Troop 215 - National Science and Energy Museum & Lost Sea Caves - November 18-20,2016

Troop 215 - National Science & Energy Museum and Lost Sea Caves

Location

Oak Ridge Tennessee and Sweetwater Tennessee

Total Driving Mileage

I took two routes.  Frankfort to Lost Sea Caves - US127 S from Frankfort to just north of Crossville TN where I joined I40.  I40 to I75, and I75 to US68.  It was 270.2 miles to the cave.

Home from Sweetwater - I75 to I64. US421 from Midway to Frankfort.  It was 243.2 miles home.

513.4 miles total.  Filled my truck in Frankfort KY on way to Tennessee, and Sweetwater TN on way home.

Weather

NO RAIN!

58 degrees inside the cave.  

Saturday 4 PM arrival at Cave - 48 

Sunday 7 AM departure from the Cave - 21 

Clothing

I did not wear shorts!  At all!  I had a board meeting on Saturday morning, so I wore the clothes I had on for the meeting as I drove to Tennessee.  When I joined the troop at the Cave, I changed into my "get dirty" clothing.  I had my sweat pants, long sleeve shirt, and an old rain coat.  I also changed to old shoes.

I didn't need any of it.  I wish I had worn shorts.  You don't have to get dirty in Lost Sea Caves.  If you don't crawl through the smaller caves, you won't get dirty.  The bottom of your shoes will get dirty, but that is about it.  The first thing I got rid of was my rain coat.  It was that warm inside the cave.

Shoes 

Old Tennis Shoes the entire time in the cave

Tent 

No TENT!  I purchased two shower curtains a the dollar store to use as a ground cloth.  It made my area for sleeping big, but I was able to keep all my gear clean. I threw away the curtains when we left.

Sleeping Bag 

Teton 0 Sleeping bag. I totally didn't need it!  I should have used my summer bag.  I would have been more comfortable.  I used my 0 bag as a blanket, but only after a few hours of trying to fall asleep while it was zipped up.

Main Activity  

I had a board meeting for work on Saturday morning, so I couldn't join the troop on the first night of the campout.  My wife and I dropped off our boys at the departure site on Friday evening.  They left Georgetown on Friday at 6, and my wife and I had a date at a restaurant in Georgetown. The troop drove to Camp Pellissippi which is just north of Knoxville and close to Norris Dam State Park.  They slept in the winter lodge.  What they didn't know until they arrived is that they would be sleeping on a concrete slab on the floor of the building.  I don't think anyone over the age of 18 got any sleep at all that night.

Saturday morning they drove to Oak Ridge Tennessee to the National Science and Energy Museum which is in the middle of the city of Oak Ridge.  I was planning on driving to meet them at the museum.  I knew how far it was, but I didn't know how long it would take.

My meeting was over at 10:15 Saturday morning.  I left Frankfort at 11, but stopped before I left Franklin County to fill my truck with gas.  I took US127 South because I looked at a map and saw how close it was to Oak Ridge.  I thought this route woulds save me from having to cross Jellico Mountain.  This was true.  I didn't have to cross the Mountain, but it cost me about an hour and a half.  I told myself the entire way there that it didn't matter how long it took.  I also knew what I would be passing on the way there.

I stopped at a gas station in Jamestown KY for a small lunch of a sandwich and a Coke Zero.  This gas station was about 10 miles north of the dam at Lake Cumberland State Park in Kentucky.  

I stopped in Pall Mall Tennessee at the home of Sergeant Alvin York.  Sergeant York was a hero of WWI, and his life was captured in a Gary Cooper movie from 1941.  SERGEANT YORK HOMEPLACE  I was only there for maybe 10 minutes.  It is a State Park in Tennessee, and there were two park rangers working in the General Store where I stopped.  I told them I studied history in college, and one of the rangers told me that he did too.  I was told that if I had been there a week before, I would have seen a WWI reenactment.  He said there was a trench on the property, and the Sergeant York State Park was one of the premier WWI Historic Sites in the Country.  I would love to go back next year, especially since next year is the 100th anniversary of the US involvement in WWI.

