New Scout Campout - April 15 - 17, 2016, Kentucky Horse Park, Lexington KY

Location - Kentucky Horse Park, Lexington Kentucky

 Our campsite.  The adult tents were behind the dining tents.  Each patrol was separated by the direction that the tent was located.  New Scouts Patrol on one side, Combined Patrol on another side, and Tyler's Patrol on the last side.

We used my Solo Stove for a campfire on Friday night.

Mileage - I don't really know. It is about 15 miles from my home to the Horse Park.

Weather - NO Rain.  Cool Friday night.  According to WeatherUnderground, it was mid 50s early in the morning Saturday.  Stunningly beautiful day Saturday with a high of 75.  The sun was out in full force.  Early Sunday morning, there was a low of mid 40s.  By the time we made it home on Sunday, it was 70.  We left the park by 12:30.  That morning we had time to dry the tents before they were put away.

Clothing - Shorts and tshirt. I wore my flannel jack at night.  I brought my raincoat, but I take my raincoat on every campout.  I wore cycling gloves and cycling shorts during the 10 mile bike ride.

Shoes - Keen Sandals with the exception of when I was riding the 10 mile ride for the first ride of the Bicycling Merit Badge.

Camping Style - I slept in my Slumberjack Trail Tent 4.  I love my tent.  I put my cot inside the tent.  I put down two camping pads under my sleeping bag, and I had a camp chair that I had beside my cot.  I kept my phone and glasses on the camp chair.

Sleeping bag & Sleeping - Slumberjack 0 bag.  Camping pad under my bag.  It was very comfortable.  It was cold enough outside to zip the bag all the way to the top, and I put in my ear plugs before I went to sleep.

I was a little warm while sleeping on Saturday morning.   I was wearing my fleece jacket.  I did not wear my jacket on Saturday night while in my sleeping bag.  I also didn't wear shorts or socks.  I was at the perfect temperature on Sunday morning during sleep.

Main Activities - This was my second campout as Scoutmaster of Troop 215.  We had 22 Scouts at the event with 4 adults.  There were two main activities for the campout.  It was the new scout campout, and it was also the beginning ride of the Bicycling Merit Badge for those who were eligible and for the new scouts that wanted to attempt a 10 mile ride.

Friday night was interesting.  A group of Scouts decided they wanted to ride around the campground at night.  Then they wandered out into the Horse Park.  I went with them.  It was a great ride in the dark!

Most of the Scouts went to bed on Saturday night, and one stayed up with the adults.  The one that stayed up said that he was feeling bad, and wanted to call his mother.  A year and a half ago, it was discover that the Scout had Type 1 Diabetes.  I believe this was his first campout after discovering that he had to take special care of his diet. I had hoped that this campout would be without sickness for him.  He deserves a chance to feel like a normal kid, and his parents also deserved a weekend.

I was determined to give the scout whatever care he needed to make the campout successful, but to be honest, I was nervous since this was my first experience with this.  His mother left me a notebook of what to do if he felt bad.  Mostly he knew what to do.  It was about 11:30 when he called his mother to state that he was feeling bad.  His blood sugar level was low, and he said that he felt sick to his stomach.  She asked if he wanted her to pick him up, or if he wanted to stay at the campout.  He said he wanted to stay!  I was happy that staying was the first choice he made.  She suggested that he eat 15 jelly beans, and if it causes his sugar to rise above 100 he could eat something else before he went to bed.  He had to wait 15 minutes before he tested again.  It was still low.  He called home again to talk about what to do.  He ate 15 more jelly beans and a scoop of peanut butter.  It was 30 minutes before he could test again.  By 1 AM, he tested again, and found that he blood sugar was above 100.  He told me that he had never been so happy to have his blood above 100!  He ended up going home on Saturday mid-morning, but he had been planning on going home in the afternoon anyway.  I was happy to pass my first test of helping someone with diabetes.  Everyone went home alive!

Saturday morning ride around the Horse Park with a few Scouts.

Saturday morning Tyler was riding around the Horse Park with his friends.  We were planning on leaving for the first ride of the Bicycling Merit Badge by 1 PM.  Thomas called me to tell me that Tyler's chain had snapped.  With only a few hours before we were set to leave for the ride that would count for the merit badge, I wasn't sure what we were going to do.  I was thinking that when he got back to the campsite, we would have to drive to a bike store in Lexington.  Tyler arrived, and I saw that not only had he snapped his chain, he also lost the quick link that keeps the chain together.  Great.

