Raven Knob – Days 2, 3 & 4

Wow! Time flies when you’re busy running from one merit badge class to another and then to meals and free time activities.

Everyone is doing great at Raven Knob. The food is typical camp food, but the leaders complain that the portion sizes leave a lot to be desired. Thank goodness for the trading post and their Slush Puppies, Popcorn, and plate-sized cookies (still warm from the oven).

Monday we had a few light showers as we all tried to figure out who needed to be where…and when.   Some scouts travel from one end of the camp to the other just to get from one class to the next.   Had we realized where the classes were held when we were making out the schedules, we might have been able to save them some wear and tear on their feet.   Something to keep in mind for next year, I guess.

Tuesday remained rain free and our youngest scouts hiked up to Raven’s Knob (650 feet above the camp) as part of the Raven Scout program. Later in the day the leaders decided that the scouts in our troop had a choice of either going to free swim or hiking to “The Knob”. Most scouts quickly choose free swim, but a few were left in camp and they could either hike around the lake or head up to the knob. Four leaders and several Venture Patrol members braved the trails as one of the groups went higher and higher. ASM Helms was the last to arrive at the rock outcropping, but he made it and has pictures to prove it.

ASM Campbell and ASM Kelly are participating in the Safe Climbing program and will be qualified to take the troop’s scouts on climbing adventures in the future. They had already hiked to the knob on Tuesday morning and had done some rapelling from the outcrop but elected to go a second time with the Venture Patrol members on Tuesday Evening.

Wednesday was a mostly dry day. We had the opportunity to fix our own lunch in-camp and then had several visitors including Mr. Chambers (our troop committee chairman) and a few of the scout’s families join us for an in-camp pizza feast for supper.

After supper we made our way down to the OA Arena and as we got closer the light sprinkles that were falling from the sky turned into droplets and lots of them. The OA hurried through the ceremony where several members of Troop 108 were called to become members of the OA. From our troop the following boys were voted in by their peers back in March of this year:

• Matthew H
• Joe C
• David T
• Brent L

Also elected by the other adults in the troop was ASM Tom Kelly.

The rain stopped about the time they finished up the ceremony but most of the group was drenched by then anyway.

We wrapped up the evening by handing out the new troop summer camp t-shirts for 2009.   Everyone in the troop will be wearing these on Thursday and then they’ll get the Camp Raven Knob shirts on Thursday night that they will wear on Friday.