As I got on I40 outside of Crossville, I called Thomas.  He told me that they had just left the museum.  I was hoping that I could see the museum.  Maybe next time I'll see it.  I drove to Lost Sea Caves, and arrived only a minute or two after most of the troop arrived.  It was a little chilly when we got there.  We pulled our vehicles up to the parking lot just below where we enter the cave.  We had supper in the parking lot.  I was surprised when all of the other Scout troops started to arrive.  There must have been 150 scouts in the cave that night.

Inside the cave we dropped off our gear at our "campsite".  It was surrounded by porta toilets.  It smelled bad!  The toilets were right beside the campsites.  The campsites were blocked off by wooden boards.  We slept directly on the floor of the cave.  If you didn't want a dirty sleeping bag and other gear, you had to have some kind of ground tarp.  A committee person from our troop suggested we purchase a shower curtain from the dollar store.

Thomas in the campsite

Right after we arrived, we started the tour of the cave.  We walked around to look at the big rooms.  Some of the spots in the cave were slick.  If you have on shoes with no traction, it could be dangerous.  My friend Bill went to Lost Sea Caves with his troop recently, and he fell at the bottom of the steps in the entrance.  He hurt himself, so he didn't get to see any of the cave.

It was a guided tour.  Our guides were Jack, age 17, and Samantha, age 20.  Samantha has been working at the cave since she was 15. They are paid employees of the cave.  Lost Sea Caves, by the way, is privately owned.  It is not a state park.  They apparently have visitors all year long.  I was told they worked Thanksgiving, and the only holiday the employees don't work is Christmas.

The lake in the cave was nice.  The cave has lights in it.  You only need a flashlight for small parts of the cave.  The lake is 800 feet long, and there is a hidden room that is totally filled with water.  That makes this cave the second biggest known lake in a cave in the world.  There are Rainbow Trout in the water of the cave.  Every boat has a section of the lake where the fish are fed.  They are fed dog food.  If you eat one of the fish, it will taste like dog food.  The fish are huge because they eat so much.

The cave was only discovered in the 1960s.  There had been a small tunnel that a young boy crawled through to discover the lake.  A few years later, the small tunnel was blasted out to make an entrance that tourists could use.

After the lake, we went to the section of the cave where Scouts could do the entry level crawl.  I didn't want to get dirty, so I stayed out of the smaller tunnel.  Tyler went in, but didn't crawl.  He said you didn't have to crawl if you didn't want to.  I spent that time hanging out with one of the younger scouts and the adults.  The younger scout said he didn't want to be there because one of his friends from school told him there were cave spiders.

After the smaller cave tour, we went back to our campsite to wait until we left for the difficult tour. Our guides took a long time to get back to us to pick us up, so only a few scouts went on the difficult tour.  I took the time to lay down after setting up my camp spot.  I turned on my flash and took a few pictures.  Although I couldn't see it with the flash off, my body was releasing the heat that my body had produced during the cave tour.  It can be seen in the picture below.

All guests of the cave were back at the campsites by 10:30.  It was really loud in the cave.  Tyler and his friends were playing cards.  Thomas was beside me in a group.  He was talking to Robert about different kinds of tea.  At 11 or 11:30, the lights in the campsites went off.  The only main lights still on were close to the porta toilets.  When the lights went off, everyone got quiet almost immediately.  From the moment everyone got quiet, I could hear snoring.  Think about the acoustics in a cave.  5 people snoring can be quite loud.

It was only 3 or 4 minutes after everyone got quiet that the entertainment started.  I could hear people farting, and then there would be pockets of giggles that would move through the campsites.  It was quite funny.  I'm sure some of the adults provided part of the entertainment.

When it was quiet, I started to think about what I was sleeping in.  I didn't get the same feeling I had when the troop slept in a submarine.  In the submarine I thought a lot about the lack of moving air, and felt a few times like I was suffocating.  The cave wasn't like that.  Instead I thought about the weight of the mountain that was above my head.  It's funny that I don't think about that when I'm laying in my bed at home.  The weight of the ceiling in my house could kill me just as fast as the ceiling of the cave if it fell on me.  I only thought about the mountain above us for about 10 minutes.  

