Boy Scouts Of America And The Church

[Traveler]

Thought I would share some of my favorite scouting stories. Every year in the spring we would go up Big Cottonwood Canyon and take a trail over to Little Cottonwood Canyon. This was a one-night two-day backpacking adventure. I planed it to insure we would encounter plenty of snow and mud. After dinner during our night in the mountains we would gather together while the boys complained about the snow and mud. I would tell them that we always made this hike early in the spring to avoid the giant spiders. I told them that a couple of years back our camp was attacked by a giant eight foot spider that came right down some rocks into our camp. Most of the scouts were scared and ran off so I ended up fighting this giant all by myself. And I killed it right over there. (pointing to a spot)

The new scouts would not believe the story and say there is no such thing as giant spiders. The older boys would tell how they were there and remember the spider and the panic it caused. Some of the other scouts would tell that there was more then one giant eight foot spider and they and their patrol and killed one as well indicating where they had made their stand. Finely some of the new boys would look worried and ask, “Are there really giant eight foot spiders?” I would answer – of course did you not know that all spiders have eight feet? Great tradition.

One of the great scout camps is camp Lowe (spelling) that borders on the southern end of Yellowstone National Park. I love this camp because the boys learn how to deal with bears in the wild. (There is another great story that deals with bear boxes in trees) Anyway I had taken several boys (eagle scouts) that had become varsity and explorers along and most of our boys at the camp were older. This gave us an advantage in the competitions – I believe it is a lot more fun to win competitions. We were the #1 troop at the camp but the staff also competed and bragged that they had never been beaten by any troop ever. Our troop was close and the rest of the troops at the camp started cheering for us. On the last day of the camp there was a “wilderness Olympics”. It came down to the final Olympic event that was a relay. The relay team carried a match that they could not get wet because at the end of the relay the match had to light. The relay included a 25-yard swim in an ice-cold lake, then a canoe, across a rope bridge and other obstacles and finally a one mile foot race to the finish where the match was lit.

We had our team already. I then pulled one of my boys aside in secret. I told him I did not care if we beat the staff or not but I did not want them getting all the glory. So I gave him a match and sent him up the final trail and told him when he sees someone coming to take of and get to the finish first and light the match. If we get disqualified that would be fine but it was time to bring the staff down of their bragging high horse. His eyes light up and he assures me he won’t let me down.

Everything worked according to plan. At the end of the race my boy was a few yards a head of the staff boy. Crossing the finish line my boy lit the match and the whole camp went nuts and a spontaneous chant started among all the scouts chanting the staff had lost. The staff was complaining we had cheated and there was complete chaos. One of the staff was complaining that we had hid someone on the trail but I just acted like they were poor losers. Finely I asked why they thought we had cheated – how could they know. The responded “Because we had someone hiding along the final trail and there was no way anyone could have been in front of our guy unless you were doing the same thing.” More cheers by everyone for out troop.

At the final awards the staff honored our troop as the only troop to out cheat the staff and take the competition. It was great and the funny thing is that to this day no one remembers who really won the relay.

The Traveler

[Amillia]

Originally posted by TheProudDuck@Jan 19 2005, 08:37 PM

Amillia,

I'm not making fun of your spelling, but I can't resist: What is this "fornification"? Fortified fornication? Like some kind of party where you all build forts out of cushions or something, and then try to storm each others' breastworks (sorry -- "ramparts") to commit various acts of debauchery therein?

Sounds like your schools were much more creative than Harbor High, where it was pretty much just plain unfortified fornication. Now that marriage has rendered everything legal, I might have to give this "fortified" thing a try.

ROFL! Well I am on mod status and can't edit, so if you would like to correct my posts, have at it!!!

[Guest TheProudDuck]

Traveler,

Sounds like you had a great troop. I was lucky enough to have a great Scout troop, too, although in comparison with your precise military-style tent discipline, we were a bit more relaxed. (I think your way sounds kind of fun in its own right.)

My favorite Scout camp was Camp Chawanakee in the central Sierras (which, in my most recent incarnation as an assistant Scoutmaster, I could never persuade the leaders to visit again; they whined it was too far away.)

Anyway, the last year we went there, I think the group of older scouts I was with were 14 or 15. As it happened, most of us were on our schools' swim teams, which, being in a beach town, were pretty high-powered programs. The camp Olympics involved a mix of events, both plain athletic and Scout-related (i.e. orienteering, knot tying, etc.)

The knot-tying relay was a disaster. The way it worked was that you ran from station to station, tying knots at each one. If you tied the knot incorrectly, you had seconds added to your time. Our troop was sadly deficient in Scoutcraft, so we finally just gave up and tied granny knots at each station, took the penalties, and came in last place by several months or so.

We were pretty good on the orienteering course, managing to wind up about 100 yards from the last waypoint after several legs of the course. Unfortunately, that 100 yards consisted of an arm of Shaver Lake, and we were on the wrong side. We flagged down some elderly people in a pontoon boat and persuaded them to ferry us across, and finished respectably.

The next event was a canoe paddle. The racers were to paddle out to a buoy in the lake, swamp the canoe, and paddle back with it half-sunk. My team would have won anyway, but we wound up absolutely clobbering everyone because we used our heads: Instead of taking the time to turn the canoe around once we reached the buoy, we just swamped it, turned around in our seats, and went back the other way. The other scouts didn't seem to realize that a canoe has two ends.

