Home.8 February 2000
Greetings to All. I hope everyone's happy with our first real winter since `96. Note that our next big storm is due this Thursday night and into Friday - - if we can trust the Weather Channel, that is! And if you're beginning to grumble, cheer up! - my old stomping grounds in upstate New York got two snowfalls over the last week and a half: 18 inches and 32 inches, respectively... So there! Let's get to it....
We welcome two new potential ASM's this month - both arriving via the Troop website. Matt Beekman, an Eagle Scout, and Nathan Tubbs, a Life Scout. We'll do a more formal intro at the next Court of Honor. More info to follow.... Matt, Nathan: Welcome!
There were no rank advancements this past month, but we are expecting a bumper crop at the February Board of Review. Of note, Matt G. passed his First Class Practical Exam on the first try at Camp Tuckahoe this past weekend. Congratulations!
Scout Mass - Next Sunday (February 13th), we will be hitting our first Scout Mass at St. Agnes in at least 3 years; 9am Mass. We hope that Father Gould will be able to give this particular Mass. All Troop 111 Scouts are asked to attend, in full uniform. Please show up by no later than 8:45am in order to ensure seating. We will be in a reserved section near the front of the Church - but the 9am Mass is always crowded, and some of our parishioners have conceptual difficulties with the term "reserved." We will probably have one Scout handle the Lector Duties for this Mass, and several others will bring the offering/gifts to the Altar during the Mass. We would like to make a good showing - please make a sincere effort to attend! Thanks!
SKI TRIP III - For the third straight year, the Troop will be heading to Kooser State Park in Pennsylvania over the President's Day Holiday, for a long weekend of skiing at Seven Springs and possibly Hidden Valley. This will be our third - and final - Troop skiing trip for this season. We'll be staying in small cabins at the park - each is well heated, and has kitchen facilities. This has always been a popular trip - note that "last chance" permission slips are due this Monday night.
A) At the Monday, February 14th meeting, we will be measuring all Scouts who need rental skis for the Seven Springs trip, plus getting their parent's signatures on the liability release forms. If you're intending on attending, and need to get rentals, you and at least one parent MUST come to this meeting!
As noted above, we are still accepting permission slips for this trip, at tomorrow night's meeting (February 7th). This will be your last opportunity to get your permission slips in.
B) Troop Registrations/Camp Powhatan Deposits - If you haven't made your payments yet, please do so at tomorrow night's meeting. Thanks!
C) Personal Fitness Merit Badge - Starts Sunday, February 6th. See Rob B.'s Mass email of February 5th for details. If you missed this session, contact Rob asap. As previously noted, Personal Fitness is an Eagle Required Merit Badge - and will become significantly more difficult to achieve after April 1st.
D) 25/10 - 50/20 - This year, the Troop will be extending our traditional 25/10 Hike, and running a 50/20 Hike, on March 11th (Rain Date March 18th.) This event is mandatory for the Philmont 2000 Scouts. For all other Scouts, this event offers a great opportunity to knock off one of the serious Hiking Merit Badge hikes (e.g., the required 20 miler, which is usually the toughest one for Scouts to plan and carry out.) Hiking is also an Eagle Required Merit Badge. This is a fairly difficult event, and the time to start prepping for this event is as soon as the snow melts off the sidewalks - not March 10th. See Ted and Ann G.'s mass email of February 5th for more information.
E) C&O Canal Bike Hike - We will be biking the entire C & O Canal towpath from August 5th - 9th as the Troop's High Adventure trek this summer. The towpath is 185 miles, and side trips to campsites or historical sites/activities will add another 25 miles or so. We last did the Canal in 1995; it was a highly enjoyable trip. Note that this trip will qualify Scouts for the coveted 50-Miler Award, and also offer all attendees the opportunity to earn the Cycling Merit Badge - yet another Eagle Required Merit Badge (you may be noticing a developing pattern here.) Don Muir, an REI employee, has offered to be a counselor for the Troop for this effort. The G.'s have asked all interested Scouts (and Adults) to verify their interest in participating; please do so asap. See the Ann and Ted G.'s mass email of February 5th for more information.
-Canaan Valley Ski Trip-
Well, if it was the Martin Luther King Day Holiday Weekend (Lee/Jackson Day for us Virginia traditionalists), it was obviously time for the Troop's annual trip to Canaan Valley, West Virginia, for our first major skiing trip of the new year. This was, believe it or not, our 13th straight year in Tucker County, dating back to 1988 (and some years, we've actually gone twice!) This was one of our smallest groups in years, however, with many Scouts passing on the weekend due to sporting events and looming Science Fair project deadlines. We left on time, but our Friday night escape out I-66 was slower than normal, putting us under the gun the entire drive. Fortunately, dinner in Winchester went a bit easier than usual, and we didn't run into any serious weather. The mountain driving was also pretty reasonable, with all roads well cleared of snow until we reached the last stretch of Rt. 93 heading into Davis.
