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.

Scout Camp Treasure Mountain 2015

We showed up to the church at 7:00 am Monday morning, said a prayer, assigned kids to vehicles and left.  We pulled up to scout camp a little after 8:00 am and got signed in.  Swim checks were at 8:40.  Most of the boys got swimmer with the BSA swim test and a few of them got beginner.

my nephew Garret on the left there

contemplating this challenge and how they did

Kaleb's rock hard bigfoot biceps

Ben can still swim as good as the boys

The swimming staff and their long poles to aid the swimmers

The handicraft area

The Waterfront.  I did an hour of service sitting up in the lookout for the lake.  I was to yell if I saw any trouble.  It was very peaceful and the perfect temperature.   I could have done it longer if they had wanted.

As I sat in the lookout I snapped pictures of our troop members as they walked by unsuspecting.  There's Ben going up the trail toward our camp.

I learned a lot watching the kayak class

Zach.  I made sure when they walked by that they knew I was up there and could see if they were doing anything a monkey would do and not what a scout would do.

Andrew, Dalton and Kiowa

Andrew and Antonio at the front, Dalton, Kiowa and Chase in the middle.  This is the group trying to earn Environmental Science and they are just finishing the hike they went on.

Zach and Trevon

I drove out to catch service and on the way back got these fantastic photos of the Tetons as I drove back to camp

Trevon was the first boy to get a merit badge not only in our camp but in the whole scout camp on Tuesday morning.

We were the proud 1st winners of the spirit stick on the first morning (Tuesday)  Here is our decorations.  I think it looks rather indianlike.  Trevon looks manly while holding it and Bridger does not scare him

Trevon looks so thrilled

The rain started the first afternoon and pretty much did not quit all week.  We had more rain than not rain but we made it through ok

The boys tents.  The left is my wall tent with a tarp on the front end as it was leaking with so much rain..  The tent on the far right is where Bridger and Trevon slept.  The middle tent had Antonio, Tucker, Kyle and Evan.  The tent on the left had the rest which were Ben, Kiowa, Chase, Dalton, Jaron, Kaleb, Zach, and Andrew.

Getting under the big canopy

Notice it really hasn't rained a lot yet

Moving on to merit badges, this is the basketry area.  These guys are working hard on getting the baskets figured out.  You can see Kiowa, Chase and Dalton

Zach in the foreground with the Teton Redskins hat

A zoom out of the Handicraft area.  This is a typical setup for each of the areas at scout camp

We're starting to get wet.  Doing our skit on Wednesday night

The skit was about a doctor with a magic chair.  If you sat in it your ailment was cured but then the doctor contracted it.  Pretty soon the doctor which was Evan had a headache, allergies, broken leg etc.  The last thing he contracted was "the runs" by Tucker.  It was funny and should have been the one chosen to perform for the whole camp except you couldn't hear the boys very well so I don't think the rest of the camps heard it.

Another troop performing a skit.  Its kind of hard to do in the rain.

Back to camp and trying to divert the water from running under our tents.

Tucker slushing water out of the hole.

The leader's tent.  Notice my cot tent in the background that I never got to sleep in because it was too wet.

Cooking.  Ryan Webster on the right came up to help out.  Ben Kearsley in the grey coat

Tucker is happy in the rain

Fun under the canopy.  What you pointing at Kaleb?

Bridger ruffing up Chase and Antonio

Aw the sun finally showing through Thursday morning.

Chase, Zach, Kiowa and Dalton working on First Aid

Kiowa is tussling the kid with the mop head pretending he's a squirrel

Zach look a little more excited

Bridger lighted the stove turning on the gas before he struck the match.  The gas ran a little too long before he got the match lit and then POOF!  the flame singed his hair, eyebrows and eyelashes.  Another good lesson learned at scout camp.

Ben so happy cooking sloppy joes.

On the way to Battle of the Tetons!

Our perch where we watched the battle

Getting on the canoe

Kiowa, Andrew, Chase , Ben and Bridger rode the canoe

Umm, where are the bail buckets boys!

As we didn't really have enough buckets to fling water, we went down pretty fast

Just about down as Ben and Bridger get blasted with water.  Look how close they are to sinking.

And we are in the water 

Now to fish out the sunken canoe

Thats the third time the shaggy haired kid in the pajamas got in my photos

Heave Ho

So nice of them to stack the canoe

Chase on his way out with a lot on his mind

Kiowa looks determined to get them next time

You can't go out of the waterfront without saying your name and getting your buddy tag.  Andrew, Bridger,Kiowa and Chase

Just a comment here about Battle of the Tetons.  Even though we told the boys to get buckets and shields I don't really think they understood what it was all about.  I'm not the type of person to hound and nag and so that is why I didn't do anything once I discovered they didn't all bring buckets. Sometimes the best lessons are learned when a leader allows a boy to "fall on his face" and learn the hard way.  I'm sure next time around they will have thought much about it and won't make the same mistake again.

Kaleb taking a picture of me with the same camera I am taking a picture of him with.  Ben looks at us like we're weirdos

Zach, Kiowa, Andrew,Chase,Tucker

Chase, Tucker, Jaron, Evan

Getting out the prize knives.  The Trading Post had reduced prices on lots of items as it was the last week and they had excess merchandise.  They really had a lot of knives in the store and I'm pretty sure all the boys bought anywhere from 1-5 knives.  For the boy who got the first merit badge Ben had bought a knife as a prize.  This was Trevon.

