Nashville Troop 3

This year, we decided to go back to Roan Mountain on the AT! Everyones favorite backpacking spot! Even though it was cold this time.😖

Despite the below-freezing nights, we had a fun time! We left Saturday morning as appose to Friday night because of the 3 day weekend. when we arrived at Carver’s Gap, it was about 20 degrees outside, and all the trees were coated with at least an inch of frost. These were harsh conditions, so we drove down to Roan Mountain State Park to camp for the night.

Sunday was a great trek up the mountain. it only took us about 45 minutes to an hour-and-a-half for everyone to scale the balds. For the rest of the day, we had a fun time! We ate a hardy lunch, got mesmerized by the view, established hang-out spots along the trail, and over all just had a great time!

Monday, we had to trek back down the mountain. we woke up at around 6:00 in the morning, packed our gear, and were out within 45 minutes. There was a storm coming so we knew we needed to act quickly! About half way through our hike that day, the rain gradually poured in! It wasn’t that big of a deal at first, but then some of us started taking off, and the rain was pouring harder and harder! We made it through, wet but happy!

I LOVE hiking Roan Mountain1 I’m sure that it’s my favorite hike and backpacking trip we’ve done! I hope that we go back again, and again.

P.S. If anyone wants to share pictures from the trip, feel free to email me.

Thanks to overwhelming community support, the turkey fry is once again SOLD OUT!! But if you’re still hankering for a juicy fried turkey, please sign up on our waitlist:

2018 Turkey Waitlist

We always fry a few extra birds “just in case” and these will go to waitlisted individuals once we determine that all reserved bird orders have been fulfilled. Also, if you include your email address we will add it to our early bird mailing list for 2019 fried turkeys so you won’t miss out on fried turkey next year!

Welcome to Troop 3’s 2018 Turkey Fry! We’d love to fry one up for you.

—> WE ARE SOLD OUT. PLEASE VISIT OUR WAITLIST<—

It was another successful Highland Games for Troop 3!

The Games themselves were fun, as always. We had patrol activities on Saturday, which included the tripod lashing, the team skies, the 4-gallon challenge, the orienteering challenge, and the canoe challenge. On Sunday came the personal challenges. The weight throw, the sledgehammer throw, and our favorite the caber toss. In spite of how these things sound, no one got hurt and everyone had a great time.

Plenty of great food was shared during this trip! Our traditional dessert cook-off and dutch oven baking resulted in a flurry of amazing tastes. The Whistle Pigz, my patrol cooked a hearty  Dutch oven lasagna and a creamy tres leches cake. The Honey Badgers won the Cook-Off and were awarded the treasured Troop 3 Golden Spoon for their peach cobbler, in the end.

Stay well everyone, and remember, as they say on “So I Murdered an Axe Murderer,” “If it’s not Scottish its crap!”

P.S. If anyone wants to share pictures from the trip, feel free to email me.

As I’ve said before, the canoeing or kayaking trips we do are always my favorite! This one Just backs my point up more.

We left the church at around 5:45 in the evening, we arrived at the base around 8:00 and got started on cracker barrel. Soon after cracker barrel, we got situated in our tents, which were surprisingly well built with tin roofs and solid oak. The logical next step was to go to sleep, and that’s just what we did.

Saturday is when the fun began! We woke up around 6:30, had a hearty breakfast of eggs and sausage, then prepared to go up to the lodge. At the lodge, we were given basic instruction then loaded up in the vans to go out on the water. When we finally got to the Buffalo River, we unloaded our boats and started out on the water. The river was pretty rocky, and there were plenty of downed trees that some of us ran into, but it was fun. For lunch, we went to this spot that Grimes owns right off the river, complete with a cornfield and swings. The second half of the day we did 7 quick miles, some of us got caught in trees but we were able to quickly get back up and running. When we got back to camp, some of us cleaned up and started dinner, which was a chili cook-off and a fire ceremony afterward. Soon after the ceremony, we were exhausted and ready to settle down for the night, which is exactly what we did.

Sunday Was pretty simple, much like Saturday we got up and started breakfast imminently. Next up we got our gear and headed up to the vans to get on the water. We did the last 7 miles of yesterday’s journey all over again, so it went fast. When we were over with the journey, we packed up, ate lunch, and headed out. a lot of people were exhausted, so the ride home was peaceful.

I hope that everyone who went on the trip enjoyed it as much as I did. There were a lot of great experiences and stories to share. After all, we are the adventurous troop 3!

P.S. If anyone wants to share pictures from the trip, feel free to email me.