I didn't sleep very well.  I was able to get some sleep, but not very much.  I was comfortable on the floor, but I couldn't get my temperature right.  I would have slept better if I had my sleeping bag liner and my bivy sack, or my summer bag alone.  At 6 AM, an alarm on the phone went off from a member of the troop that was in the campsite beside us.  They started packing up almost immediately.  This caused our group to do the same.  There were people all around us still trying to sleep.  We left the cave by 6:45.  We walked to the top of the steps to exit the cave, and down slope of the hill to the cars.  

My memory goes away when I don't sleep very much.  After we got back to the cars, I put down my small dry bag that I used to keep my phone, flashlights, and keys in one spot.  I then put down my duffel bag.  After only a few minutes, I wouldn't remember what I did with my small bag.  Since my keys were inside the bag, and I thought I had dropped the bag on the was out of the cave, I went back to the cave to retrace my steps from the camping spot to the car.

It was the oddest thing to go from 21 degrees outside into a cave that was 58 degrees.  I had been outside for about 10 minutes, but it was enough time to cool my body off.  When I put my foot on the top step of the entrance of the cave, my glasses fogged up immediately.  It felt like stepping into a sauna.  I went all the way back to the campsite.  I didn't see the bag.  Tyler was worried that I fell down in the entrance of the cave, so he came inside to make sure I was okay.

Tyler at the entrance of the cave just before leaving Sunday morning.

Since I couldn't find the bag in the cave, we went back to the cars.  Thomas was sitting in my truck, and he had started it.  He said I had left the bag on the bumper of my car.  He had opened the back end of the truck, and put away all the gear.

Since I don't live in Georgetown, I asked if I could take the Baker Boys in my truck.  Everyone else had a seatbelt to use in a different automobile, so it was okay.  We stopped at McDonalds in Sweetwater beside the interstate to get breakfast.  We joined the rest of the troop there.  Since it was Robert's birthday, we sang happy birthday to him three times.  Each time embarrassed him just a little bit more than the last time. The price of regular unleaded gas was $1.87/gallon at the gas station across the street.  I filled up there before we left.

Thomas and Tyler and I stopped in London KY to eat.  We stopped first at Golden Corral.  There isn't one in Central Kentucky anymore since they all closed down.  We found out that it would cost more than $17 dollars a person for us to eat there.  We left and went to Frisch's for breakfast buffet.  That was much less expensive.

We made it home around 2 on Sunday.  We didn't have any gear that needed to be dried out, other than Tyler's sleeping bag that had picked up a little bit of moisture.

This was a good trip. I enjoyed the cave.  It was kind of a long way to go for a campout, but if our troop only does this once every 3 or 4 years, it is totally worth it.

Extra Gear - No extra gear on this trip.

Food - 

Friday night cracker barrel unknown

Saturday morning They had eggs and bacon at Camp Pellissippi.  Not sure how they cooked the food.

Saturday lunch They had fried chicken from Walmart that is right beside the museum in Oak Ridge.

Saturday supper - Sub sandwiches and chips purchased from Walmart.

Saturday Cracker Barrel - none

Sunday morning - McDonalds in Sweetwater

Nights Camping - 1.  

Next Campout - Troop 215 will be visiting the Wright Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton Ohio.  We will be sleeping in Adirondack Shelters at a nearby Boy Scout Camp.  After that is Troop 1 Homeless Campout in Frankfort.  Only 3 more night of camping this year.

Total Camping nights in 2016 - 24 nights so far this year.

Graffiti from a Confederate Soldier in the cave.

More graffiti from the 1800s

This is the ceiling of the cave that was above my head in the campsite.  The ceiling was about 20 feet above where I slept on the floor.

Kawida Adventure Weekend - November 11 to 13, 2016 - Camp McKee & Red River Gorge

Kawida Adventure Weekend - November 11 to 13, 2016 

Location

Camp McKee and Red River Gorge, Kentucky

Swift Camp Creek on Rough Trail

Overlooking the Gorge on Pinch-Em-Tight & Sheltowee Trace

Total Driving Mileage

Roughly 200 miles round trip from Georgetown.  73 miles to McKee from Gtown, and roughly 60 miles from McKee to RRG and back.

Weather

Beautiful!  Stunning!  Couldn't ask for better weather!   NO RAIN!