I'm not exaggerating when I say that less than 2 minutes after Tyler got back to the campsite, I looked up at a man and a child riding bicycles into our campsite.  He said hello, and I said hello. I introduced myself as the Scoutmaster of Troop 215.  He introduced himself as the Scoutmaster of Troop 118.  He wanted to know if we were there for the giant cub campout that was going on.  I said no.  He told me that he was there for that reason, and he is the owner of a bike shop called Mike's Bike and Hike out of Richmond.  I said, "OH yeah!?!  My son Tyler just got back into camp with a mechanical (bike talk for a mechanical problem with the bike).  He said, "stop over at my truck.  I may not have a quicklink, but I think I can fix the chain."  Just like that, it was fixed!  Mike also fixed another of my Scouts gearing on his bicycle.

Mike working on Tyler's Bike

This kind of thing happens to me all the time to me!  I am happy to bring this kind of blessing to the Scout troop.  I told Mike that on a 25 mile ride, perhaps my troop could meet at his bike store in Richmond, and then ride down to the river on Tates Creek Rd and back.  That is a 25 mile ride that I did a bunch of times when I was in college in Richmond.

Saturday morning was also used for the older Scout to teach Scout Skills to the new scouts.  It went very well!

 Teaching Scout Skills

The last story I want to tell is from Sunday morning.  We were cleaning up the campsite after the Scouts Own Service, and everyone had rolled up their tents and put them away.  One new scout lost his bag that he was supposed to put his tent inside.  I looked in another tent bag, and the tent had just basically just been stuffed inside without rolling it up right.  Only a few minutes before I had rolled up my tent, and made an announcement that everyone needed to put their tent away in the shape that my tent was rolled.  No one did it.  I finally got angry enough to ask everyone to gather around.  I would show them how to roll a tent.  In a very loud voice, I walked them through the rolling of the tent step by step.  I said, "I HAVE BEEN ROLLING MY TENT JUST LIKE THIS SINCE I WAS YOUR AGE.  SOMEONE CARED ENOUGH ABOUT ME TO SHOW ME HOW TO DO THIS.  I CARE ENOUGH ABOUT YOU TO SHOW YOU HOW TO DO THIS!"

I pulled apart the tent that had the bag missing, and inside the wrapped up tent was the bag and an extra set of tent poles.  Everyone pulled apart the tents that had been put up, and they rolled them the right way.  When I was taking Tyler to school on Monday morning, I asked him if he already knew how to roll his tent the way I showed all the scouts on Sunday morning.  He said no!  Fail.  I told that story to Thomas later on, and he told me that he should have known because he has always been around when I was teaching him how to roll the tent.  Thomas told me that on Sunday morning he pulled a tent out of the bag and rolled it by himself.

 Along the Legacy Trail in Lexington

2016 Bicycling Merit Badge with the Baker Boys

2014 Bicycling Merit Badge with only Thomas.  Same first ride as 2016.

Extra Gear - No extra gear needed.  Beautiful weekend!  I had purchased a new bicycle rack for my truck that fits in my 2 inch hitch on my truck.  It holds 4 bicycles, and it is awesome!  It will change the amount of riding that I'll be able to do since I can take my bicycle places that I have been unable to get to.

Nights Camping - 2

Total nights camping so far this year - This was my 6th and 7th night camping in 2016.  

Next Campout - The next scheduled campout that I can attend is summer camp in June!  There is a troop campout in May, but that is the same weekend that Thomas will be doing his Eagle Project, and there is an OA campout in May, but that is the same weekend that Lynn and I will be celebrating our 22nd wedding anniversary.  For those reasons, I will miss camping in May.  I told Thomas while walking him to school this morning that perhaps we should have a hammock campout with Tyler (just the three of us), and take our bicycles.

Both the boys picked up too much sun on the Saturday ride.  There was also the "dumptruck party" that Thomas organized at this campout.  I won't put in writing what happened.  I'm sure it will be a story that he tells for the rest of his life.

Orbital Ordeal - Kawida Lodge - Pulaski County Park, Nancy KY April 1 & 2, 2016

Location - Pulaski County Park, Nancy Kentucky

Mileage - I drove the church van.  Didn't keep up with the mileage.  The boys and I left Frankfort at 3:30.  We picked up a Scout from his house at 4.  We picked up additional Scouts and the church van at the church in Georgetown at 4:15.  We stopped in Lexington to pick up two additional Scouts and ritual gear at 5:30.  We arrived in Nancy Kentucky at 7:10.

