GimletBlog

When is it possible to be snowed out of winter camp?  When your traditional camping spot is Paradise at Mount Rainier, and the national park is closed for avalanche danger!

Friday was a beautiful day, the road from Longmire to Paradise was plowed and open, and the weather report called for an additional 2-3 feet of snow.  The scouts and their leaders arrived without incident and began the usual task of digging snow caves.  This year, one leader who happens to be a structural engineer built an igloo with the assistance of a homemade device.  One of the scouts used a tarp as a roof for his group’s shelter.

That night, the predicted 2-3 feet of snow fell.  The poles on the equipment tents all snapped, the shelter tarp caved in, burying the boys in that shelter, and the snow cave roofs dipped in under the added weight.

Click to view video of that morning (Quicktime)

In the morning, nobody was hurt, although the boys in the shelter had to be dug out.  Whiteout conditions still prevailed, so the usual sledding and snowshoeing was cancelled in favor of survival.

The smaller, younger boys were helped to the parking lot first while the larger, older scouts broke down the snow shelters and cleaned up the camp site.

Click to watch the older boys breaking camp

The road was now closed with three scout troops stuck at the Paradise parking lot.

Click to view the scene in the Paradise parking lot (Quicktime)

The next several hours were spent in the Paradise restrooms staying warm under the hand dryers while a plow cleared the way for evacuation.

Finally the park ranger told our scout troop that the road was ready.  The convoy of cars followed the snowplow out of the national park while a trooper brought up the rear.

Click to view the snowplow in action (Quicktime)

This year winter camp was all work, no play, but thankfully all made it home safely.

Thanks to Ben, Danny, Josh, and Thing One for sharing their photos and videos with the group!

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For a number of years, I have been either a table host or a vice chair for the annual Bellevue Friends of Scouting event.  Until two years ago it was a breakfast and sponsored by the Seattle Seahawks.  Last year the event became a luncheon and was sponsored by the Seattle Mariners.  I took Thing One and a couple of other scouts from the troop I was Scoutmaster for to the event.   They had a good time and were well received.

This year, I ended up volunteering to bring scouts to add some “ambiance” to the event.  The thought was that by having an ambassador scout at each table, the guests would give more.  It also seemed like a good idea to use my troops scouts rather than Bellevue scouts because Seattle Public Schools had a day off between semesters set for the same day as the luncheon.  Unfortunately, two weeks before the event, the school district set that Friday as a makeup snow day.  However, the event still needed its ambiance!

Getting the scouts to the event resembled assembling for a camp out, except the boys were supposed to be in full uniform; and we had to be on time!

On the way to the luncheon I instructed the boys on the proper use of eating utensils.  (“Use the silverware.  This is not summer camp!” — I try to speak at the level they need to hear.)

The boys enjoyed the lunch and particularly enjoyed meeting Mariners players Mike Carp, Michael Saunders & Jesus Montero along with Field Manager Eric Wedge.

As an old fogey I was amazed to think how close in age the players were to the scouts.  My how our perspective changes over our lifetime!

I think my vague goal of impressing on the boys the value and importance of the connections they can make through scouting worked.  They also got to see the support the business community in the greater Seattle area provides to help the program work for them.  It was a fun and meaningful luncheon.

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Old Scoutmasters never die, they just smell that way become Committee Chair.

When last we left you, I was Scoutmaster in my ward troop and also the Boy Scout District Training Chair.   After a wonderful week as a Course Co-Director for NYLT, I hoped to be able to be Course Director in 2012, but was waiting to find out if I would have the opportunity.

Wow, the changes a month can bring!   First, I was asked to be the Stake High Councilor over Young Men/Scouting and sustained on September 11.  As that precludes being Scoutmaster, the Assistant Scoutmaster was asked to be Scoutmaster and I became the Troop Committee Chair the next week on September 18.  Meanwhile, on Saturday, September 17 I was asked to be a NYLT Course Director, and then Monday, September 19, I was asked to be the District Commissioner.   It appears that both life and the Boy Scouts abhor a vacuum of time!

So now, I am recruiting constantly:  As Troop Committee Chair, I recruit troop committee members; as NYLT Course Director I recruit staff and participants for the program; and, as District Commissioner, I recruit Unit Commissioners.   Beware — I may be calling you!

This ends my five and a half year stint working directly with Boy Scouts as a Scoutmaster/Assistant Scoutmaster.  I still am working with Scouts directly as the NYLT Director but it is not a weekly activity.  I once again return to working with adults to try and get them to run the program to help out the boys.

Scoutmaster is one of those “jobs” that really becomes a self-identification and that has been a little bit hard to let go of.   When the boys went camping last month, and I had nothing to do other than answer the new Scoutmaster’s questions, it felt odd not to be going.  However, next year Thing Two starts Cub Scouts and I get to start all over again!

Triple Threat: New scoutmaster, visiting Japanese scoutmaster, old scoutmaster

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August 15 – 20 was the second week of National Youth Leadership Training put on by the Chief Seattle Council.  I had the privilege of acting as the Assistant Course Director for Program (Assistant Scoutmaster for Program).

