Home.30 January 2001
Greetings to All. Welcome to the first Scoutmaster's Minute of the New Year, New Century, and New Millennium. An awful lot of typeprint over the past 13 years, folks....
Did you know that a number of our "expatriate" Scouts have earned Eagle in their new Troops? It's true! I just received word that Ryan Shanahan passed his Eagle Board of Review in Heidelberg, Germany. Ryan is the fourth expatriate Troop 111 Scout to make Eagle during my tenure. The other three were Phillip Arquette (in Ann Arbor, Michigan), Charles "Lance" Johnson (in El Paso, Texas), and JT Belknap (in Haddonfield, New Jersey). All four Scouts credited their start in 111 as critical to reaching their Eagles.
Christopher Bks. has transferred into Troop 149, at Cherrydale Methodist. He departs at Star Rank.
On the recruitment front, we were recently visited by 5 Webelos from Pack 111. We are expecting upwards of a dozen new Scouts by the end of March; stay tuned....
Once again, we start off with the best advancement news of all: Adam Smith - our 71st Eagle Scout - completed his marathon the evening of January 16th, 2001 - the Troop's first Eagle in the new Millennium! His Honor Roll:
Adam's Eagle Project was a three-part affair at Upton Hills Regional Park - A) clearing a wooded lot of fallen timber and brush to increase night-time security, B) Heavily mulching about 200 yards of trail, and C) completely rebuilding a competition style horseshoe pit. About 390 man-hours in all.
Adam, a Junior at the Washington Ethical High School, is currently interested in Business Administration at a school in Virginia or West Virginia.
Thanks to the Board of Review members Tim Arthurs, Dan Creedon, Hank Dettmar, and Jane Tuck.
In related Eagle News, as noted above, Ryan Shanahan has earned his Eagle in Germany. The Shanahans were militarily transferred to Heidelberg just after Ryan attended Philmont in 1998. BTW, Ryan has already been accepted to (and plans to attend) UVA. Congrats!
The January Board of Review was cancelled, as no-one was quite ready to advance. February should be an impressive month, however! On the Merit Badge Front, things kept rolling along: Michael D., Todd G., Thomas S., and Neil S. all earned Citizenship in the Nation. Anthony M. finished Crime Prevention. Matthew C., Brad G., Ian H., Will K., Anthony M., Thomas S., Charlie S., Carl S., Adam Smith, Dan and Nick T., and Mark T. all earned Fingerprinting. Will K. earned Orienteering, John B. grabbed Personal Fitness, and Brad G. got Swimming. A pretty decent month! Thanks to all the Troop Merit Badge Counselors who ran these efforts.
...and Congratulations to All of the above Scouts!
During the President's Day Holiday Weekend in February, we will be returning to Kooser State Park in Pennsylvania, and skiing at Seven Springs and/or Hidden Valley. One suspects the conditions at both resorts will be excellent (for example both resorts got another 6 inches this past weekend). Our Winter Cabin Campout, traditionally held on the last weekend in January, has been moved to the last weekend in February (the York-Adams Area Council messed up our original reservation), and will be at a facility we have never previously visited, Camp Conewago, in New Oxford, Pennsylvania. However, the late date shouldn't hurt - this camp is further to the northwest and at a higher altitude, so it should still be a snow-covered event. Scout Sunday is also tentatively scheduled for the last Sunday in February, but since the Winter Cabin Campout now conflicts, it may be pushed into March; details TBA.
Over the Martin Luther King Day Holiday (or Lee/Jackson Day, if you prefer!), the Troop traveled to Thomas, West Virginia, for our 13th Annual Canaan Valley ski trip. Our trip out was surprisingly smooth, with only brief Friday afternoon traffic delays on I-66; this was in sharp contrast to a number of recent trips, where we had much more extensive delays. Dinner in Winchester, and into Thomas by 9pm - not bad. Of note, we had one brief stop in the middle of nowhere to "stretch our legs," and were treated to a spectacular vista - a perfectly clear, brilliantly starlit night sky. Climbing Rt. 42 to Tucker County, the upper plateau was snow-covered from 8 to 12 inches deep - an encouraging sight!
This year, we stayed in the basement of the Methodist Church in Thomas, a decent sized room adjoining a large kitchen area. Much nicer than last year's nearby Church-owned house, or the Troop 96 Scout Hall in Davis (about 4 miles down the road), neither of which are available to us anymore. After setup, we watched an hour's worth of "The Abyss," and racked out just before 11.