Yeah Kiowa lets see some knife control.  By the way that is stinkin dull.  haha

Antonio,Kiowa,Zach, Andrew, Bridger, Dalton,Chase, Evan, Trevon and Jaron

Just thought the reflection was cool.

Nice sunset by the trustworthy sign

Climbing Table Rock.  First stop

Jeff, Antonio,Trevon the tree Master, Dalton, Jaron, Tucker, Zach, Ben, Bridger, Chase, Tom, Kaleb, Andrew,Kason, Evan, Kyle, me

Added Ben Kearsley and took away me and Jeff

Trying to show how steep it is on the Face trail

Ben getting a little help from Ben.  

Finally to the meadow where its not so steep

This picture looks cool cropped into a panoramic

The wise Kason

I like this shot of Andrew

Break is over.  Time to move

My buds behind me for once

Trying to capture some scenic shots now

The guys and their goats.  This is an interesting diversion.  The goats kept getting in the way and then the owners let them go.  They wouldn't come down when it was time.  Haha

Starting to see the big mountains behind Table Rock

The fork.  Left is the Face trail and right is Huckleberry trail

Going to go look over the edge

This was our first vantage point

Here is the view from that first vantage point

Zach and Kason full of energy while I was just barely plodding along

Trevon and Zach told me this was a cool view

This is one of my favorite photos

Getting closer.  Awesome big mountains behind

zoomed out

The rock field

Looking back down

still trudging.  by this time my steps were so small and I was crawling like  a turtle

Dalton and Chase

The grade at the end gets steeper again

Just got to climb the rocky face now

Jeff and Kiowa just a few feet from the top

Looking all the way down the ridge

The scene when I arrive

Dalton and Chase not long after my arrival

resting and eating lunch

Here come the Bens

Ben is grateful to rest

Kyle ponders apart from the group

Here's the stats.  It took us a little over 4 hours to get to the top.  The distance from the trailhead to the top is 4.58 miles.  Table rock is 11,101 feet.  We climbed 3901 feet in 4.58 miles.

Steep isn't it?

The trail up the face

Chase

Kiowa

Zach

Evan

Antonio

Jaron

Tucker

Kyle

Andrew did not like going by the edge

Dalton

Ben

Kaleb

Bigfoot

Kason

Ben and his boys Kaleb and Kason

Here I am

Making funny faces

This is my favorite one

My favorite picture cropped

Going down Huckleberry

Looking back up from Hucleberry

Jeff starting the grade down

Looking down to the boys further down and way ahead of us

Huckleberry was beautiful with lots of flowers still out

Pausing at the stream

Walked with Trevon for awhile

I forgot to push the button as we started down and so this is actually starting a couple hundred feet down from the top.  Notice it starts at 10,737 feet and not 11,101 feet which is the elevation of Table Rock.  This gives you all the stats going down around Huckleberry.  

We climbed around 1,000 feet per mile

Huckleberry Trail.  If you draw a line from the red pin to the green pin that would be approximately the Face trail.  You can see it loops around quite a bit.

Flowers

We got down from Table Rock safely despite sore feet.  Its more of a mental challenge I think to these boys than a physical challenge.  For me its more of a physical challenge.  I am glad they all stuck with it and hope they can confront and complete challenges in the future.

Friday night we had family night where the parents could come up and eat dinner and go to the campfire with us.  Ben had promised he would buy pizza if the boys all made it down from Table Rock before 4:00 pm.  We made it well before them.  As I had some work issues I drove out to make some phone calls and picked up the pizzas for Ben.  I then went to Broulim's and bought a bunch of soda pop, ice, cups and some treats.  I ended up buying a cooler because I didn't have anything to carry the ice in.  Not a big deal since I know one of our coolers was 25 years old and starting to wear out.

We had a good turnout with parents and they enjoyed visiting with their boys.  Some of the boys pretended to be homesick when their parents were there even though they hadn't shown a  hint of being homesick all week.  As soon as the parents were gone the homesickness immediately left them for some reason.....   Quinn came up and spent the night with me.

The ending program on Friday night for the whole camp had to be done in the lodge rather than up at Chief's Rock because of the rain.  The lodge is tiny and so it was packed so nobody could breathe.  They had some funny skits and ending things.  The most spiritual part was when they permanently retired a flag.  I have seen a few of these types of ceremonies but this one really tugged at my heart strings and I had a hard time not getting too emotional.  The manner that it was performed was in the highest respect for the flag.  It seems most people nowadays don't have the respect for the flag that they should and I'm glad these boys got to see this.  I would be awful sad if they developed the sort of apathy that a lot of people are developing in this country.

A few of us got awards.  Me, Dalton, Kyle and Evan all had shooting awards.  Me and Dalton had the dime club award where you shoot all ten shots of a .22 within a dime size area.  I think one of the twins got this as well and then the twins both shot the lid off a milk jug.

My dime size group from the .22 range.  Dalton and I were the first to get it in the whole camp.  We were shooting at a troop shoot I believe on Wednesday night.  This is the only time I got to shoot, otherwise I would have tried all of their contests.

The boys all earned many merit badges.  Chase earned the most in the 11 year old group with 6.  I was pleased when both him and Kiowa right off the bat got their swimming merit badge.

Saturday we got up at 6:00 am and packed up camp.  We were home before 9 am.  What a great week!  I enjoyed every minute of it with these boys.  Feel free to add comments and if you want me to add some photos or other stories let me know.