Greetings to All.

"Of Note"

John B. Montgomery, Troop 111 Eagle Scout #17 (10/13/65), was awarded one of this year's 24 Silver Beaver Awards by the National Capital Area Council. John has not been associated with the Troop since I arrived, but has been active for many years at the Council executive level. He did come to our 50th Anniversary Dinner in 1990. The Silver Beaver is the top Council award, and is awarded to 1 out of every 1,000 Scout volunteers. The Troop has had roughly a dozen Silver Beavers over its almost 64 year history.

As was noted in the last Minute, Michael Strasburg went to the North Pole as part of a NASA mission in April. A photo of Mike and a co-trekker at the pole on April 21st has been posted at: <http://www.troop111.org/news6303.html> Warning: This takes some time to load with dial-up modems.

Troop 111's participation was prominently mentioned in the February/March issue of the Scouter Digest, in an article entitled: "Orienteering Championships" (page 22). Noted were William L. and Ian H.'s second place finish (out of 257 Scouts) in the "Route Orienteering" category, and Peter C. and Nick R.'s fourth place finish in the "Younger Scout" category. If we had had just one more Scout attend (to meet the minimum of 10), Troop 111 would have placed third overall.

Advancement

Although we had little "regular" advancement in June, it was still an excellent month, as Luke Beckman and Eric Wolff both passed their Eagle Boards of Review on June 22nd, becoming the Troop's 86th and 87th Eagles, respectively. Luke was first up; his Honor Roll:

Luke M. Beckman
---------------

Pack 149 Cub and Webelos Scout (Class of '98), Earned Arrow of Light
36 Merit Badges
91 Days of Short-Term Camping
89 Days of Long Term Camping, including:
* 4 Summer Camps (Tuckahoe twice; Powhatan twice)
* 6 (soon to be 7) High Adventure Treks (Rideau Canal/Canada, Killarney/Canada, AT Death March, C&O Canal Bike Trek, Wind River Range, Philmont 2002)

Totin Chip Award
Paul Bunyan Award
4 50-Miler Awards
JLT Certificate
50 Hour Community Service Award
International Activity Patch
Mile Swim Award
Tuckahoe Ironman Award
World Conservation Award
Elected to the O/A
Mountain Shepherd Wilderness Survival School - Student of the Year, 2001

Patrol Scribe, Asst. Patrol Leader, Patrol Leader, Philmont Crew Chief, Troop Guide

Rising Junior at Washington-Lee High School (4.0 QPI, National Honor Society, National Honor Roll)

Band and Jazz Combo, 2 years
Crew, 2 years

Lifeguard at Fort Myer, 2 summers

Luke's Project was a multi-part effort at Culpeper Garden Retirement Home in Arlington. The primary effort was building 14 large, very heavy-duty flower beds. The surrounding overgrown forested areas were also cleared. A heck of an effort, about 360 man-hours in all.

Luke is planning to finish the IB Program at Washington-Lee, then is looking to join one of the military academies, majoring in pre-medical studies.

----------

Eric's Honor Roll:

Eric R. Wolff
-------------

Pack 111 Cub and Webelos Scout (Class of '96), Earned Arrow of Light
29 Merit Badges
86 Days of Short-Term Camping
71 Days of Long Term Camping, including:
* 4 (Different) Summer Camps (Goshen, Shenandoah, Powhatan, Powhatan/COPE)
* 5 (soon to be 6) High Adventure Treks (Rideau Canal/Canada, Killarney/Canada, Philmont 2000, C&O Canal Bike Trek, Pennsylvania Grand Canyon Trek)

Totin Chip Award
Paul Bunyan Award
3 50-Miler Awards
JLT Certificate
100 Hour Community Service Award
International Activity Patch
Polar Bear Swimmer Award
2 Mile Swim Awards
Tuckahoe Ironman Award
Alonzo Stagg Medal
2 Scoutmaster Awards for Most Active Scouts ('99, '00)

Librarian, Patrol Leader, Philmont Crew Chief, Troop Guide, Senior Patrol Leader

Graduating Senior from Yorktown High School (3.6 QPI, with 17 Advanced or AP Courses, 1480 SAT)

Ultimate Frisbee (National placing team), 3 years
Wrestling, 1 year
Marching Band, 4 years

Extremely active and talented at music, especially piano and clarinet

Taught piano 3 years, Colonial Caterers 1 year

Eric's Project was a multi-part trail renovation at Upton Hill Regional Park in Arlington, which both complemented and supplemented earlier efforts by Adam Smith, Steven Strasburg, and especially Neil Stanga. Some of the efforts including installation of erosion barriers, eradicating a false trail, blazing all the paths in the park, building a new connector trail between two previously disconnected trails, renovating and lining trail, and installing about 2 dozen trail signs. In all, about 120 man-hours of work.

