A Scoutmaster's Blog

Boy Scout Troop 68 really did not have a regular meeting place during its first year in 1980, so we would sometimes have our meetings in the clubroom of our sponsor, VFW Post 7050. It worked out fairly well but the boys could not play any rough and tumble games there. Some parents did not think it was very appropriate to hold Boy Scout meetings next to the VFW’s bar but we really did not have many choices at the time.

The year of 1980 was the first full year of the newly reformed Melrose Boy Scout Troop 68 which had started up in December of 1979. I joined up with the troop in April as a nineteen year old assistant scoutmaster. There was about 15 youth in the troop at the time, ranging in age from 11 to 13 years old. There was not much of a planned program that first year. We planned things from month to month, but soon we began doing yearly planning with the boys doing most of the planning.

The troop’s first camping trip was held during the summer at Uhlenkolts Lake, located about six miles from town. The grass was knee high when we arrived. It did not take long before we were pulling off the wood ticks. Lots of wood ticks. One boy came up with the idea of collecting all the ticks in a soda can which we then threw into the evening campfire. We could hear the popping sounds as the ticks exploded in the heat.

Once it was dark we placed the boys throughout the woods for a snipe hunt. Yeah, I know, we can not do that in today’s Scouting program, but back then it was not a big deal. One of the boys claimed he almost caught one of the elusive birds.

It was only a one night camping trip but for many of the boys I believe it was the first time camping without their family.

The troop did not attend a week of summer camp in 1980. There had not been enough time to prepare for it.

In August, the troop went on a one day canoe trip down the Sauk River which runs through Melrose. The boys and the adults had a great time. We even did a little fishing and swimming. Did we follow the safe swim and safety afloat guidelines? I don’t think so. I do not think anyone even knew about those guidelines yet. That came later after we attended training.

The troop attended the fall camporee at Parker Scout Reservation in September. In addition to the various activities, I remember waiting in line for Saturday’s supper and our troop receiving a ribbon during the Saturday evening campfire program. But the thing I remember most is the great egg war that involved three troops.

There was a short time Saturday during which the Scouts had free time. Some of the boys wanted to play catch but no one had thought to bring a ball to camp. A suggestion was made to use an egg. The campsite was shared by three troops so more boys began joining the game. The circle began to grow. The boys began tossing the eggs the more force. Some boys became too cautious about catching the breakable missiles. After a couple eggs were broken a few rules were made. One was that if you threw an egg too hard and the egg broke the catcher of the egg would get to throw an egg back at you.

The rules worked for awhile. Until someone threw an egg hard at another guy. Of course, the egg broke so the other Scouts were egging him on to throw an egg back. One Scout even ran off to fetch another egg to throw. Anticipation was high. Would the Scout through the egg back or not? I did not think he would. Until he did! That set off the egg battle. Scouts ran back to their camps to fetch the round white breakable ammo. By the time it was over three troops were nearly out of eggs for Sunday breakfast.

Luckily, no one got hurt, but it sure did make a mess.

We have all heard of Murphy’s Law which states, “Anything that can go wrong will go wrong.” Mark W. at ScoutingManiac has recently blogged about a list of Murphy’s Laws of Camping which he found at the Boy Scout Trail website. You have got to read these. A few of them really are too true. Here are a few of the forty laws listed on the site:

1. When reading the instructions of a pump-activated water filter, ‘hour’ should be substituted for ‘minute’ when reading the average quarts filtered per minute.
2. A backpack’s weight load migrates up and back the longer it is in motion.
3. All tree branches in a forest grow outward from their respective trunks at exactly the height of your nose. If you are male, tree branches will also grow at groin height.
4. Swiss Army Knife toothpicks and tweezers evaporate open contact with air.
5. Rain happens.
6. Waterproof clothing isn’t. (However, it is 100% effective at containing sweat).
7. Non-stick pans aren’t.
8. Waterproof matches aren’t.
9. One size fits all don’t.
10. Anything bug-proof isn’t.
11. A backpack’s weight is not affected by the amount of food eaten out of it.
12. The minimum temperature rating for any sleeping bag raises as the external temperature lowers.
13. Ropes holding bear bags stretch.
14. The loudness of an animal at night grows as the size of the animal shrinks.

