The Epic Adventures of Troop 82 the Napolean Dynamites: May 2015

Teton Valley Lodge (www.tetonvalleylodge.com) hosted our whole district this last weekend at their fishing pond just south of the lodge. The owners are Matt and Brian Berry, a couple of great guys. They set it up so the boys could earn their fly fishing and fishing merit badges. The plan was to arrive in the evening and set up camp and then the next morning have stations where the scouts could rotate through and learn different aspects of fly fishing.

I set it up to meet at my house at 4:00 pm on Friday. Unfortunately, Dalton and Andrew did not come. Chase met me at my house and a little later Carson with his dad, Mike and brother Logan came. Zach had a family event and would come up later. As I was gathering up stuff it was raining a little and I hoped it wasn't going to rain a lot later, like the clouds were saying. I wrapped stuff up in a tarp and away we went. Mike had to get something in town so he went to Victor and said we would meet him at the pond.

Me and Chase showed up to the Berry's pond only to find lots more rain and gooey sticky mud in almost a boggy field of grass. The only other scout troop that was there was the cranky scout master's group (see my notes in the Klondike Derby blog). He was parked about 30 feet off the lip off the road and into the field. The problem with that position was that I had to angle off the lip to go around him and because of that I hit a bunch of major goo and almost slid into him. Luckily I got it in 4 wheel in time and punched it into reverse. Chase was glad we were in a Chevy. (Haha Nick.) After I got back up on the road the cranky scoutmaster came out and started calling me Bryan and asked where they should set up camp. I told him anywhere out there and pointed to the field. Not sure why he was calling me Bryan except maybe he thought I was Brian Berry.

Me and Chase pulled out on the field and on the opposite side of Mr. Crankypants. I was so tired of him constantly chewing out his scouts at the Klondike that I didn't want to be anywhere near him. Unfortunately, because we were the only troops there for about a half hour I had to listen to him boss his boys around. Once other troops showed up and filled in the gaps I didn't hear him anymore.

Chase is such a fine young man. We had that wall tent up before the regular scout troop showed up. I couldn't have had a better helper. Mike and Carson were there by then and got their tent up. Once the regular scout troop under Ben showed up we got camp set up for real. We got a canopy up next to the trailer and kept out of the rain until it let up. Then we got a fire going and set up the cooking gear. Those that came with Ben were Scott another leader, Ben, Kaleb, Trevon, Kyle and Evan (the twins), and Jaron. Ben brought his youngest son Kason as well. The boys went off fishing and were having a good time.

After awhile Kason, (a 7 year old) who had been down by the pond, came up and asked me if I would like to go fishing with him. I said sure and to let me get my pole. He told me he knew of a really good spot and that you could see the fish in the water. I went down there with him to his special spot and unfortunately there were a lot of boys with sticks trying to hit the fish. He fished there for a minute and then I said I bet we would have more luck if went went over a little ways. Sure enough as soon as we got over a little ways Kason spotted a fin sticking out of the water. He said "There's a fish!". I told him to just cast over it and then reel the worm toward it. Lo and behold he cast it just right and nailed the fish. He was super excited and was walking back really fast at the same time reeling really fast. The fish shot out of the pond like a torpedo. It came off the hook mid air and landed about 20 feet from the bank. Pretty funny. But he was a proud young man. Later after he had cooked his fish he was going around and offering it to everybody. The boys and I ate it all up.

We had a quick meeting with all the scouts and the leaders. We talked about roses and thorns in our lives and were challenged to think how to make thorns into roses.

Beautiful sunset

We had a nice evening as the rain stopped, and there was a pretty sunset. For dinner we roasted hot dogs and ate chips. The older boys had stew and tinfoil dinners. After dinner the boys went fishing and I got the wall tent situated. The fire was nice and warm. Logan wanted to tend it so I let him. I spread the tarp out and then we set up the leader tent. Zach and Chase both caught a big fish that night. Kason and Zach had put their fish in tinfoil in the fire. Chase put his to cook in a pan on some coals by the fire and went off fishing again. Later he came back and wanted to eat it. By then it was fully dark. He asked me how do you know if its done? I said if the skin comes off easy. He pulled the skin off and then pulled a piece of meat and stuck it in his mouth. "It's kinda chewy" he said. I said, "Well it had been in the pan cooking for a long time, maybe we overcooked it." He gets another bite. "Yeah its chewy". I say "Lemme look at it". I pull out the light on my phone and shine it on the fish in his hands. Blaring at me was a pink, slimy, raw, bony huge hunk of fish! It was chewy because it hadn't cooked a bit. Gahhhyuck! The coals the fish was on were long dead. Later I asked him if it tasted any different. He said "No it was just chewy". That story just earned him the nickname. "ChewyChase". We first started calling him SushiChase but it doesn't have the ring that Chewy Chase does.

