Boy Scout Troop 648 Scottsdale, Arizona

Wet… that’s it… nothing else.

Okay, maybe we can do a little better than that. Our troop headed up to the White Mountains on Friday night and we had our meal in Payson. Once we got up to the house in Show Low, we had a bit of a wait as the deadbolt lock wasn’t opening for us. After some time, an alternative ingress was found and all got prepared for skiing the next day.

On Saturday morning, we had a quick breakfast of pastries and caravaned up the mountain. On the drive up, as we got near 9,000 feet, we all got excited to see the snow start to fall. Once we got to the resort, we found out a couple of things:

1. The falling snow was very wet.
2. We were there during the THROWDOWN @ SUNRISE PARK RESORT. What this meant was that DJs would be playing loud music at the bottom of the hill ALL DAY! (our scouts may have enjoyed this more than this reporter).

Regardless of these things, the scouts and adult leaders got their passes and made for the runs. The good news is that after a bit of a rise in elevation on the lifts, the wet snow changed (the music also got a bit more bearable but I digress). The bad news is that it was a bit more like small hail/graupel. A bit of wind and the graupel would sting your face as you’d be going up the hill on the lift. Those that didn’t have masks found that their gloves would provide some level of protection from the abuse.

For lunch, Mr. Parizek did his usual wonder work on the grill with burgers and brats. He even finally had a reason to use the instant canopy as it had now changed to rain down in the parking lot. Many a skier was relieved to see the parking lot food and accommodations.

Some of our troop felt they’d had enough skiing for the day and some felt they weren’t wet enough and went back out for a few runs after lunch. The beatings by the hard snow and the wind had our troop leave a little earlier than when the resort closed for the day.

We retreated back to the house in Show Low wet and tired. Quick showers and a change of clothes were a welcome relief for all. For dinner, Mr. Parizek had a few of the scouts help with making chili, cornbread, salad and pudding. There were some games of hide and seek and cards afterwards.

Sunday, we awoke to snow and not that wet stuff that we had on the slopes. This was the dry snow that dreams are made of! Our scouts had trouble getting ready for our trip back down to the valley as they wanted to have a snowball fight.

I’m sure that many of our scouts would have loved to have spent at least another hour playing in the snow but it was time for us to head back to the warmth of Phoenix. The weather led to a very foggy decent down the rim but all returned to Phoenix relatively intact.

Another fun snow outing albeit a very wet one!

This Saturday, from 10 AM to 12 AM, we will have an opportunity to go over First Class Rank Requirement 4a, which is stated below:

“Using a map and compass, complete an orienteering course that covers at least one mile and requires measuring the height and/or width of designated items (tree, tower, canyon, ditch, etc.).”

This is open to all scouts that want to get this done as a group. You can also request to do this on your own at a later time. The course takes at least an hour to complete. We’ll meet near where we hold our meetings at 10:00 AM. Please read the navigation portion of your Boy Scout Handbook if you haven’t already.

Bring your compass and a pencil.

Some come to Arizona in January to get away from the cold but not our troop!  For Troop 648, January is the signal for us to get out of the relative warmth of Phoenix and to head to the colder climates of Arizona.  9 brave scouts, 4 adult leaders and a scout in training headed up to Mormon Lake Friday evening.  The temperatures were near freezing as we reached our site, which led our scouts to unpack and setup quickly.  Getting to sleep for some was quick, others not so much.  Hindering sleep was one local resident, Sir Barksalot, who’s ability to bark for hours was quite noteworthy. 

After a breakfast of eggs and bacon on Saturday morning, the group headed up to Fort Tuthill in Flagstaff.  A few scouts went to Flagstaff Extreme while the rest played in the patches of snow nearby.  After some lunch, all the scouts went to play in the snow.  Since we were at a fort, the scouts seemed to be in WWII mode, building pillboxes and snowballs.  Some of the snowballs were cannonball sized.  Once a truce was established, a tall skinny snowman was built from the big snowballs. 

