Nashville Troop 3

This was Troop 3’s second time going to Hiwassee, and my first time doing the whitewater school. Overall the instructors were very good and they helped me pick up a new skill called “bracing” which prevented 5 capsizes for my canoe.

On Saturday night we played a fun game of capture the flag. we also had the night entertainment, which was basically Buckethead ( an instructor) playing songs from old movies and having us guess what it was.

As for the new scouts, they did their own activities with the adults while we were at whitewater school. On the second day the actually were with us, but they did the river trip in funyaks.

After the river trip we dried off and went to have a fast food stop for dinner ( choice of subway or taco bell). then we loaded up and went home from our awesome river trip.

This year Boxwell was a blast ! I really enjoyed hanging out with the new guys.

On Sunday we met up at church after lunch and rode out together to camp.This year was our second time to have the foosball table, thanks to the ladies of the church who let us keep it after their yard sale last year. The foosball table was basically the center of our campsite, especially for the Whistlepigsz clan.

On Wednesday we had our Boxwell Triathalon and our representative Rowan came in 3rd. He was beaten by a Troop 217 scout several years older!. Also Noah got the gizmo.

On Thursday we had a water war with Troop 137. They took it way too far by trying to dump toilet water on us. We also had pool night, which was loads of fun. There was also a dodgeball tournament. We won the semi-finals, thanks to James who took the ball to the face for the win. Unfortunately, in the finals we lost to our rival Troop 217. Another thing great about Thursday was our lunch ( the best meal at camp) which was beef burritos.
on Friday, we took David ( our site guide) out to a Mexican restaurant and then saw the zombie themed campfire ceremony.

troop 3 will be hosting the yearly yard sale on Saturday april 18th from 8am to 2pm on EEUMC park on 12 & Holly St.

WE HOPE TO SEE YOU THERE!

Last October troop 3 decided to make a journey over the pond to rustic Scotland (Boxwell) for some classic Scottish rituals to put some hair on the young boys chests. We departed on a cool October Friday evening driving into the past of manly heritage. Once we arrived at Scotswell we rather leisurely set up tents and camp kitchens for a night of cracker barrel and cheap drink mix. After a bit everyone decided it was time to hit the hay and returned to their tents for a good night of sleep. The next morning we rose bright and early somewhat ready for the obstacles of the day. While the cooks had breakfast brewing, my assistant and I, Collin were recruited to set up a treacherous orienteering course/ scavenger hunt. After we returned with dew soaked shoes the day officially began.

My assistant and I refereed the first round of games because we could not participate in the obstacle course, since we set it up. After that we joined in on the canoeing, carrying machines and obstacle courses. After the day was coming to a close we began dinner and a beautiful array of desserts. The dessert competition was won by none other but the whistlepigz who masterfully crafted a tres leches cake. After dinner the clean up captains got to work and everyone gathered around the fire to preform skits, tell stories, and good ol’ fashioned flag burning. After the ceremony was over everyone returned to their tents for another good nights rest. The next morning was  the beginning of the highland games.

Everyone ate a hearty breakfast and the day began. there was log tossing, shot put, hammer tossing, and at the end of the day, a vicious tug o’ war. Of course the scouts came out on top and after lunch we packed up and departed. Farewell Scotswell, until next year.

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.