Boy Scout Troop 648 Scottsdale, Arizona

Dear T648,

I write this as the sun is setting and footballs games are wrapping up on another beautiful Sunday afternoon in Arizona.   It was a wonderful two nights of camping at a spot in a grove of mesquite trees about 1/2 mile from the Agua Fria River, which I didn’t realize is a 120 mile long river whose headwaters are located about 20 miles east-northeast of Prescott ending at Lake Pleasant.  Although it was a short hike with our backpacks Friday night it was probably just perfect for our four newest scouts who seemed to have a great time running around looking for and finding treasures and bugs and beetles and spiders and who knows what else.   Mr. Gingrich headed up around noon on Friday (thanks Mr. G!) to secure our spot and was waiting for us as we descended en masse upon the campsite about 8:30 pm.  Soon after there was a fire blazing in the pit and boys running around putting up tents and hammocks.  A few showers fell Friday through the night but not enough to deter a couple of scouts from sleeping under the stars (and then under trees!).  Saturday was for some nice day hikes down to the Aqua Fria River where there was water running and boys jumping from rock to rock as we worked our way upstream.  Some beautiful petroglyphs were just above the river and all of this some 50 miles north of Phoenix.  After lunch another group of us headed out for a long hike to see some old cattle corrals and a silver mine that was abandoned in the 1930s.  As the sun set another fire was lit and our Assistant Scoutmasters buckled down for over 3 hours of First Class Boards with two scouts, Mr. Yu and Mr. Galvin passing with flying colors.  We broke camp and loaded up for the short drive home but not before stopping in Rock Springs for some well deserved homemade piece of pie!  Seemed like we had lots of satisfied customers as we finished the drive to Blessed Sacrament arriving a little before noon today.   Thanks to those who participated in this fine outing, including all of the adult leaders who give so graciously of their time to support this fine group of young men!

Have a wonderful week and see you Tuesday night at Blessed Sacrament for our regular troop meeting!

Thanks,

Mr. Turner