Our Fall Camporee was truly an unusual and unique opportunity for our Scouts. While being tested on most everything you ever learned in Scouting sounds rather intimidating, this Camporee turned out to be a great Team Building Exercise and was loads of fun. This Camporee was a Klondike Derby. Our first challenge was to build a dog team type sled for each participating Patrol to carry all day everything they might need “on the trail” as they competed at towns such as Kodiak, Skagway and Fairbanks. Our Troop built three such sleds for the Cobras, Predators and Grizzlies. It was a late night Friday for all of us.

Lacking both snow and dogs did not deter our Scouts from pulling those sleds up and down hills and from town to town. We did see 2 stray dogs that were considered worthy additions to the team, but their Scouting skills were lacking. Instead our teams were built using all our Scouts armed with skills as well as tools, equipment and supplies of their choosing to handle all possible Scouting tasks. Sawing logs with cross cut saws, building fires and such were simple tasks.  But these tasks were also timed, and both quality and quickest times were important to task completion.

Some of our Scouts learned that Portage does not mean drag as they portaged their canoe to and from the lake. The canoe exercise was made more difficult by the strong headwind. Despite these challenges or perhaps because of them, Jared checked the water temperature using the lower half of his body. Not to be outdone, Reed decided that deeper submersion was the way to go.

Other challenges included several First Aid treatments, flag ceremonies, knot tying, lashings, semaphore, and sling shot shooting with kibble & bits as ammo. All our Scouts prepared hot lunches on the trail.

Our Cobras proudly won 3rd place in this difficult all day challenge, Yea Cobras! The best sled was built by Troop 538 and was really a masterpiece, both strong and light.

Thanks to Dale Bryson, Billy Necessary and Stanley Dunn who were responsible for the design and operation of our Camporee. Thanks also to the Webelos who joined us for this event, hope to see more of you.

Mike Paris, Assistant Scoutmaster

Link to Photos