50+ thread

Godzilla sightings

Our troop had a new Scout Master every 2 years. We didn't want any one person to become too valuable or burned out. We saw some troops break up that way.

My 2 years saw 16 boys Eagle. I enjoyed the 7 years in boy scouts as much as my son

 

I remember a backpacking trip over 40yrs ago I was on a 2 week backpacking trip in the Eastern Sierra's John Muir wilderness area . We were climbing Mt Ritter 13k ft elev when a t-storm was quickly moving towards us . We were on the glacier between Mt Ritter and Banner peak when our guide decided for our safety to slide down the glacier instead of hiking down the mtn

By the time we made back to camp at Thousand island lake the T storm was very strong with flash bang lightning and thunder and you could feel the static electricity in the air . The storm lasted a few hours with alot of lightning strikes some close to where we were camping

 

I'm so proud of all these folks and their stories. MTgirl started a "thing"..lol. You guys and girls rock and I'm proud to be here.
Now get back to work slackers. LOL
Zim

 

Nice taters Dennis.
Pass the salt.
Zim

 

@MTgirl is very thingy.

 

But you had stories and that counts in my book of thingy's.
Zim

 

No but a hell of a lot of camping stories.
I have a lot of moron reports…..

 

Evening folks, hot and muggy , no Christmas crap in stores before Halloween,as it should be. I love when I “survived “sketchy camping/ backpacking trips, great memories/stories.

 

Is it that easy now? Mine took a lot of work.

 

Yea I know. Camping for a completely different reason now..

 

No, it’s still a difficult process, they haven’t dumbed it down or anything. Sorry if it seemed I was trying it minimize it. I just saw better leadership, maturity and overall development in the boys on the treks.

 

I think in the early 70s, when I made Eagle, only about 5% of boys entering Scouts achieved the Eagle rank. Most developed other interests like sports, lost interest, or just didn't want to put in the work.I haven't been around scouting tho since then. I wonder sometimes if they still teach citizenship and government or if that's all too sensitive now. Not trying to turn this political.

 

Still the same ratio of boys eagle-ing we had 100 boys in the troop but the program was the best, every weekend we had one or two outings, there were 2 of us certified for rock climbing, we did killer backpacks to high elevation lakes. During the summer, we had 5 day outings. The boys did scouts, team sports and volunteered the rest of the time.

They tried and failed at stuff and learned and succeeded.

Just like every kid should.

 

Anyone need their picture updated or added to page one?

 

same here! Life Scout. Your troop sounds like ours. Old school. My grandfather started our troop in 1935(?) and he was my first Scoutmaster. My dad inherited the Troop and ran it with my uncle Bob. I did not have time to become full on Scoutmaster, but was offered it. The Troop finally folded in 2007 when my dad had to step down, and the church we had been at for the whole run disbanded. We were the 2nd oldest Troop in Columbus Ohio.

We were a high adventure, outdoors intensive, super active Troop. Sent boys to Philmont (I never got to go. We also did a high adventure/backwoods camping thing in Canada that was always more interesting to me. 6 hour canoe trip to a remote island that we stayed on for 10 days. Canoed all of the gear and food in. Caught fish for food etc...). We also pushed wilderness preparedness and life experiences more than just being an Eagle Scout Factory. Did the summer camp things. Monthly campouts during the scool year. We used to do a winter high adventure thing in Minnesota where we would cross country ski, gear on our backs, out to a camp site, set up camp, and then ski around the area for a week. I KNOW that is one of the reasons I prefer cold weather to warm weather now.

My grandfather would not let people even begin their Eagle scout advancement until they were 17 --> "part of being an Eagle Scout is having the maturity level and life experience to understand it. It was not just about checking off boxes as quick as you can"

it is so sad what happened to Scouting in the past 15 years with all of the sexual abuse stuff. I was lucky - I guess - to have been part of a Troop where that was not even on the radar screen. It is good to hear that there are some other good Troops out there still