Arrival Friday evening 6:00 PM - 53 degrees

Friday night/Saturday morning sleeping - 42 bedtime and 32 at 6 AM

Satuday hiking - 41 arrival at RRG - 51 at departure from RRG

Saturday bed - 30 degrees

Sunday wake up - 24 degrees at 8 AM.

Sunday departure from McKee - 50 degrees.

Clothing

Shorts.  Hiking Socks.  Thermal undershirt, Flannel Shirt, Sock cap and neck warmer.  I wore thermal underwear at night on Saturday night.  I had my fleece jacket and my REI down filled jacket, but I only wore my down filled jacket on Saturday night.

Shoes 

Keen Sandals in the campsite.  Merrell Hiking boots while hiking.

Tent 

I slept in my Slumberjack Trail Tent 4.  I love my tent!

Sleeping Bag 

Teton 0 Sleeping bag. I figured some new things about my sleeping bag over this weekend.  

Main Activity  

This was the first year for Kawida Adventure Weekend.  It was on the same weekend that Lodge Leadership Development (LLD) took place in the past.  This weekend was open to all scouts and venture crews as well as Order of the Arrow members.  A troop from Paris brought 4 scouts and 2 leaders, and none of them were OA members.  I think they may be interested in the OA when they become eligible.

In my opinion, this was a game changing weekend for Kawida Lodge.  I absolutely love Kawida Lodge events, but this campout was even better because it is different than what we have done in the past.  Our Lodge Chief, A. Reynolds was obviously part of the planning.  The chairman of the committee that planned this event was B. Gilbert.  He did an excellent job with the planning and execution of his plan.  He will be our next Lodge Chief, and this event has proven to me that he will do a great job.

The original plan was to take the Scouts from Camp McKee to Red River Gorge.  We were going to hike for a while, and upon return to Camp McKee, we were going to do some Scouting games similar to what we did at Fall Fellowship.  After supper we were going to do some night repelling, and then go to bed.

A few problems arose from the beginning.  Red River Gorge is on fire.  Seriously, part of the Gorge is off limits to anyone while there is fire burning in different locations at the Gorge.  Our back up plan was to hike the Pioneer Mountain Trail which is part of Camp McKee.  It's a good hike, but it's not the Gorge.  B. Gilbert pressed on, and we made it to the Gorge.  

The whole group

Group 1  on the trail

We hiked from Koomer Ridge Campground on Koomer Ridge Trail.  Then our group split in two, and one took the Buck Trail, and my group took the Koomer Ridge Trail.  We met in the middle on Sheltowee and Rough Trail to have lunch.  Then we kept hiking the same direction we had started, and met back at the parking area.  An adult in my group had his GPS with him.  We did 7.1 miles on the trail.  I took 28,734 steps on Saturday for 11.8 miles.

We made it back to Camp McKee at 4.  Supper was already ready when we returned.  We ate by 4:30.  By 6 PM, it was dark, and the repelling area was ready.  I was still wearing shorts, although I had on the down filled coat.  I was still cold.  I didn't repel.

The Repelling Tower by Moonlight at Camp McKee

Lodge Chief A. Reynolds and Tyler leading the Scouts Own Service

This was an excellent weekend!  I feel like Kawida Lodge should be doing events like this at least once, maybe twice a year.

We had 23 registrants, but only 22 showed up.  It was the perfect size.  We put our tents up in front of Keeneland Lodge.  Since there was a fire restriction due to dry conditions, we spent a lot of time in Keeneland Lodge since there was a fireplace inside.  I thought this was perfect.  We originally were going to stay at the Offutt Shelters.

Sunday morning fire at Keeneland Lodge

Extra Gear - I had purchased a fleece sleeping bag liner and I had purchased a Goretex Bivy Sack to try out on this campout.  On the last campout a few weeks ago, Tyler broke the zipper on his sleeping bag.  I thought I fixed it, but it wasn't fixed when he was ready for bed on Friday night.  He zipped his bag up, and the zipper came apart.  It was 42 degrees, and he would have frozen if he didn't have my liner and bivy sack.  So Tyler ended up using my liner, wrapping up in the broken sleeping bag, and then he slid in the Bivy Sack.  He loved it.  He said he was very warm overnight.  It still got used, but I didn't get to try out the new gear. 