In order to create the program a youth staff had to be recruited and then trained.  They were trained over one Saturday, three weekend programs and finally the entire week’s presentations were given an additional run through the three days before the August 15 showtime.  The youth staff performed exceptionally well.

Thing One was a Guide and loved by his Team/Patrol.  His style of servant leadership showed.

Showtime happened and the participants arrived.

The Scouts that participated were great kids and it showed.  One Scoutmaster that came to the presentations at the end of the program stated that while some of his Scouts that had been in the past claimed they did not learn anything and were often bored, those same Scouts were the ones that stepped up and led his troop after the program.  He had asked his troop committee to send four boys this year rather than the two last year.  Like many things in life, the value of the lessons learned at NYLT cannot be seen immediately but change the way these young men react to future opportunities.

It really is a Scoutmaster’s secret to success.

• Upcoming NYLT sessions for the Chief Seattle Council

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See more of Thing One’s photos from Mount Adams in the Gimlet Gallery.

My family had other travel plans for the end of August so I didn’t think I would be able to climb Mount Adams with the Venturing crew (15-18 year-old young men in our church youth group), but when those plans fell through about three days before the pack check, the youth group leaders said I could still go.

On August 24 we went to REI to have our boots fitted for crampons and also picked up other rental equipment, like ice axes and tents. Then the leaders checked our backpacks to make sure we had everything, and also distributed our food and equipment.

The next day we met at the Stake Center at 1:00 pm with all our gear.

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Friday night Team Gimlet drove to Camp Pigott for the last time (for the summer) to pick up Thing One and his gear.  His first year of camp staff is over!  We haven’t had time to hear much about it, but it must have been an overall positive experience, because Thing One already is planning on returning to camp staff next summer, and would like to work on weekend winter camp staff as well.

There was barely enough time to do laundry and catch a little sleep before Thing One and the Gimlet were on their way again, headed to Camp Sheppard for a week of NYLT staff.

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See all the photos from this year’s scout camp in the Gimlet Gallery.

Another summer camp has come and gone.  The staff at Camp Pigott is great and the facilities outstanding.  I am not just saying that because Thing One worked there all summer!

Monday August 1, bright and early we gathered 16 scouts from Troop 175 and headed off to Camp Pigott.  It is about an hour drive there.  We arrived just in time for the flag ceremony and breakfast.

After breakfast, the scouts quickly dropped our gear at our campsite and headed off to merit badge classes.

Once the scouts were on their way, I had work to do in my capacity as District Training Chair.  I headed down to the chapel where I was helping to teach an Introduction to Outdoor Leader Skills course.

An experiment in providing the course to Scoutmasters and Asst. Scoutmasters at camp.  On Tuesday I taught knife, axe, and saw safety.  I had to bring my axe unsheathed because the sheath that was on the axe disappeared once my scouts got hold of it.  “Imagine there is a sheath on this axe.”

On the topic of safety, our most serious injury during a Scout camp occurred this year.

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Every week we’ve been sending a care package of homemade cookies to Thing One while he’s working on camp staff.  This past week the Gimlet was at camp too with his troop, so we baked a double batch.  Little did we know where the cookies would end up!

A Japanese scout troop from the Hyogo Council was settled in the camp site next to the Gimlet’s troop.  The Gimlet will write up his scout camp report with more details about their neighbors later, so for now we’ll just mention Thing One’s part in the story:

The Japanese troop needed to leave camp one day early to catch their return flight home, so the two troops met for patch trading Thursday evening.  When Boy Scouts from other states, regions, or countries gather together it’s traditional to exchange patches, neckerchief slides, and other small souvenirs.  For example, Thing One exchanged patches and troop T-shirts with scouts from other states at the National Jamboree last year.  At World Jamborees, scouts will usually bring extra unworn uniforms for the sole purpose of exchanging their country’s scout uniform for those from other countries.

In addition to patches (hastily mailed from home along with the cookies, which were shared with the Japanese troop), Thing One brought one of his Jamboree uniforms to the exchange.  It not only featured the Jamboree patches and shoulder tabs, but also the special T’Kope Kwiskwis Order of the Arrow 100th anniversary commemorative patch, an NYLT patch and of course his Eagle Scout rank.

Several of the scouts were very interested in trading for this uniform with so many unique patches, and one of the girl scouts moved faster than the others to seal the deal.  They signed the backs of their uniforms, and the exchange was made.

With the help of this scout patch guide we were able to figure out that she is the equivalent of a First Class scout and a patrol leader.  We don’t know what the little blue and yellow patches with trees represent, or the little round number pins.  Thing One earned similar number pins in Cub Scouts as part of the pack’s literacy program but these were probably earned for different achievements.  The Gimlet’s best guess is that the pins designate number of years in scouting.

Thing One was already pleased to have his staff hat and jacket as souvenirs from his first year of camp staff, but this uniform and the patches he traded for are unexpected and very special mementos.

• Hyogo Tourism Guide
• 23rd World Scout Jamboree in Japan, 2015

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