Saturday morning, we were up and at 'em at 5:45, and off for breakfast within half an hour. We eat at Deerfield's Restaurant, very close to both the Canaan Valley and Timberline Resorts. They open up specially for us, and feed us half to death - quite a spread. Out the door by 7:15, with a clear dawn awaiting. Of note, we saw several large herds of deer (25 or more) on both sides of the roads on the short drive to Timberline - they were everywhere. They were feeding on the few stretches of ground where the snow cover had been blown off by the winds. Quite an impressive sight!
At Timberline, we had the standard hurry up and wait getting our group tickets and rentals straightened out, but nonetheless we were on the slopes by no later than 8:30 or so. As usual, being early paid off in short lift lines - in fact, I didn't have to wait once until about 10:30. Then it got crowded fairly quickly. It turned into a beautiful day, sunny and surprisingly warm (lower 40's); fortunately, the snow held up OK - a reflection of the amount of natural snow mixed in with the man-made stuff. The longest lift-lines of the day were about 10 - 12 minutes around 2pm, not bad.
Since we had no beginners on this trip, everyone buddied up and headed off to do their thing. I ended up pairing with Tom C., who was then treated to a 4 hour long intermediate lesson from me, followed by a 2 hour long advanced intermediate lesson from Hovey K.. The results? - by the end of the day, Tom had graduated from snowplowing on the beginner slope to pole-planting while parallel skiing down a black diamond slope. Very impressive indeed. Drew DeL. and Jack O. also improved their snowboarding technique (they're getting better!)
At 4:00, we reassembled, headed back to the Hall to get dressed in our Scout Uniforms, then headed off to Mass. St. Thomas' has a new Priest, very lively and enthusiastic (and fast, too!) He recognized us from the Altar, and we got a nice round of applause from the Parishioners. Then it was back to the hall for a pizza dinner (delivered from Sirianni's, our normal Saturday dinner spot who couldn't take us in this year). We finished the movie and (believe it or not!) went to bed at about 9pm. This in keeping with one of the requests made during the Troop discussion night. Despite a few protests, it was VERY quiet about 2 minutes after we turned out the lights.
On Sunday, it was an instant repeat, except this time we went to Canaan Valley Resort instead of Timberline. The lifts opened at 8:30, and we were the first 18 people on. In fact, the resort was half-deserted til almost lunchtime, and we skied to our heart's content. Not sure why the crowd was so small, but no complaints here! The day started off sunny, but quickly clouded up; rain was predicted by 5pm, but never showed. Canaan Valley was in excellent shape - virtually every slope was open, and most of the older Scouts and leaders eventually did them all, working up to the rather famous "Gravity" (you know, the one on the commercial where they say "Don't forget to breathe!") The snowboarders also built a jump, which got an excellent workout (and we have the photos to prove it, too!) Lots of fun, and it was a tired set of Scouts who headed down to the lots at 4:30.
After dropping off our rentals, we headed out for another Troop tradition, Big John's - a combination restaurant/arcade near the slopes. As usual, they stuffed us again - but the Scouts were less interested in the food than the arcade games. There were two new ones this year - one was a bass-fishing game, where you picked lures and caught fish. A reel was built in. Sounds dull, but it was actually quite fun and very popular. Ross D. set a new record for the game with a 19 pound bass! The other game was a skiing race, going down a very difficult simulated course featuring forest fires, stampeding caribou herds, cliffs, and other routine ski slope obstacles! Yep, I hate it when I have to avoid caribou, burning trees, huge rocks, and other maniacal skiers - don't you?
After an hour of similar fun and games, we returned to the hall for our second movie of the weekend - the full version of "Aliens," scary as usual. Bed at 10:15, again quiet quick.
On Monday, we rose at 6:15 and hit the road at 7 sharp, good speed. After a breakfast stop in Romney, home by 11:00. A great weekend! Participants included: Tom C., Drew DeL., Michael D., Ross D., Todd G., Matt G., Dan Hu., Will K., Jack O., Neil S., and Chris and Eric W., plus adults Hovey K., John K., Tim Hu., Rusty P., Rick W., and yours truly.
At 4 o'clock sharp on Friday, January 19th, 30 members of the Troop joined in the Inauguration festivities, traveling to the MCI Center for the "Concert Celebrating America's Youth." Our participation was courtesy of Assistant Scoutmaster Al M., who was heavily involved in the background organization of the Inauguration this year.
