a trailer (4x4 required of course)
I finally bought myself a "scout mobile"! I bought a 2000 Chevy Suburban that seats 9 people! Is four wheel drive, and has the trailer hitch! Now I can haul nine people and a trailer! I've just simplified my camping tenfold!

Varsity Biathlon

So this year we didn't have enough snow in the regular place we go for snowcave campouts, but we were lucky to be able to go to the Varsity Biathlon that the council was organizing.  We hadn't tried it in the past because it costs $7 per person, but we wanted to give it a try.

They had a race for the boys and leaders to run on snow shoes, with a stop at one spot for them to shoot black powder rifles.  Then after the race the boys could do archery, and throw tomahawks and knives.  Then there was another station for starting a fire with flint and steel, and another for orienteering and geocaching.

At the Black Powder Rifle Range

We took some advice from another person and had someone go up at 3pm to reserve our camping spot.  We got up there by 4pm and were all set up by the time most of the troops were getting there.  Unfortunately we followed the instructions on the website and so we didn't bring firewood.  The site, and the camp flyer said that campfires weren't allowed.  But when we got there everyone had fires but us, and we found out that they do allow fires, as long as they are in the fire pits.

The activities started on Saturday at 9am.  We were luckily scheduled to do the race first thing, because they only had about 20 snowshoes, to go for 400 people!  After we finished our race we saw a line of over 100 people waiting for their chance to get snowshoes!  Unluckily since we were the first to go, the trail wasn't marked well, so some of us took a wrong turn and added another 1/4 mile to the loop!

We did have 3 or so boys that didn't have snow boots, so we had to scramble to get something for them before we left.  But I guess I can't complain too much, because I forgot to bring a coat this time!  I had a hooded sweatshirt, and long sleeved shirt, and snow pants, but no coat.  I was pretty good till about 9pm, then I was getting a little cold, so Bishop lent me another sweatshirt.

It was a good trip!  It was the first time any of our boys had shot a black powder rifle.

Most of us would still rather do a snow cave campout, but it's a good option for when there isn't as much snow!

Eagle Scout Mentor's Pin

Ok, I may just be weird (maybe there's no "maybe" about  it), but I think Eagle Scout Mentor's Pins should be given to someone other than the scout master, or varsity coach.  I have received my fair share of Mentor's Pins through the years, and, while I appreciate them and the appreciation they show, I think they should be going to others.
I've been to Eagle Court of Honor's where the Eagle Candidate gave the pin to an "adopted" grandparent that had mentored him and encouraged him along the way.  That was awesome!
I wish there were more people out there mentoring and encouraging the scouts as they travel down the trail to Eagle.

Everyone knows the scoutmaster does a lot for the boys, but lets honor those that aren't "required" to be helping the boys, but do anyway.

ok, I'll step off my soapbox now.