A big todo was made out of finding one scout’s hat.  He’s cries of “Hat! Hat!” were in vain as he’d left it right where we had lunch.

The troop made an early dinner of burgers with mac & cheese.  A decent sized fire was made and some of the troops had hot chocolate.  A few of the scouts retired early and most weren’t too far behind.  One adult leader was asked the time by a scout and when told it was 7:30, the questioning scout said, “It feels a lot later than that.”

Our scout leader made good on his word of wanting to get an early leave on Sunday morning and had the scouts up quite early to pack up their gear.  A quick pickup, thorns and roses and a prayer and we were on the road back to Phoenix.  One scout said they could feel their feet again when we reached our gas stop.

Thanks to all the scouts that made this a great outing.  Of note, we want to thank Drew for his attendance on his last official outing before he ages out.  We look forward to him joining us in the future as an adult.

Another successful trip to Camp Geronimo by Troop 648.  This year, we had 18 scouts participate in summer camp north of Payson.  

It was a bit of a crowded one at Geronimo, over 900 people. We managed through long lines for swim tests and dinners with great patience and the camp was quite efficient after the first day.

We had site 5, which was new for our troop.  This wasn’t too far from the center of camp, but we were up a hill and slightly back for a fairly isolated camp.  

Our scouts completed a plethora of merit badges.  This may have been the best completion percentage for merit badges in over 10 years! That merit badge work, along with their Big-G Gold award effort, kept the camp clean by a lack of scouts except at night. 

We had five days of perfect camp inspections and another Big-G Gold award for our troop.  We had one of our younger scouts finish the “I DID IT ALL” challenge.  We worked hard on our service project and represented our troop well at our flag ceremony.

Mr. Cole reported that it was one of the few Thorns and Roses for summer camp at Geronimo that he’d ever heard scouts bring up thorns about being too cold overnight without there being rain! Don’t think that’s anything to worry about now that they are back in the Valley of the Sun.

This last weekend, 11 scouts in our troop headed up to the rim to beat the heat (well… usually we’d have to beat the heat). Our destination was Willow Springs Lake for a canoe outing.

We found a nice spot off the Old Rim Road on Friday night. Camp was setup fairly quick. Some of our older and “wiser” scouts decided to see if it would really be cold at night in hammocks.

On Saturday, after a breakfast of bacon and eggs for our troops, we headed to the lake. Canoes were taken off the trailer and off everyone went.

The wind was blowing a bit, so most of us headed up wind to have an easier paddle back. Some of us went exploring a peninsula, some of us found a geocache across the lake and some of us tried to combine fishing and canoeing with no success, unfortunately. We regrouped a bit after noon and refueled on sandwiches.

A vote was taken and we decided to head back out to the water. Some of our group decided that they were going to brave the chilly waters and have some fun jumping off the rocks. Hard to believe but we have video evidence. The adults would have jumped in as well but someone had to supervise.

After a bit, it was decided that we’d head back to camp. A few of the scouts made the short trip to the edge of the rim before dinner.

After dinner, we had a nice warm fire where we enjoyed for the most part just staring into the fire and relaxing.

We want to thank Sean and Eric, our youth leaders, who ran such a great outing. We’ll definitely be back again in the not to distant future.

Any scouts that haven’t been cold weather camping are encouraged to bring their gear tomorrow to the meeting.  Keeping warm during the night is the big difference between a good cold weather outing and a “learning experience”.

We can look at your sleeping bag and pad as well as discuss layering at night.

See you tomorrow.

Mr. Carson

In our meeting on Tuesday 7/10, I will be going over the Cyberchip requirements as well as some online privacy videos.

As part of the yearly Cyberchip “recharge” you should be looking at the requirements for the cyberchip for your grade at https://www.scouting.org/training/youth-protection/cyber-chip/.   Although not required for a recharge, creating a new personalized contract between you and your parents regarding Internet usage is highly recommended.

I’ll have Cyberchip patches for those that don’t already have one and have all the requirements met as well as will sign off on any recharges (so bring your cyberchip card ).