Links:
http://www.boyscouttrail.com/content/joke/murphys_laws_of_camping-1031.asp
http://scoutingmaniac.blogspot.com/2009/01/humor-dose-1.html

The weekend had arrived for the mini-camporee. The Boy Scout troops from Albany, Avon, and Sauk Centre had arrived at the site Friday night. The Scouts from Melrose arrived early Saturday morning due to the high school homecoming football game held Friday night.

When the four Scouts from Troop 68 arrived at my house at 7:00 that morning, it did not take me long to notice that something was missing. No one had taken time to get the food for the outing. I was not happy, but to tell the truth, I was not surprised. During the troop meeting four nights earlier the boys had been arguing about who would get the food. “I don’t have time.” “I got it the last time.” No one wanted to do it. As I watched the boys load the truck I thought to myself, “This is a great way to begin the outing.” We ended up leaving town thirty minutes late, after the boys went to the store to do some shopping.

The rest of the weekend went very well. Once we had camp set up we went to work to prepare the blowgun target range. The four activity sessions began at 9:30, with each troop doing their own sponsored activity first to make sure the kinks were worked out before the other troops came through. The Troop 68 Scouts did all four stations before lunch, but I discovered later they had only completed half of the first aid activity.

Most of the afternoon was open time so each troop could plan its own activities. My Scouts did some exploration of the woodland in which we were camped. Then we played disc golf for nine holes, or maybe I should say tree trunks. A church service, hosted by our troop, finished off the afternoon.

Supper was quite interesting. It was a pot luck, and boy, was there a lot to eat. There were brats, baked beans, chili, and beef stew. My troop made fried potatoes and spaghetti with meat sauce, which quickly vanished from the table. Desert was pudding served in ice cream cones, topped with cool whip. It was a little messy, but no one complained. No one left the meal hungry.

The evening program began with a camp-wide Capture the Flag game, which was played in the dark. A few of us adults were a little concerned about playing in the dark, but the boys had a great time. In fact, many of the boys were so tired after the game that they turned in for the night instead of going to the planned campfire program. The Scouts from Troop 68 were the only boys to show up at the campfire so they did not stick around long.

The outing was a complete success and we are already talking about doing another camporee next fall, and maybe even doing some training sessions together.

Earlier this year, a few adult troop leaders from neighboring communities got together after a roundtable and began talking about having a mini-camporee. The goal was to get the local troops together for a weekend, line up a few activities, and let the Scouts get to know each other. I missed the first and only organizational meeting due to a family matter, so it was emails and phone calls from there on.

Each of the four troops was responsible for an activity. The activities would be conducted in a round robin fashion from Saturday morning to the early afternoon. The Sauk Centre troop prepared a blind soccer activity. The troop from Albany planned theirs around orienteering. Avon put together a first aid demonstration.

I wanted Troop 68 to do something unique, something that most of the Scouts had not done before. My troop owns two blowguns so I brought up the idea to the membership about setting up a blowgun target range. They liked the idea and thought it would be fun.

A little over a week before the camporee I visited the land where the camporee would be held with one of the adult leaders from the Albany troop which was hosting the event. It was privately owned land about 3 or 4 miles southeast of Albany. There was a great wooded area for camping, and a large grassland for activities. It would work very well for our outing. The owner of the land was very supportive and told us that two of his sons had earned the rank of Eagle Scout.

The date of the camporee was chosen by the Albany and Avon troops so it would not take place during their school’s homecoming weekend. Unfortunately, the weekend they chose happened to be the weekend of Melrose’s homecoming weekend. It did not present any problem though. The Scouts from Troop 68 went to the camporee early Saturday morning instead of Friday evening. There was not any program planned for the outing on Friday night so it worked out well.

