Home.28 July 1999
Believe it or not, it's one month where we had no one join, and no one leave! A rare moon indeed!
As always seems to be the case, the Troop ran a blistering series of Boards of Review just before the Court of Honor, with many Scouts reaching higher ranks just in time to be recognized at the Court. Advancing to Tenderfoot: John B., Max D., Sam F., JT R.; To Second Class: Christopher Bks., Jeffrey C., Chris Y.; To Star: Charles B.; To Life: John A., Matt C., John C., Daniel Ho., Dan Hu., Neal K., and Jay P.
On the Merit Badge Front (April and May), Chris Bgs., Christopher Bks. and Will K. earned Swimming, Chris T. earned Citizenship in the Community, Daniel Ho. and John P. Earned Citizenship in the Nation, Richard B., Brad J. and Jay P. earned Citizenship in the World, Will K. and Neal S. earned Art, Brendan M. and Michael S. earned Communications, Adam S. earned Home Repairs, Michael S. earned Family Life, and Chris T. earned Music. I think I got `em all.... (Errors or omissions, please contact me asap.)
Thanks to Rita R. and all her cohorts for running so many Boards of Review, and to Jim and Kim S. for keeping the Advancement Records continuously updated as we approached the Court of Honor.
On another, more "unusual" front, Stefan N. became an Ordeal member of the Order of the Arrow by completing his ordeal at the Arlington Outdoor Lab the weekend before Memorial Day. Congratulations! And a Hearty Thanks to Brad J., Chapter Chief, who basically ran the show at the Lab the entire weekend. Well Done, Brad!
1) Vint Hill Camporee Patches - Due to an error on my part, we gave the Camporee patches (for last fall's District Camporee at Vint Hill) to the wrong Scouts at the Court of Honor. I caught this in time to recover the patches, and Jim will soon be giving them to the correct Scouts. Just in case you were wondering....
2) Advancement Records - As you know, I received a great many emails or inquiries at Scout meetings concerning records. After a stupendous effort on the part of Kim and Jim S., we generated an advancement Report for Council, which will be duplicated in a separate email. This covers all Advancements since the last Court of Honor, that is, mid-November. Please check this list very carefully for errors and/or omissions; as previously noted, you are the final check. Please forward any noted errors to me. If your records are correct, please notify me of that fact as well. Thus, I should receive an email from every single Scout in the Troop except the current Eagle Scouts.
This coming weekend, we will be doing another Saturday/Sunday overnighter, this time a backpacking hike to Little Sluice Mountain north of Woodstock, Virginia. As noted above, the Troop 111 Yard Sale is also this Saturday. On Sunday, June 6th, we will be holding our Annual Planning Sesssion (Details Needed Here!) On Saturday, June 19th, Chain Bridge District will be holding its Annual Awards Dinner, at Fort Myer; as noted above, all Eagle Scouts who had their Boards of Review between June 1st, 1998 and May 31st, 1999, may attend this banquet for free, and will be recognized as a group. Our six Eagles represent about 10% of the District's total for this past Scouting Year! On Monday, June 21st, we will be holding our Summer Camp Orientation Meeting, at the Scout Hall; all first or second year campers must attend, along with a parent. On Sunday, June 27th, we're off to Camp Powhatan for a week of summer camp. We've also got two Eagle Boards of Review in June, so as you can see, it's going to be a boring month!
Although May was somewhat of a wind-down month after the frenzy of the two Projectorees, we still managed to fit in a nice Saturday - Sunday overnighter in at Big Meadows (in the Shenandoah National Park) just before Memorial Day weekend. This one started out on Saturday afternoon (the first really hot and humid day we've had for a campout in some time), and we left all rather sweaty, with air conditioners going full blast. Despite the Saturday afternoon departure, it was still a slow drive out 66 all the way past Rt 123, with very heavy traffic. Heading west out of Warrenton, we moved into the first wave of the cold front moving into the area, with increasingly heavy rain as we headed up towards Skyline Drive at Thornton Gap. Making life even more exciting, we found out that our intended campground - Lewis Mountain - was already completely full, so we headed off to the alternate - Big Meadows - with our fingers crossed. Leaving the rain behind as we headed south on the Drive, we were treated to some outstanding views both to the east and (especially) the west, down into the Shenandoah Valley.
At Big Meadows, we were quite fortunate to get the last two sets of adjacent campsites, two pairs of two campsites each, about 150 yards apart. After a quick Patrol division into two "splinter patrols," we did a leisurely camp setup, first the rain-tarps (soon needed!), then tents, then dinner. The adults mostly passed on the ravioli in favor of the main lodge, but Ted and I manfully stuck it out. Following cleanup, the first showers of the evening started moving in, but the Scouts all voted nonetheless to go down to the giant fields adjacent to the main lodge (the "Big Meadows") to blow off some steam and terrorize the local deer population for awhile - punctuated by the occasional flash of lightning and boom of thunder. Just as dusk arrived, however, a very dense fog arose (2 minutes from clear and rainy to pea-soup), and we called it a night and headed back, everyone wet but happy. It was raining too hard for a campfire at this point (unless you had a full can of lighter fluid, like our neighbors), so we instead held a joke session under the tarp, which eventually graduated into an hour-long version of the classic Troop 111 ghost story "The Blue Mist." This had the Scouts so mesmerized that no one noticed that the rain had stopped until the story was over. With that, we soon had a blazing inferno going, and started drying out while enjoying a nearly lethal overdose of marshmallows and s'mores. We called it a night just as the second round of rain moved in, and enjoyed a mostly quiet evening with three or four hour-long rain showers, with fortunately no heavy weather or rain.
Saturday dawned bright and mostly clear, to the enraged calls of a flock of crows rallying around an owl about a hundred yards from our campsite. Since everything was still pretty wet, we held off on camp breakdown, and instead snagged some breakfast, held a brief religious service, and headed off for a quick hike over Bearfence Mountain. This trail parallels the Appalachian Trail, and has a pretty good rock scramble along the top edge, with excellent views to the east (and the last of the rain retreating away from us.) We got the pictures to prove it, too.
Of interest, while walking on the AT, we ran into two separate "Through Hikers," young guys doing the entire Appalachian Trail from Georgia to Maine this Spring and Summer. One had started in late February, with a few rest-stops along the way, while the other had begun in mid March, and had been hiking more-or-less continuously since starting. We chatted with them briefly, and gave each a round of applause, which sent them on their ways with smiles and slightly lighter feet. [As many of you know, I am intending to follow in their footsteps in 2008.] Returning to camp, we enjoyed a quick lunch, then broke down camp and packed up our unfortunately still wet gear. Off to the Meadows for a last run-around session, this time chasing the rabbits - the deer, having learned to avoid us the previous night, were no-where to be found! High noon, and back to Arlington for the Spring Court of Honor, under bright and sunny skies. Despite the weather on Saturday afternoon and overnight, a great weekend!
Participants included: Christopher Bks., Charles B., Matthew C., Ray D., David G., Todd G., Will K. Jack O., Dale R., Charlie S., Casey S., Steven S., JJ T., Mark T., Tom W., Eric W., and Chris Y.
And Thanks one and all to all the Adults who camped out and drove, especially Ted G. for his planning efforts with Steven S.
- Bob
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