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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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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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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Before the summer gets started, here’s a look back at some of Thing One’s Boy Scout activities this year.

In January the Gimlet took some of his scouts to a Friends of Scouting breakfast.  Not only would the area’s scouting supporters get to meet and talk with local boys about their experiences in Scouting, but the guys would get to meet some of the Seattle Mariners and get their picture taken with the Moose.  And the appeal of a big breakfast to teenagers cannot be underestimated.  Win-win!

Next was the traditional Winter Camp at Paradise on Mount Rainier.

Plenty of snow this year for snow caves, snowshoeing and extreme sledding.

One of the adult leaders, Sam, took some great action shots and generously shared them with us.  This year two young men who had recently moved to the US from Africa (and had never seen any snow) came along with the troop.  Reports are that they were quite cold (never fear, they were provided with plenty of warm gear) but had a lot of fun playing in the snow for the first time.

Group photo under the mountain.  Look at how big these guys are now!

Skipping ahead three months, last week Uncle Q joined Thing One on the Mount Si hike.

It was a bit too foggy for photos, and it snowed at the top, but they had a good time.

The traditional OA visit to Evergreen-Washelli to place flags at veterans’ graves was bittersweet this year.

Looking ahead, Thing One has been hired to work on the staff at Camp Pigott for the summer, and following that a second year of NYLT staff.  We can hardly believe that he’s old enough to be on staff, and measurements taken last month revealed that Thing One is now taller than both his parents.  When did this happen?  We’ll try to be better about posting scout photos throughout the summer.

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Thing One and his Order of the Arrow chapter assist other local Boy Scout, Cub Scout and Girl Scout troops and other community volunteers to place flags throughout the Evergreen-Washelli Veterans’ Memorial Cemetery, honoring the men and women who have sacrificed for our country.

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Editor’s Note: Just because we haven’t been posting lately doesn’t mean we haven’t been busy:  so far this month Thing One has attended an NYLT staff training campout at Camp Parsons, the Aurora District Camporee at Camp Pigott, the National Jamboree shakedown campout (also at Camp Pigott), and the Chief Seattle Council Eagle Scout recognition banquet.  At the banquet, he entered a drawing to win a seat on a Boeing 737 delivery flight to Alaska Airlines … and won!

Fifty Eagle Scouts enjoyed an approximately one hour flight as their Eagle Scout pilot flew the scenic route from Boeing Field to the Alaska Airlines hangar at SeaTac Airport.  Even without a barrel roll, it was a very cool adventure.  Many thanks to Boeing and Alaska Airlines for giving the council’s newest Eagle Scouts the opportunity to fly!

Thing One’s entire collection of photos can be viewed in the Gimlet Gallery.

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