Author: admin_xnrdk3

I liked this canoe trip very much and others did too. First around 5:30 PM we went to the church and started to load up gear and left around 6. The drive was about 2 and a half hours and we got to the Grimes Canoe Base. Once we got there we started putting up the kitchen and ate our crackle barrel (small snack for dinner). After that we set up our bed in the tents. The tents were little structures with canvas over the top with mattresses on the inside. Once we woke up, we started making breakfast and getting our stuff together for canoeing. We got our life jackets and our paddles and got in vans to get the the river. We then set off on the river. We canoed for about 3 hours and then stopped for lunch and fishing. Here we caught many fish that we ate that night.We picked up our canoed for another 3 hours with a few stops and got back to Grimes at around 4:00. We were extremely tired. Then we cooked dinner around 5:45 and the people that caught fish cooked their fish. We then ate and cleaned up. It was great. Then we went to this field and played a night game called slender. It is sort of like hide and go seek tag but creepier. After that, we had the fire ceremony and told some stories. After we went to bed and in the morning we ate breakfast. We then got all of our stuff and put it in the car. Then we drove another 2 hours and got back to the church. I loved the trip and I think every body else did too!

 

This backpacking trip was great fun. We had to wake up around 6:00 am and get to the church. Once we got there we made sure that everything was ready and got in the vans. We rented big vans that held 12 people each.

    

The vans were pretty good but the seatbelts were aggravating. Sometimes they would just lock and you couldn’t pull them out. That day we drove about 11 or 12 hours in the vans and got to the military armory in Oklahoma City. We slept in a gym type room. We used our mats and our sleeping bag.

    

We woke the next day and ate some cereal then got in the vans. We drove another 11 hours and got to the Great Sand Dunes in Colorado.

    

They were AWESOME.

    

We got there that night and set up camp and ate, then went to the sand dunes and tried out our sleds and skateboards. The skateboards didn’t really work that well, but the sleds did. We played around for a little while then went back to camp and went to sleep.

    

We got up that morning, ate breakfast, and went to the dunes.

    

We did a little project thing and picked up all these stakes. After the project, we went to a pool called Hooper pool. It was great. It was like a hot tub pool.

    

We swam and had showers there, then we went to the dunes and climbed to the top.

    

    

    

It was great up there. We sledded down to the bottom then went to the camp and went to bed. We got up that morning and drove a few hours to the trail head.

        

We had lunch (honey and almond butter on tortillas and dried apples) and we hit the trail separating into two patrols. I (Raef) was in the Sasquatch patrol. My patrol hiked from the trail head to the Conejos falls. That hike was about 6 miles.

      

It was pretty but we had to set up our tents fast because it started raining. We got to choose our food for each breakfast and dinner. I had noodles and chicken that night. We slept and woke up early. I had oatmeal that morning. We packed everything up and hiked to blue lake. This was the hardest day. Lots of Steep up and down hill. It was about 8 miles.

    

    

 

We got to blue lake, set up, and some people went swimming.

   

It was freezing cold. We ate dinner (I had beef stew) and went to bed. Woke up the next morning and hiked 8 miles to Timber Lake and ate tortilla and packet chicken.

    

We didn’t quite get to Timber Lake because we took the wrong trail at fork. Thanks to someone we named Mountain Man, we were sent in the right way. We ate dinner (I ate chicken teriyaki) and went to bed. The next day we hiked 8 miles back to blue lake.

    

We swam a lot when we got there. We ate dinner (I ate lasagna) and went to bed. The next day we hiked 6 miles to the trailhead to conclude our backpacking.

     

It was a great and very pretty trip. From the trailhead we drove to a Mexican all you can eat buffet. It was the best!!!! Then we drove to a hot springs that felt amazing.

      

We then drove back to the Great Sand Dunes and slept there.

    

We then woke up and drove around 11 hours to the Amory and played indoor Frisbee and went to bed. We ate at subway and taco bell. We woke up, had oatmeal, and hit the road for another 10 hours and got to the church. In all the trip was amazing! I had great fun on this trip and I know everyone else did too.

Trip Photos

 

Most of the troop went to the June boxwell summer camp. In all, it was a great success. There were many merit badge classes we could have took. Me personally, I took Lifesaving, wood and leather work, and canoeing. We also could have took environmental science, jetsking, first aid, basketry, and many many more. We also brought an awesome foosball table for free time under the pavilion. The food was pretty good at summer boxwell. In all Summer Boxwell was very fun and we all got a lot of work done.

Over the past month and a half I have had a very successful eagle project at Lockeland Springs Park. The task consisted of constructing a bridge that was about 15 feet long and 4 feet wide. I had arranged four work-weekends to complete the project.

Workday #1:

This first day we set to digging four holes that would be the foundation pylons for the bridge. Had great weather, too many shovels, an excellent work crew, and not enough rock-smashing devices; but we made it work.

    

Workday #2 & 3

On the next two workdays we completed the two stages required to place the concrete foundation for the bridge. Now at this point I have to greatly thank Collin and Frederick for volunteering their time for both workdays to help me out. The three of us +Libor did a lot of tedious measuring and made a lot of wet concrete.

    

    

Workday 4 & 5

On our last two workdays we completed our most visually rewarding work. On day 4 we went from some concrete cylinders in the ground to a bridge one can walk on. On the last workday we finished the final touches on the bridge’s nearby landscaping.

    

Thanks again for everyone who assisted me in the completion of my project and to the Lockeland Springs Neighborhood Association for their grant to help fund the project.  It is much appreciated!

Thank you,

Antonin Koudelka

 

We first arrived at the church at 5 and left to go on the 4 hour car ride. Near the end of the drive the two patrols (mountain lions and the bears) cars split up to start at different spots. The bears patrol just camped in the parking lot. The mountain lions (my patrol) hiked to a campsite called the great meadows campsite. We got up, ate breakfast, and got hiking. About mid day we came to a problem. We realized that we went the wrong way when we were hiking the night before. We had to hike the whole rock creek loop trail to get us back to the parking lot. The original plan was to meet the other patrol to exchange keys and keep going, but when we met up with the bears it was later than expected. So, we decided to camp together and go back the way that the mountain lions came.         On the way to the campsite, the bears had to go down something called mods crack. It was(what i hear) a long, skinny, muddy valley between rocks. The way back was very beautiful and fun. There was this very colorful moss that was awesome. Then, we got to our parking lot and we ate lunch. After lunch, we got on the road. In all, the trip was pretty fun.