We assembled at the Ballston METRO stop at 3:15, and made it to the Center with about 10 minutes to spare. Security was surprisingly tight, with lots of uniformed officers, "obvious" and not-so-obvious Secret Service Agents, and mandatory passage through metal detectors before being allowed in. We had great seats - right on the floor, middle section, about 45 rows from the stage. The guys all enjoyed playing with small light-sticks and pom-poms handed out to all ticket holders (Jack O. eventually looked like an alien creature with a red, white, and blue pom-pom wig and about 20 glowing light-sticks (in about 4 or 5 different colors) sticking out from under his hat). After a stirring opening by the US Marine Corps Band, Jaci Velasquez sang America the Beautiful. Then Presidential nephew George B. Bush gave some preliminary remarks on the opportunities available to today's youth, and introduced the first group of the night: Destiny's Child, to the shrieks of 5,000 delighted teeny boppers. Only about 150 decibels or so - ouch.
The rest of the night flipped back and forth between special guests and music. After "Destiny's Child," it was Mel Martinez, Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, then the child actor star from the mouse movie Stewart Little), then another group: 9 Days. Then another young boy "Joshua," who introduced Rod Paige, the Secretary of Education, followed by Country Music Superstar Lee-Ann Womack (singing her #1 hit: "(I Hope You) Dance," great job). Next up was Dara Torres, the 34 year old swimmer who won 2 gold and 3 bronze medals at the last Olympics, followed by Secretary of State Colin Powell and a student named Portia (or Porscha, like the car), no last name given, both of whom introduced President George W. Bush. Both Powell and Bush had some inspirational remarks for the crowd before leaving for other Inauguration activities. Olympian Dominique Dawes and Washington Redskin Champ Bailey were next, and introduced the next group: 98 Degrees. After a video of Laura Bush, MTV "Real World" personality Rachel Carpus Duffy introduced Jessica Simpson, who closed out the night with about 5 songs, just a fabulous voice. In fact, everyone did a dynamite job, and even if the rah-rah Republicanism was (not surprisingly) a bit thick here and there, everyone clearly enjoyed themselves. Probably the closest most of us will ever get to the President, too - call it 80 feet away. After a confetti bath for yours truly (courtesy of Matt G. and Jack O.), we hit the road around 6:40 or so. In all, just under 2 1/2 hours of music and speeches, a very enjoyable evening.
Participants included: Luke B., Tom C., Matthew C., Drew and Roy DeL., Ray DiN., Jim, Jonathan and Michael D., Todd G., Matt G., Katherine and Rebecca G., Daniel M., Jack O., Colleen and Marilee P., Nathan P., Hugh and Thomas S., Charlie, Colleen, Holly, and Noel S., Carl S., JJ T., Carey, Kelly, and Mark T., and yours truly. Thanks especially to ASM Al M., who went way above the call to get our tickets, and also to Rebecca F., who graciously allowed us the use of her front yard as a parking lot for the Ballston METRO stop.
On Super Bowl Sunday, January 28th, this summer's Wind River trekkers, plus 2 "extra" Scouts and 2 guests, headed out for a day hike over Sugar Loaf Mountain. Sugar Loaf is the single mountain setting to the west of I-270 in the Poolesville area. Although not a major climb, the views of the surrounding countryside are excellent because the mountain sits alone. The weather conditions were surprisingly nice - sunny, temps in the upper 30's to lower 40's, and not too much wind. We arrived around 9:30, and after doing some stretching routines, started off on a 6 mile circuit hike, stopping for lunch at the "White Rocks" overlook. The trail was a bit tricky in many sections due to ice and snow, but not dangerously so. Of note were the many deer trails crisscrossing the (human) trails. White Rocks gave an excellent view to the west, into Virginia. After lunch, we continued our circuit around the mountain, and eventually summited around 2:00, to the best views of the day. After about 20 minutes on top, we headed back down a fairly steep trail (fortunately not ice or snow covered) to return to the parking lot. About 7.5 miles in all. Back to St. Agnes by 3:30, in plenty of time to make the Super Bowl rout. All in all, a good day!
Participants included: Luke, Rob, and Will B., Max D., Mike and Sam F., Ted and Todd G., Matt G., Al M., Nathan P., Hugh and Thomas S., Mark and Neil S., plus guests RJ C. and Xavier (missed his last name), and yours truly.
- Dr. Bob, Scoutmaster
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