November Scouting Trip

   In November our troop ventured out to Beaver Lake on Fort Rucker for a camp out and traveled to Lake Tholocco the next morning for a canoe trip. This was the coldest night of the year as the temperature dropped to 21 degrees that night. This trip was a great success as the scouts were able to hone their abilities in fire-starting techniques, cooking, and canoing.  Unfortunately the cameras were in the truck for our canoing trip on Saturday morning. While canoing we stopped and explored several islands, a beaver lodge, several inlets, and picked cattails to start fires with when we arrived at the truck.

  

Below are a few of the pictures of what we did. 

The young men setting up camp.

Under the supervision of Bill Murry, Isaac successfully demonstrates how to make fire with a flint and char cloth.

Chris effectively starts a fire with a flint and all natural tinder (the only one determined enough to do stick with it the first attempt).

Josh Hanni gets his fire going with char cloth

Josh Halverson, with his peanut butter jar fire-starting kit gets a large fire going.

Joey Railey gets his fire started with flint and lighter knot (pine resin)

Matt Railey prepares lighter knot as tinder.

Our Camping Spot.

Braden

Bishop Jeff Hanni

That night we were visited by Jeff Hanni and Braden Maughn.  Jeff was a member of the Bishopric at the time and showed up with some Mountain Lightning to share. We now call Brother Hanni: Bishop Hanni, and we look forward to working with him throughout our adventures.  Braden, the previous Scoutmaster, showed up with some little smokies sausages to cook.  He was there to say his goodbyes as he is headed to Fort Drum to serve as a new Blackhawk helicopter pilot.  We all wish he and his family well with their new adventures.

Our Canoe Trip Location.  Missing from our pictures is Clint Chamberlain. He came out to run one of the canoes for us.  We are grateful for his willingness to serve the young men in so many capacities.

A cool note is that the Railey men were reported to have effectively taken over fire starting at Dave Berry's place a few nights later.  Dave said that the boys suggested that he was building the fire ineffectively and they took over and made the fire using skills learned from this camp out.

I am extremely proud of our young men and their ability to focus on learning tasks and then demonstrating what they have learned. These seemingly small classes will serve them well throughout their lives.