As the weekend approached I bought some targets and a large blue tarp to act as a backdrop for the range. After all, I did not want to lose any of the small darts in the brush if I did not have to. I also began watching the weather forecast. It looked like it could be a cool and wet weekend. I do not like camping on cool and wet weekends anymore after twenty eight years of Scouting. Oh well, too late to back out now.

(To be continued…)
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Four Boy Scouts, and two adult leaders of Melrose Troop 68 attended a week of summer camp at Many Point Scout Camp near Pondsford, Minnesota, from July 13, 2008 to July 19, 2008.

A typical day at camp includes working on merit badges and advancement in the morning, various troop activities in the afternoon, and open program areas in the evening. The four Boy Scouts from Melrose did a great job of working on the merit badges during the morning sessions. Each of them came home with four completed badges: Forestry, Soil and Water Conservation, Fish and Wildlife Management, and Mammal Study. A couple of the boys also began work on the Archery merit badge.

The afternoon activities keep the troop pretty busy during the week. On Monday the boys went canoeing, swimming, and had some fun at the climbing tower. On Tuesday, they tried their skills at the archery range and took the opportunity to have a sauna. On Wednesday, they shot targets at the rifle range with the brand new 22 rifles, and then had fun on the aqua-tramp at the beach. After doing a camp service project Thursday afternoon, the boys spend some time sailing on Many Point Lake. The troop visited Itasca State Park Friday afternoon and walked the first 100 yards or so of the Mississippi River.

The Boy Scouts had a great time while at camp, and accomplished quite a few things while they were there. They had such a good time that the troop has already made reservations to attend Many Point Scout Camp next summer during the week of July 12.

Two other members of the troop missed summer camp because they are attending Philmont Scout Ranch this month.

Eight Boy Scouts of Melrose Troop 68 had a great weekend during their annual trip to Camp Watchamagumee over the Memorial Day Weekend. The troop arrived at camp on Friday, May 23, and stayed until the morning of Monday, May 26.

The Scouts accomplished a lot during the weekend. They began by reviewing the safety rules when using a saw or ax, and using campfires. They played games including kick ball and their favorite, Cature the Flag. The also spent a couple hours working on campsite improvements.

Building things seemed to be the theme of the outing. One group of Scouts built a raft. Another group worked on building a dock in the pond. A new treehouse was started but will take one more afternoon to complete.

Of course, it would not be a Watchamagumee weekend if the troop did not hold its annual Egg Drop Competition. The Scouts formed four teams that would create a package for an egg using only natural materials found in the woods. The packages would then be dropped from various heights. If the egg survived without cracking or breaking, the package would move on to the next level.

Each evening ended by sitting around the campfire. Each patrol had its own campfire on Friday night. The troop gathered around one campfire on Saturday for lots of stories to be told. During the Sunday night campfire program the Scouts did songs and skits, and played “Who’s Line Is It Anyway?”.

The troop would like to express their thanks to Mr. Duevel and Kraemer Lumber for their assistance in the treehouse project, and to Vern and Melvin Klasen for allowing us to use their land.

Safety first! That is the motto of Scout leaders as we take the boys into the outdoors. The BSA has plenty of rules, regulations, and guidelines to follow as we head into the woods. One guideline is for the Scouts to earn their Totin Chip card before they use pocket knives, axes, hatchets, and saws. I agree. Troop 68 has used the Totin Chip nearly since the troop started in December of 1979. We take safety seriously and so far, knock on wood, we have had very few injuries during the last three decades.

Think you know your Totin Chip safety? Check it out! Take the test at the Melrose Troop 68 site and see how you do. You will find it HERE.

Take the test and then check your answers. No cheating! Let me know what you think of it, and if you are not shy, post your score for others to beat by posting a comment to this blog. Have fun.