Swimming Rescue methods

Hey scouts!  If you need to have requirement 8c from the Second Class Trail signed off, we will be meeting at the Jolly's house on Friday at 7pm to help you get this accomplished.  If you need directions to the Jolly's, send me an email.

Summer Campers are there

9 youth and 3 adults ended up making the trip to Camp Fleischmann.  They got camp set up really quickly.  Temperature was nice, not too hot.  I guess it's been a little cooler this year when compared to the recent past.  Hopefully it will stay that way.

We are occupying a new campsite this year.  It's lakeside and looks to be well shaded in the afternoons.  That will be a nice respite from any heat that may come up.

I hope the week goes well for all attending and can't wait to hear the stories.

Scotts Flat camping

That was a long weekend. At least it seemed like it to me. I haven't felt that tired after an outing since I was in the Cub Scout program with R. It was probably the excellent parenting going on in the campsite right next to us. If you were there you know what I mean, if you weren't any one of us can explain at length later.

All of our boys went to this event at Scotts Flat Reservoir which is located just Northeast of Nevada City. I had initially thought we were in for some very nasty weather, but it was quite nice really. It didn't get sunny until Sunday morning, but it was never really cold and we didn't get any rain.

A special thanks go out to the Mr. Powers for putting this event together. He signed up to be a Merit Badge councilor for both fishing and canoeing, so the boys had a chance to earn 2 merit badges this weekend. He put in a lot of effort to see that all of the boys had work books and spent a lot of time signing blue cards. When you see him next time make sure you say thanks.

Fishing was very difficult from what I heard, so none of them were able to complete it. Canoeing on the other hand came off quite nicely. Seven boys signed up to take the badge and six of them earned it! The seventh came this close, but wasn't ready to take that final plunge as it were. That's okay. He'll finish it at summer camp (hopefully).

We even had a boy earn a rank advancement at camp! B was able to have his Board of Review while at camp and was promoted to the rank of Second Class! Congratulations!!! An extra special thanks go out to Jeff Rogers. Jeff was at the campground with his church group. I had initially thought it was another scout group (not many other groups fly an American Flag while camping) and approached them to see if one of them would be willing to help us out. Turned out he is an Eagle Scout and was more than happy to be helpful.

March 23 meeting

Planning for our next camping outing on the first weekend of April took place tonight. Menus were planned and duty rosters made. T had his board of review and was granted the rank of First Class Scout. Congrats T! Other than not knowing when to keep quiet, the boys are making some great progress.

Mr. P (T's dad) asked about putting together a 2 nighter canoe trek. We discussed what kinds of things we could do as far as activities and merit badge work. Sounds like it will be fun. I look forward to learning more about it.

Canoe trekking

Well the day came and we went on our canoe adventure. We had 11 boys and 5 adults. It was a hot day and we all seemed to have a good time, even those of us that got pretty good sunburns. We did 12 miles on the Feather River. It is an interesting river. Extremely shallow at points and then deep enough that you can't see the bottom in an instant.

We were able to find a nice little spot to stop for lunch and some frolicking in the water. All in all, a good day. When I got some pictures, I'll post them.

Can you canoe?

Yesterday was the first of two practice sessions before our day long trek coming up at the end of next month. There were 5 boys and 6 adults to take in a nice day on Lake Natomas. We were on the water for about two hours getting used to being in and handling our canoes. We noticed some shortcomings in our techniques and will be working on those at our next couple of meetings. The next practice session is on August 10, also at Lake Natomas.

To the boys... take note... you MUST attend this next practice session (if you weren't at yesterday's) in order to take part in the day long trek. So hopefully we'll see you there.

When I get some photos of our day, I will post them.