Eric is planning to attend The University of South Carolina, and intends to major in Music.

And lest we forget, Happy 18th Birthday, Eric!

Congratulations to both of the above Scouts!

[Summer Camp Advancement will be reported in the next "Minute".]

Upcoming Activities

The Troop will be sending 23 Scouts and Leaders to Europe starting July 15th, spending time in England and (mostly) Switzerland, including a "Hut-to-Hut" trek in the Swiss Alps. Meanwhile, back here in Arlington, the Troop started our traditional "Summer of Fun" activities tonight (a Troop movie night to see "The Hulk"). A DC United soccer game is next up, followed by Bowling Night (AMF in Annandale, July 28th).

Recent Activities

June's outdoor activities were reserved to Swiss trip preparation. On the first Sunday in June, David G., Patrick P., JJ T., and I headed to the Shenandoah National Park for a makeup hike over Robertson's Mountain. However, because the main range of the Shenandoah's was pretty well socked in with clouds, we decided to do a somewhat longer hike up the back side of Old Rag Mountain (which was mostly clear of clouds and fog). The threat of rain kept the usual crowds away, and so we enjoyed a leisurely lunch on top, taking in the ever shifting views to the west and the clouds shifted and parted. About 10 miles in all.

The following weekend, we took the entire Swiss trek Crew back to the Park, this time heading to Big Meadows campground in the heart of the Shenandoahs. Amazingly, we saw 3 bears (along with some spectacular vistas) on the way down Skyline Drive: First a surprisingly large sow with a single cub, and later a solo (probably a male) who was perched on a rock wall alongside the Drive and basically checking out the traffic situation. At Big Meadows, we were under the gun to set up before dark - and yours truly was *quite* unpleased to find that the tents and gear boxes we had brought were missing various parts and critical items. Luckily we had brought extras, but the memory remains, and not happily either!

Saturday morning we got an early start, with an already sultry humidity promising a brutal day. In order to give everyone a realistic challenge on a par with some of what we'll face in Switzerland, Ted G. picked a classic hike with about 4,500 total feet in elevation change: Down Cedar Run Canyon, then up White Oak Canyon. The trails were basically gushing water from all the rains of the previous week, and were fairly treacherous. As we headed down, the heat and humidity both steadily increased, promising a tough climb for the second half. After about a 45 minute climb, we stopped at a sizable waterfall for lunch, where Ted and a number of the Scouts took a dip to wash off the sweat and gain a temporary respite from the heat. But we were soon back on the trail again, and the hike was all it was promised, tough and utterly slimy. Some of us (myself in particular) got all we could handle. But we finally got back to the ridgeline, then took a side trail through Limberlost to regain the Appalachian trail, and from there back to the vehicles.

Back at camp, we did a tarp set-up instruction (fortunately, the experienced Scouts set up a second tarp as well), then started dinner. But just as dinner was about ready, we got hit by a thunderstorm with terrific amounts of rain and chill wind. Almost an hour and a half before things calmed down enough to eat. But this postponed our planned gear shakedown. After dinner, the Scouts elected to play frisbee versus building a campfire, and we had a fairly early bedtime in anticipation of an early reveille.

On Sunday, we had a quick breakdown and breakfast, then headed back down the Drive, where this morning we saw an enormous wild turkey, at least 30 pounds. Back to St. Agnes for our gear shakedown - where we were less than thrilled to find that the reason why many of the Scouts were skipping up the trail while yours truly was contemplating a heart-lung transplant was that they were way deficient on gear, and were carrying 10-15 pounds less than they should have been. So another lesson learned, by the adults if not the Scouts.... After some lecturing, we called it a weekend.

Participants included: Burton B., Luke B., Matt C., Drew D., Ray D., David G., Ted and Todd G., Matt G., Brad G., Patrick P., Dale R., Charlie S., Carl S., Neil S., JJ T., Mark T., Eric and Rick W., and yours truly.

-----

The following Saturday, the Troop held its biannual Yard Sale at St. Agnes gym. In all we raised about a thousand dollars - and more importantly cleared out a lot of Troop closets, basements, and garages! Thanks to all who donated time and/or "stuff" to the sale.

Our Summer Camp experiences will be reported in the next "Minute".

- Dr. Bob, Scoutmaster

Home.
21 July 2003