As of tonight Troop 3 has YET ANOTHER Eagle to soar away. Our beloved Jordan Temple had his Eagle BOR this evening, he passed, and walked out earning Eagle.

Jordan has been a great help in our troop, so we’re very sad to see him go. He is a natural outdoorsman and leader for our troop, especially for younger scouts.

This was a really good trip. We got to the cabin at around 8pm Friday night. This was enough time to get situated, hang out a little bit, then get to bed.

Saturday morning we woke up to a great breakfast of waffles & sausage, right before we hit the slopes.

When we got to Paoli, we had some group instruction, got our gear, and some of us hit the easier courses to warm up before hitting the harder courses. Some of the newer scouts were quick experts and were on the more advanced trails really soon. It was great to see everyone happy and having fun. When we were done, we went back to the cabin to play games, eat spaghetti, hang out and then hit the hay to be ready for another day of skiing.

Sunday morning we woke up and had breakfast before going back to Paoli for our second day of skiing. Some of us had to go to the merit badge class to work on our snow sports requirements. By 10am we were all back on the slopes, pretty soon after that, we broke for lunch and then went back out. We got a few hours of skiing in before time to get on the road.

We got to Culver’s for dinner and talked about how the trip went. We agreed that this was a fun trip and a highlight of the year.

Today (Monday) some of us are sore, but we’re happy we had this experience.

Thanks to Mr Irwin for the pics.

We began by leaving the church at around 6 at night. As usual we set up camp and had Cracker Barrel when we arrived, then went to sleep.

Saturday, is when it got interesting. The hike began with the two patrols doing different routes at around 9 in the morning. The patrol I was in took the South Old Mac trail. This wasn’t the longest trail ever, coming in at about 3 miles, but it did give us a nice uphill challenge.

When we arrived at our camp, we sat down our bags and went up the mountain to a cell tower with an observation tower next door. Some of us climbed up and saw amazing views all around East Tennessee. When we returned, the other patrol was already there and set up, and right then we saw an opossum curled up on a bench, whom we properly named Jordan Mark Kramer. Nice opossum!

Later, we had free time, dinner and fire ceremony, which was all fun. Those of us who wanted to go back to the observation tower did at night, and we saw an amazing star-scape before going to bed.

The next morning, we woke up, packed, ate and left. Our patrol went down the North Old Mac Trail, while the other went to the observation tower. North Old Mac went downhill most of the way. Along with this and the pure thrill of getting done with the trek encouraged us to go as fast as we could. After this, we had lunch in the parking lot, then headed back home.

This trip went well, we were in awe of beautiful landscapes, we laughed because of a lot of funny things, and we were all happy.

This morning, a few of us went to The Campus of Human Development/ Room In The Inn to feed the hungry, as we do every month with a 5th Sunday. We always have a nice time, feeling glad that we’re doing this for people in need. if you haven’t joined us, the next opportunity is April 30. What a great way to end the 2017 scout calendar!

Here are some photos by Izzy’s dad, Mr. Irwin

We began by meeting at the church Friday evening, We loaded up our gear and got on the road quickly. When all of us arrived at the park, we set up camp and laid out cracker barrel as both patrols. That night, we heard a  lot of coyotes howling, which was a suprise. In the morning, the patrols split, and we went down different trails.

Our patrol began down Raymer Hollow Trail. Raymer Hollow was a wide, beautiful trail with a lot to see, a perfect hike for new guys! We had a lunch of cheese and summer sausage bagels at the intersection between Raymer Hollow and Collie Ridge trails.

After lunch, we trekked down Collie Ridge Trail. It was a very muddy trail with a lot of horse evidence (if you know what I mean), despite the obstacles, it was fun to hike. When we reached another intersection, this time back on Raymer Hollow, we found a random Port-A-Potty that was a HUGE hit with some of the scouts (once again, A HUGE hit!).

We hiked a little bit before we reached our camp. Our camp was a nice, little camp, isolated from the rest of the world. That night we ate a dinner of chicken alfredo, had campfire, and went straight to bed.

That next morning, we woke up, broke down camp, got water, and ate breakfast as quick as we could. We were wanting to get home and shower. After we got news that the other patrol hiked their ENTIRE distance just the day before and camped the same place we all did Friday night, we were EXTRA desperate to get done. We hiked as fast as we could, ate a super quick lunch, and got over with at about 2 in the afternoon.

We had a very good trip and we were all proud, especially the new kids. Not to mention this was the longest 1st backpacking trip for new scouts