Snowshoeing below Zero

Gabren, Brent, Bridger, Zack standing above Moose Creek.  Brent told us an interesting thing about the creek which I didn't know.  He said it freezes from the bottom up.  Most creeks don't do that but you could tell he was right.

The bummer was I had so many boys get sick and they missed out.  I hope they get feeling better so that next time we can have a blast.  Zach, Josh and Gabren were strong and came though.  We had the honor of having Bridger Clark and Brent (Zach's dad) Douglas come as well and I was grateful they did.  I had heard Beau was visiting from North Dakota and might come but I was bummed he didn't.  Chase, Dalton and Bowdy were all sick.  Not sure what happened to Kiowa, but maybe it was a good hunting day.  I've been kind of using Bridger as a troop guide and the boys really like him.   Bridger had outgrown his snow boots and so was just wearing regular shoes.  His feet got a little cold but warmed up after running in his snow shoes a ways.  

We met at the church at 11:00 an and then all got in my suburban as I had plenty of room for all.  We then drove to the Moose Canyon road where they stop plowing and got out there.  We had an adventure getting everybody's snowshoes on and matched up with their boots.  I'm really glad Josh borrowed a couple pairs of snowshoes from the Warburtons because they were big enough to handle the bigger boys.  I had mostly small snowshoes from the school.  The funny story is I had gotten all these snowshoes from the school and ended up only needing one pair.

It was quite cold though and obviously below zero.  I got out my warmest bibs and coat, which are heavy, but I was glad I did as I didn't feel the cold much compared to the others.  I sweated a lot walking but once we sat down to each lunch I stayed warm.  I was proud that for the most part everybody was well prepared and if we had gotten lost I was confident we would be ok.

You can see Brent, Bridger, Zach and Gabren on the far side of the corral

We started walking down the road toward the Wilderness area.  I had brought a big backpack full of pots and stoves and some hot chocolate to eat on the trail.  The weight of the pack was quite a bit more than I would normally take on a hike like that.  I was planning on doing some demonstrations with the stoves and different ways to light them but once we got to that point it was too cold to do much.  All I did was set up a wood stove and a handmade pop-can stove and boiled water during lunch.  The wood stove was much more potent than the pop-can stove which only uses alcohol.  I have an idea how to make one which would use something like hand sanitizer as fuel which might last longer.   I will have to do the other demonstrations another day.

We paused and took photos on the bridge crossing the stream and while eating lunch.  The other thing we did while eating lunch was put a stick in the ground to watch the shadow moving a certain way which would show us true north.  Over the last few normal scout meetings we've been talking about ways to find north without using a compass.  I really hope to have these boys prepared if they are ever out in the Wilderness and need to survive.  I think overall it was a good trip, but I wish it hadn't been so cold so we could do a few more things.

That hole would be very cold to jump in.   It just looks deep and ominous and if you fell in it might pin you under.  I wonder what the temperature of the water was.  This is the east side of the bridge. 

Looking on the west side of the bridge.  The water was a really neat aqua color.

Bridger warming maybe under the sun.

Zach and Gabren throwing snow in the creek

We stopped to each lunch here on these big rocks.  As Brent was clearing snow he knocked the tree and a bunch fell on Josh's head.

That looks cold.  Or does it feel refreshing, Josh, after getting all hot walking here?

More snow being knocked off.

Scouts can play music too...

Treven resting on the trombone.  Macey behind him

I decided to post these photos I took of the band concert from the middle school the other day.  I think its important to learn all kinds of things and music is one of them.  Music requires discipline as well as scouting.  Learning music can help these boys become great leaders.  I am impressed with these boys and I look up to them and learn from them.  I am grateful to know them.  I also put some photos of my girls in even though this is for the scouts as this is also somewhat a journal of my life as well.

Bailey and Katy

ditto the last picture only now Treven is getting more tired

Kyle, Evan and Treven.  The only two boys with glasses are Kyle and Evan.  While I never had these boys in scouts I enjoyed going to scout camp with them which is why I posted their photo.

