Klondike Pictures

I've saved all our Klondike outing pictures (not taken by me, by the way) on our 4shared.com Web site here.

Klondike was like a District Camporee on steroids. There were over 30 stations for the patrols to participate in and compete at, including a 200' zip line, climbing tower, and sled race. Troop 15 came away with 2nd place for the short log bridge building, and 1st place for the knot gauntlet. #1, #2, and #3 practiced every night on those knots prior to Klondike, and it showed. For those patrol members that didn't practice their knots, Tim, as patrol leader, was allowed to talk them through. Without Tim's familiarity with these knots, there is no way they could have walked away with that trophy. Impressive, most impressive.

I enjoyed my assignment of staffing the "fill the barrel" station, where a patrol was challenged with filling a barrel in 20 minutes with a bucket that was controlled by four ropes. The ropes controlled the following functions: move the bucket into the creek, move the bucket up to the barrel, lower and raise the bucket, and dump the bucket. No one was allowed to touch anything (including the bucket) except these ropes. Patrol leaders assigned their patrol members to each of the ropes and they had to coordinate their efforts to get the job done. It was satisfying watching the patrol members start out confused and frustrated but ending up working together like a well-oiled machine by the end of the 20 minutes. No adults were allowed to speak to the patrol members during the entire procedure, which was very hard for some of us, including myself.

Klondike is held at Camp Delezenne, near Elma, WA every January. It's sure to be cold and wet (and sometimes snowing!), but the scouts still have a fantastic time. This year was no different. Around 150 Boy Scouts participated in Klondike this year, and I hope more Boy Scout Troops discover this gem of a camp during a time of year that few troops may actually be doing outings. I look forward to Klondike 2011!

- Big Daddy Andy