Weather - NO Rain.  Decent weather Friday night.  Chilly on Saturday during the day.  Windy on Saturday evening.

Clothing - Shorts during the event. I wore my flannel shirt on top of my tshirt.  In the evening on Saturday, I wore my down filled REI coat.

Shoes - Hiking Boots the entire time.

Camping Style - Since I was Elangomat, I was asked to sleep in a tarp on the ground just like the Ordeal Candidates.  I laid my tarp on the ground.  Put my Slumberjack Sleeping Bag on top, and then wrapped the side of the tarp on top of the bag.  By the middle of the night, it was windy enough to blow the tarp off my sleeping bag, so I slept under the stars.  This would not have been possible if it had been raining.  I slept between two trees, and tied a rope (550 paracord) from one tree to the next.  I used a carabiner to keep my water bottle on the rope.  I attached my flashlight on the same carabiner.  This was right above my head as I laid down.  If I heard noise, I shined the light in the water bottle.  It increased the amount of light.  I also had my boots on a carabiner on the rope.  It kept them off the ground during the night.

Sleeping bag & Sleeping - I slept under the stars.  Slumberjack 0 bag.  Camping pad under my bag.  It was quite comfortable.  I've gotten in the habit of sleeping in a cot during campouts, and realized during this campout that it isn't always necessary to use a cot while camping.

It was in the 50s when I went crawled in my bag.  I was a little too warm.

Saturday morning before the sun came up.  These are the Ordeal Candidates along the lake waiting for breakfast.

Main Activities - This was OA Ordeal that my youngest son was going through as an Ordeal Candidate.  I was Elangomat when my oldest son went through Ordeal, and I talked my oldest to joining me as an Elangomat during my youngest son's Ordeal.  This meant that as Elangomat (Lenni Lenape for "Friend"), we went through the same activities as the Ordeal candidates.  They eat sparsely; Elangomats do too.  They work arduously; Elangomats do too.  They aren't allowed to talk; Elangomats have the same requirements.  Elangomats got away with a little more leniency about food during this event, but that is not the normal with our OA Lodge.

This is the group I worked with on the trail. There was another adult with me in the group, so I was covered for YPT guidelines.

I took my group to the Eagle Scout hiking trail in the park which was a mile or so away from the camping area to do trail maintenance.  We picked up a lot of trash along the trail, and we cut drainage ditches on the trail where rain water was eroding the trail.  We did a good job and picked up a lot of trash!

On the way down to the place where Ordeal was held, we picked up the Lodge Chief and another Lodge officer.  We had plenty of room in the van for 2 additional riders.  I think it was good for the OA candidates of my troop to get to know the higher level officers of the Lodge.  On the way there I mentioned how I would love to see a patch for an award that Kawida Lodge had received from last year.  Kawida Lodge had recently received the E Urner Goodman Camping Award, and I told the chief that I would love to see a patch that looked like the award that we received with the year 2015 being the year that Kawida Lodge received it.  The patch was designed while we were in the van on the way to the event.  Hopefully it will come to fruition.

On the way home the Lodge Chief was able to hear the excitement about the Ordeal from our new Ordeal members.  Stories were shared the entire way home.

There were 14 total Ordeal Candidates at the event, and 5 of the candidates were from Troop 215.  We also had 3 additional members of our troop at the event.  It was a very strong showing from Troop 215.  Our troop has not been very active in the OA in years past, and I wanted that to change because OA events are more fun if a Scout has other members of his troop at the event with him.  Thomas and I have been active in the OA for most of the last 2 1/2 years, mostly it was the two of us from our troop alone at the events.

Extra Gear - No extra gear needed.

Nights Camping - 1

Total nights camping so far this year - This was my third campout of 2016.  It was my 5th night camping this year.

Next Campout - New Scout Campout for our troops new crossovers.  The Scouts will be teaching Scout Skills, and we are also starting the Bicycle Merit Badge for the older Scouts.  This will take place April 15 through 17 at the Kentucky Horse Park in Lexington.

Finally, all three of us are in the OA.  This means a few things.  It will be a lot more fun with all of the Baker Boys (dad and two sons), and it also means I have to pay more for OA events.  It will totally be worth it!

 This is along the creek at the hiking trail.  I want my troop to go camping soon at Pulaski County Park.

With the exception of Thomas and me, these are the new OA members from our troop.

I sewed the new OA Patch on Tyler's uniform on Sunday night.  His uniform looks really good!  I'm proud of both my boys!