Klondike

This last weekend, I went with troop 15 to Klondike. When we first arrived on Friday at camp we set up the super fly and the cooking gear then we set up our tent(dad slept in the van). I had the misfortune of being the patrol leader at camp so I had to stay up past ten o' clock signing my patrol up for the activities they wanted to do(and some they did not want to do). The way they had us sign up was to put us all in one small lodge, set us loose, and try to find the person with the sign up sheet we needed to be on(utter chaos but it worked).

On Saturday, we had to wake up early, eat, then go to flag where they told us to go to the lodge to see the only map so we would know where to go for our activities(yes, it was like that). When we got to our first station, they were not there(the staffers showed up ten minutes later). It turns out that everyone was running late(nothing was on time that weekend, but it was kinda nice that we didn't have to hurry to any activity because we knew it was going to start late).

For any activity where we had to carry, move, or lift a scout we always picked poor Benji. He got tossed all over the place :). On Sunday, there was a sled race. Our troop had an all metal sled that we used in the race(again Benji was in the sled). On our first heat(race, whatever)against another patrol we lost both Tommy and another scout in the first two seconds of the race(Tommy's hand got caught in the rope and we dragged him a good 20 feet). We managed to win only because to finish you had to have your whole patrol get across the finish line and the other patrol had a member that fell down and didn't make it till after we crossed the finish line.

At the award ceremony, we earned two awards; we got the fastest patrol through the knot gauntlet(which is a where you have to tie a bunch of knots), and the 2nd place in the short log bridge station(which was funny considering we did not finish the bridge). Because we got the fastest patrol through the knot gauntlet we get our patrol name and troop number engraved in a plaque and put in the lodge.



All in all, Klondike was pretty fun, but if we go back next year I am NOT being the patrol leader(or as everyone fondly calls, the victim).

-TIM