Zach's fish

Later, and this was a lot later, probably around 11 pm. Chase comes running into camp with his friend. "I just caught the biggest fish ever!". Sure enough him and his friend had a huge fish suspended between two sticks while each was holding one stick. It looked like a monster up next to the boys. I measured it to be 21 inches. I asked him if he caught it with his pole. He said, "No I just knocked it out with a stick and pulled it up on the bank." That would explain the missing eye.

I caught the biggest fish ever!!

We got everybody to bed and situated finally about midnite. About 5:45 am as I was dead asleep I dreamed that somebody was stuck in the mud. The twins' mom was talking to Ben through the tent asking for help. She had to get them as they had some event to go to but had gotten stuck in the muddy goop in the process. I halfway thought about going out to help but Ben, Scott and I believe Mike were out there. I figured they were big enough boys to take care of the problem so I tried to sleep a little longer. Sorry if that makes anybody mad. Unfortunately I couldn't and so gave up later and came out. By then the stuck car was long gone though.

We got through a good breakfast of hash browns, sausage and egg breakfast burrito and pancakes. We quickly put our camp away to be ready for the classes at 9 am. We were done in plenty of time so the boys got to fish more. A little after 9 we gathered with all the scouts again and they lined us out into stations. As there were six troops and six stations, we got to stay with our own troop. We started out with a Fish and Game officer and he taught the boys how to read the rules and regulations and how to know what was legal and not legal. It was a very good exercise. Now they should always know how to figure out the laws and rules for each body of water they fish.

Mikes tent with another troop in the background

Fish and Game guy handing out rules and regs

Station two was casting with a fly rod. They lined out behind a line of tape and each were given a fly rod to practice with. They were taught how to cast and how to let line out. After practicing for awhile the guides measured how far each boy could cast. We had some good casters.

Station three was learning how to tie an artificial fly. They tied a zebra midge. This was done up at the lodge in their shop at some tables the guides had set up.

(From now on I'll leave all the photos til the end)

Station four was actually trying to catch a fish with a fly. The boys lined up along the edge of the pond and tried their luck at casting the fly. Within minutes Kaleb was excitingly reeling in a fish. Strangely enough he was backing up and reeling as fast as he could like his brother Kason did the night before. It was hilarious. I was telling him to slow down. The fish popped up on the bank and fortunately it didn't come out like a torpedo but the pole snapped right after the fish landed. I looked at the break and fortunately it wasn't Kaleb's fault as there was a big ding where the pole had snapped. Dings like that usually happen when rods bang together when people aren't watching where they are casting. And then when you get some tension on the pole it snaps. I didn't see anybody in our group do that so it must have been one of the previous groups. That fish had a ton of eggs. Trevon hooked a nice fish but it got off right about when it got to the bank. He was quite bummed. Carson caught a nice fish as well and was able to land it just fine. I'm not sure if any of the other boys caught one at that station. They were a little frustrated trying to cast the fly as the guides had tied on some heavy wet flies. I hate casting those and they make the cast awful clunky so I know what the boys were going through.

Station five was learning fishing lots. They learned two of the most important in fly fishing. The first was the improved clinch knot which is used to attach the fly to the tippet. The other was the surgeon's knot which attaches two pieces of line together. This is a useful knot for attaching slightly different sized lines together, such as when you are building your leader. Personally, I prefer the blood knot because I think it goes through the guides better, but the surgeon's knot is definitely easier to tie.

Station six was first aid. So how do you perform first aid on somebody who has a fish hook in the eye? You cut out a hole in a paper cup, stick it over the eye and then tape it so the eye and the object cannot move. You also tape the other eye because if the other eye is looking around, the injured eye moves with it and could cause lots of damage. Immobilize both eyes and get them to the emergency room. They also learned how to use an epi-pen in case of bee stings or other anaphylactic type reactions. He went over some other outdoor case scenarios for which first aid would be required.

After station six, we said goodbye and drove home. A great thanks to the Berry's for a well thought out event. A great thanks to the guides and all those who helped make it great. Teton Valley Lodge has always been a great support for scouting. All the more reason to fish with them. I also appreciate Mike who never fails to come on a campout and is very helpful. Thanks to Ben and Scott who are excellent Boy Scout leaders.

Please enjoy the pictures and feel free to make comments. I hope all the boys and their families and leaders can use these to keep the memories alive. I went on countless scout camping trips as a youth, leader and staff at a major Scout Camp. I barely took a few photos and wrote nothing down. I wish I had done something like this as the memories slowly fade.