Our later than hoped for arrival in Davis forced a quick re-allocation of Scouts needing rentals into three of our vans, which headed directly to the Timberline Resort, while the other two vans headed in the opposite direction to our new digs in Thomas - a large house owned by the local Methodist Church. [Recall that Troop 96's Scout Hall has been sold due to Dr. Patrick's advancing illness, and is no longer available to us.] Well, we made Timberline with all of 15 minutes to spare, but made it we did - saving hours of time and hassle the next morning. Plus we got the better rentals, since we got them out of the main rental shop, and not the group shop. With that, we headed back to Thomas, for 2 hours of WWF horsing around (not surprising after 5 hours in the vehicles.) Sleep came late, but as soon as everyone stopped for 2 minutes, it ambushed the lot of them in short order. Minus 5 degrees outside, a bitter wind blowing, and a beautiful starlit sky overhead.
Saturday morning came earlier than anyone wanted, but we were on our way quickly enough, stopping for breakfast at Deerfield's Restaurant in Canaan Valley, with a brilliant sunrise for company. The lifts at Timberline officially opened at 8:30, but they starting letting us on just before 8am - so 111 got the best of the slopes for almost 2 hours, with no lift lines. The benefits for getting up early. Timberline had about 6 major slopes open, including the "Salamander" - a 2 mile long beginner slope which is an excellent way to shake a season's rust off.
The Holiday "crowd" was amazingly small - after mid-morning, I think my longest lift line of the day was no more than 4 or 5 minutes, and most were less than 2 minutes. Some years, the lift lines this weekend run up to 30 minutes just before and after lunchtime. This year, we had 6 snow boarders and 16 skiers on the slopes. In due respect for the weather - still less than 20 degrees, with a sharp wind - we maintained an Adult presence in the lodge for the day, with each Adult taking a 1 1/2 hour shift. Always nice to have a "home base." At 4pm, we called it a day, loaded all the rentals into the White Van, and headed off for Mass at St. Thomas' - once again, we received a nice recognition from the Pastor (who was unfortunately quite ill) during the Mass. After that, we headed off to Sirriani's for our annual pizza dinner - deeeelicious! Back at the house, we enjoyed our first movie of the weekend: "Mission Impossible"; then hit the rack (a lot earlier than Friday!) The wind started really whipping around about 3am, literally shaking the house; a promise for a chilly Sunday.
On Sunday morning, once again, we were up at oh-dark-thirty, and quickly off to Deerfields, minus the White van (which had a starter problem.) Although we had broken clouds as we finished breakfast, heavy overcast was moving in from the west, and the wind was still pretty stiff. The temperature had lifted into the thirties, but the breeze had us all happy to have overdressed. Today was Canaan Valley Resort (about 3 miles further down the road from Timberline.) Canaan Valley had clearly done a superior job versus Timberline on snow-blowing, and had almost twice as many slopes open. The lifts opened around 8:30 or so; again, about a half-hour early, so we were (again) pleased to be early ourselves. Rick W. and I headed back to Thomas, where tapping on the starter with a hammer got the white van started immediately. Unfortunately, this was only a temporary fix, and we had more problems with it later that day. Back at the resort, we enjoyed another full day of high-speed manic downhill, with slowly clearing skies and temperatures clibing into the 40's.
At 4pm, we again called it a day (passing on the planned snow tubing), only to find the white van had died again. Tapping on the starter accomplished nothing, as did outright beating on it as exasperation set in. After a few minutes of this futility, the Troop headed back to Thomas, while Rusty and I called AAA and baby-sat the vehicle. We linked up with everyone 2 hours later at Big John's, having received permission to leave the van in the Canaan Valley parking lot overnight, and a promise from AAA to be there first thing Monday morning. Big John's was mega-cheeseburgers, plus an hour and a half enjoying a huge variety of video games (the restaurant is also about half-arcade.) A zoo as usual, but thoroughly enjoyed by all. Back at Thomas, Movie #2 was "Jurassic Park," which took us all to bedtime. A very quiet house tonight!
On Monday morning, our departure was in bit pieces; Hovey and Rick left at 6am, while John and Frank took the rest of the Troop around 8:30am (after dropping Rusty and I off at Canaan around 7am.) True to their word, the local AAA garage had us repaired and on the road by 9:30, and we hit the road for Arlington via the Interstate route. Although sorely tempted, Rusty and I resisted stopping at Wisp Resort (near Deep Creek, Maryland) for another half-day of skiing (and yes, it looked very nice indeed!) We pulled in around 2pm, so not too bad. Despite the van problems, a great weekend! (The only post-event bummer was that the Canaan Valley/Davis/Thomas area got 25 inches of fresh snow the following Thursday - Arrgh!)
Participants included: Max D., Sam F., Todd G., Matt G., Dan H., Will K., Neal K., William L., Jack O., J.T. R., Brian M., Michael R., Thomas S., Neil S., and Chris W., and Eric W. Thanks to Hovey K., John K., Rusty P., Frank R., and Rick W., and a Special Thanks to Ann and Ted G. for all their planning efforts. Same time, same station, 2001!