Zach putting some muscle into his trombone

Antonio with the striped tie. Look at the focus.

Kaleb getting his instrument warmed up

Katy

Andrew in the middle

Macey with the cymbals

Macey on the bass drum

Macey on the snare drum

Scouting for Food

Tammy, Jaron,Zach, Tracy, Cash and Chase.  Those that helped around my neck of the woods today.

Today we collected food from the community to provide for those people in need.  This is a program called Scouting for Food.  We had most of the boys participate in either the flyer handout on Tuesday or picking up food today on Saturday.  Typically sometime during the week we will take the flyer which is actually a door knob hanger and hang it on every door within our ward boundaries.  We divide up into teams with a driver and a couple of boys and a map.  We have it organized so that we get all houses.  The only problem with this year is we did not have very many flyers and so we were only able to put them on about half the doors in our area.  This possibly resulted in a little less food this time but its hard to say.  The boys have a good time running and getting barked at by dogs.  One funny thing that happened was Zach picked up a grocery sack full of cans from David Kearsley's house and the bag broke and spilled cans everywhere.  There were a lot of cans, which of course we were greatful for, however it took awhile to carry a few at a time to the truck since it broke so far away.  To drop off the brochures I had Beau and Gabren and they got barked at a few times but it was fun.  Today after we got done dropping off all the food we went and got ice cream at the gas station.  All in all we are grateful to help the community in this way.  I hope if anybody reads this to consider donating food so that we can get a little more next year.  Thanks

New 11 Year Old Scouts

Tucker, Me, Gabren, Beau, Josh and Jaron

This month we are privileged to have some new scouts who have just completed their Arrow of Light award!  As my group has been dwindling in size we began to ask and see how close these young men were to start scouts.  I can't remember what initiated it but me and Brooke the cub leader were talking and she had a dilemma of some sort with her scouts and with my small group, it just seemed like things would work better if we got these boys into my group faster.  The Arrow of Light ceremony was done on Sept. 30.  These boys are eager to go and we want to give them a big welcome!  Notice the paint on their faces that signifies the honor of obtaining the Arrow of Light award.  I can't wait to get to know them better!

Brooke, Gabren, Beau, Josh and Jaron

Passing through the arch that leads from Webelos into Scouts.  I am grateful to Tucker to stand there with me as none of my boys were able to come.

We teach them the scout handshake and I give them their neckerchiefs.

Donuts, Orienteering and Paintball

I have not kept up much on posting the things we have done lately.  A few weeks ago I decided to do a team building exercise combined with some orienteering skills.  We made 3 teams of two scouts each.   It was Chase and Carson.  Dalton and Andrew.  Kiowa and Zach.  First I gave them a small set of directions where if they followed the compass and could count correctly they would find two donuts.  Once they found the donuts they had to tie a donut to the fishing pole string using a valid scout knot.  The best knot for this is probably two half hitches.  Once they tied the knot they were to hold the fishing pole for their partner while he ate the donut.  They could not use their hands.  As you can see from the photos some of the teams were cooperative and others not so cooperative.  Even though Dalton and Andrew finished last I think I have to give them the most credit as they attempted to do everything correctly.  It was hilarious to watch.   Its a bummer that all of my videos wont upload.  I may have to put them on Youtube and then link them to here.

The next set of photos are the scouts at the last meeting that Carson would be with us.  As he had always wanted to shoot my paintball gun I decided that would be what we would do for our party.  It was a blast.  I have 3 paintball guns and as there were three boys that showed up they each got to shoot a gun.  Carson, Chase and Kiowa were crazy.  Poor Zach didn't get to shoot the guns as he was too tired to come after football I think.  Dalton was with his dad who had moved.   I think they shot over 1000 paintballs, most of them hitting my well.  It was painted really nice.  I was going to leave it that way until the dog started licking and eating the paint.  I got the hose and washed it off.

The donut challenge was done the last week in July and the paintball was done the week after scoutcamp in August.