The last event was a swim relay. Our team showed up in Speedos, goggles, and swim caps to the consternation of everyone else, who we duly crushed. I inexcusably rubbed it in by swimming the anchor leg with the butterfly stroke.

We won the camp Olympics. However, we did not win the "Best Troop" award we'd won the previous year, probably because of an unfortunate incident involving the prized Smoky the Bear hat of the insufferably uptight scoutmaster of another troop. Somehow it got hoisted to the top of the camp flagpole. Mr. Uptight was not at all pleased.

[Traveler]

Thank you Mr. Duck: I like your story and your troop. There are two important things concerning scouting activity.

1. Accomplishment - I think it is important for boys to learn to accomplish something as a team and not as individuals

2. Fun - I believe that regardless of what else happens if the boys did not say, "this is fun" the activity failed.

One time on a backpacking trip into Big Elk Lake in Morehouse (Uintas) I had a younger scout fall several feet playing on a rock outcrop. The boy was bleeding from his shoulder and they sent for my help. I yelled for all the scouts to grab their first aid kits and we would see who could figure out how to stop the bleeding first. We could slow it down a lot with direct pressure but could not stop it. We were two days from civilization.

So I told them we had to figure out how to close the wound and I produced some dental floss and a curved needle from my personal first aid kit. I showed them how to do stitches like on a baseball but I could not get any boys to try so I did it all myself. When we got the boy to the doctor a couple of days later the doctor could not believe how bad the stitches were. When I told him these were my first he said they were not that bad and showed me how to do two sets of stitches so the scar would not be so bad. The point was that I tried to make the accident an achievement opportunity and give the scouts a chance to learn never to panic and have fun doing it. The scar is still a joke. My scout says to this day that the great lesson he learned is not to let Brother M. loose with a first aid kit. This boy is now a paramedic.

The Traveler

[pushka]

Wow! Traveler, I think you did very well too...I suppose there wouldn't have been access to mobile phones back then? so calling for a paramedic wouldn't have been an option!!!

Congratulations on your successful stitching..lol, and the lesson you taught your scouts..

[StrawberryFields]

Originally posted by Traveler@Jan 20 2005, 06:03 PM

One time on a backpacking trip into Big Elk Lake in Morehouse (Uintas) I had a younger scout fall several feet playing on a rock outcrop. The boy was bleeding from his shoulder and they sent for my help. I yelled for all the scouts to grab their first aid kits and we would see who could figure out how to stop the bleeding first. We could slow it down a lot with direct pressure but could not stop it. We were two days from civilization.

So I told them we had to figure out how to close the wound and I produced some dental floss and a curved needle from my personal first aid kit. I showed them how to do stitches like on a baseball but I could not get any boys to try so I did it all myself. When we got the boy to the doctor a couple of days later the doctor could not believe how bad the stitches were. When I told him these were my first he said they were not that bad and showed me how to do two sets of stitches so the scar would not be so bad. The point was that I tried to make the accident an achievement opportunity and give the scouts a chance to learn never to panic and have fun doing it. The scar is still a joke. My scout says to this day that the great lesson he learned is not to let Brother M. loose with a first aid kit. This boy is now a paramedic.

The Traveler

Traveler,

Great story, for a minute I thought that you were talking about my oldest son.

He went on an overnighter with his troop to Crystal Lake, some secret spot so I am told. We went with a couple of his buddies to climb rocks. As he was pulling himself up from a lower level to get to the top, he pulled a piece of shell rock down on him and it struck him in the leg before cutting his inner ankle deeply. There was blood flowing into his shoe like a faucet. His two friends helped him back to camp. As they ripped the seam in his pants at the ankle blood sprayed everywhere. The rock had cut a main artery in his leg. One of the leaders grabbed one of his own clean white t-shirts to work as a Band-Aid, and another grabbed the duct tape. The duct provided the pressure needed on his cut. The leaders used their cell phones to call my husband who was returning from a Utah Buzz game with Nick and a friend. He called me and I was at home hosting my daughters Birthday party with twelve young girls. I called one of my young women to take over for me and I was off to meet them at the hospital. In the ER they tried to clean him up but he just kept bleeding and the nurse told us that he had cut a main artery and he was lucky that he had not bleed to death. Our neighbor came to get Nick and his friend and assisted my husband with a blessing for my son. No sooner were they finished when the doctor pulled back the curtain. When he took a look at the cut the bleeding had stopped and he was able to sew him up and set him for a cast because he had also broken his leg. The power of the priesthood heals and I have seen that manifested many times in my life. I am so thankful to those leaders who packed my son out on their backs and their quick thinking with the shirt and duct tape. Duct tape will also be a necessity on any scouting trip in the future.

[Guest TheProudDuck]

Scouts and rocks are generally bad news.

On one trip to the central Sierras, a friend and I were hopping from boulder to boulder up a fork of the Kaweah river above our camp. I jumped down from one boulder to another about eight feet away and below, but I hit so hard that I rebounded off the rock and fell backward. It was about eight feet down to the river, which I expected to be freezing (it was during spring runoff.)

There are few things more uncomfortable than falling, expecting a soft, though freezing, splash, and instead suddenly finding yourself lying flat on a bank of cobblestones a foot away from the water.

[Traveler]

You are so right about rocks. Three times I have attempted to climb King's Peak. All three times I have been involved in getting someone out that broke a foot or something in the bolder field. One time it took us all night in the dark. But I must admit only one was a scout and he was not part of our group.

I have given up on King's Peak - I do not like the bolder fields - someone else can have that fun.

The Traveler