Finishing out the month, we headed up to Camp Tuckahoe for our traditional Winter Cabin Campout. For a change, it was guaranteed to be a real winter experience, since southern Pennsylvania got a solid 16 inches of snow the previous week. Since Tuckahoe is so close, we decided to cut ourselves a break, and headed out *after* dinner Friday night; this worked out pretty well, once we got past Rockville, and we arrived at camp about 9:15pm or so. 5 degrees on the nose, but fortunately almost no wind. A stunning, star-filled sky overhead.
This year we moved up from "Holly" Lodge (the smallest in the camp) to Oak Lodge - the next largest - which had a large kitchen area with a fireplace insert, and a large bunkroom with fairly new wireframe bunkbeds. Colder than a you-know-what inside! Our immediate enhancements were a fire, some decent lightbulbs, and a heater in the bunkroom. That (eventually) got things pretty reasonable, and everyone settled in to start the intial planning for Saturday night's massive game of "Diplomacy." Harold E. (Rich and Larry's buddy from Connecticut) showed up, and stunned one and all with his announced plans to sleep outside (fortunately, he was well prepared.) We ended the night with a quickie campfire program, featuring a 'chilling' version of the campfire classic "The Cremation of Sam McGee":
There are strange things done, in the midnight sun
By the men who toil for gold;
The Arctic trails, have their secret tales
That would make your blood run cold;
The Northern Lights, have seen strange sights,
But the strangest they ever did see
Was that night on the marge, of Lake Lebarge
When I cremated Sam McGee.
and so on... (Can't you feel the shivers run up and down your spine?) That polished off the night, and we all hit the rack - with Rich and I splitting three fire stoking duties.
By dawn things were starting to warm up (inside, that is.) Breakfast was pancakes et al., courtesy of Stefan and the T3 Scouts. During prep, Harold and Rich took everyone else outside for some basic instruction in winter survival skills; good stuff! After breakfast, we headed to the athletic field for an hour of football and Ultimate Frisbee, in a foot of brilliant, sun-lit powder. Tremendous fun! For the record, JJ T. scored the only touchdown of the day, and we all ate plenty of snow. With that, we headed back for a delicious lunch of English Muffin Pizzas, and fresh clothes. Once everyone was fed and warmed up, we headed back out for winter firebuilding practice, courtesy of Harold and Rich.
I worked with Matt G. on his First Class Practical Exam, which he raced through at a record pace until he reached - naturally - firebuilding! He managed to get it done on his second match, however, and became the first of his entry class to make First Class. Good job Matt! Harold ended the firebuilding session demonstrating emergency firebuilding with a military flare, then emergency snow-marking with a smoke grenade (no, not the exploding kind!) Amazingly effective. After that, everyone practice their new-found firebuilding skills, and/or enjoyed a bit of a snow-chunk fight (no way could you make decent snowballs from this stuff), and Rich led a squad in building the ultimate snow-fort, eventually including JJ's fire inside. I spent about 2 hours sawing additional firewood, since the camp was officially "out." Should have brought my chainsaw! This brought us to darkness and dinner, so a long afternoon outside. Dinner was a Stefan Special - monster tacos, more than we could eat. Good stuff. Cleanup, chess games, and card games brought to the kickoff of the mega-game of Diplomacy. I headed down to discuss the oncoming snowstorm with the camp director (and to buy some camp patches); after some debate, Rich, Harold and I decided to have the Troop stick around, since the snow wasn't expected until "about 11am" - and we were all three pretty wiped out, too - but the rest of the camp basically emptied out by 10pm, with only part of one other Troop staying Saturday night.
Well, either discretion got the better part of valor, or maybe they didn't spend the afternoon sawing any more wood; who knows? It was a quiet sleeping night for us, that's for sure - proof positive that we can play hard, too! On my last fire-stoking session, however (6:30am), I was startled to see that the first loom of dawn was also illuminating the day's first snowfall. So much for "11am"! We went ahead and woke everyone up at 7:00, and were basically packed up, cleaned up, inspected and gone by 8:15, in a moderate but growing snow. Just after Emmitsburg, Maryland, we began to run into a little freezing rain, but it was a fortunately brief session. Breakfast in Thurmont, then home to Arlington - on dry pavement, oddly enough. The snow started here 15 minutes after the last Scout left the Parish Center - now that's what I call good timing!
A fun weekend; participants included: Luke B., Drew D., Matt G., Will K., Stefan N., Jack O., Dale R., Charlie S., Carl S., Neil S., JJ T., and Mark T. Thanks to Rich S. and Harold E., and also to Ted and Ann for helping plan the weekend. Special kudos to Stefan N., who did yeoman work in planning and executing a high-quality menu while instructing all our T3 Scouts; Nice Job!
- Dr. Bob
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