Food - 

Friday night cracker barrel hot chocolate

Saturday morning Oatmeal, fruit, fruit bars

Saturday lunch, Tortilla Wrap sandwiches, chips, fruit bar, trail mix (all in a ziplock bag).  We at this on the trail.

Preparing lunch at Camp McKee

Eating lunch on the trail.

Saturday supper - Chili prepared by C. Mills.  Excellent!  He drove 120 miles to make soup for us.  Mr Mills had made soup for a Kawida Lodge event in the past.  At Orbital Ordeal in April, Mr. Miles made a chili and another kind of soup.  He is a retired cook from the Kentucky National Guard.

Saturday Crackerb Barrel - Sliced Pound Cake with cream cheese toping.

Sunday monring - Oatmeal and fruit. 

Nights Camping - 2.  

Next Campout - Troop 215 will be visiting the American Museum of Science and Energy in Oak Ridge Tennessee on Saturday November 19 after camping at BSA Camp Pellissippi on Norris Lake.   We will visit the Lost Sea Caves and camp in the cave on Saturday evening.  I will only get 1 night out of this campout since I have a board meeting Saturday morning, November 19.  I will then drive to Tennessee to join my troop at Lost Sea Caves in Sweetwater Tennessee.

Total Camping nights in 2016 - 23 nights so far this year.

This is the Swift Camp Creek.  Our scout troop hiked here 3 weeks ago, and upon sitting down at this spot, Tyler yelled out.  The leaders rushed over to him to see what was wrong since he was in pain.  They wanted to know if he had been bitten by a Copperhead Snake.  He was just having a cramp in his hip.  We took this picture to send to those two leaders so they could see that Tyler was in this section without pain.

The first snowball of the year.  This young man scraped off the frost that was on his tent on Sunday morning, and this is what he made from it.

Eagle Scout in the family - November 6, 2016 - Troop 215

We have an Eagle Scout in the family.  Thomas did his Eagle Scout Court of Honor on Sunday, November 6, 2016 starting at 2 PM at Georgetown First United Methodist Church.

Board Members Present: Dr. Ray Wechman (former SM of Troop 215 and Chair person of the Eagle Review Board), Cyndi Hanes (mother of Eagle Scout and Troop Eagle Guide), Linda Golebiewski (mother of Eagle Scout), Charlie Mifflin (Troop COR & Eagle Scout).

Dr Ray Wechman and Thomas after Eagle Court of Honor

Thomas finished up his paper work for the Eagle packet on Monday October 24.  He finished his Eagle Project on May 15, but he wanted to make sure he did the write up well, so he took some time getting it finished.  On Tuesday October 25, he had his Scoutmaster Conference by ASMs Wagner and Walrod.  On Wednesday October 26, I got signature on the Eagle Scout Rank Application from Thomas, me as his Unit Leader, and our Committee Chair, Mr. Cleland.  On Thursday October 27, I got a missing signature from Mr Heltzel, who is President of the Food Pantry and the Eagle Mentor for Thomas for the project that he completed.  

On Friday morning, October 28, I took the signed Eagle Application to Mr Ferrin in Lexington to have him check and review the Eagle Application.  He looked at it for only a second, and showed that I was missing a signature from the BlueGrass Council Office.   So I drove to the Council Office to get Mr. Cook to check the application.  He helped me correct a few of the dates on the application.  The council records had to be correct for the merit badges that were written on the Eagle Application, and for the dates of leadership served in the troop after his Life Scout BOR.  After everything was checked off, George signed the form, and I drove back to Mr. Ferrin's house to drop it off.

By October 31st, I received confirmation that the board was now possible, and by the 3rd of November, it was set.  Thomas would have his board of review on Sunday November 6.  The review took place only 10 days after I dropped off the application.

It was kind of stressful to get everything done.  By dropping off the application while Thomas was in school, I assumed some of the responsibility that Thomas should have done.  Even though 5 other scouts from Troop 215 have gotten Eagle Scout in 2016, this is the first time I've been this much involved in the process.  

The Eagle Trail is a huge adventure.  It starts even before the scout joins a Boy Scout Troop since one of the questions on the Eagle Application is about the Arrow of Light Award.  If the Scout earned the Arrow of Light Award, it was earned as a Webelos Scout.  Every rank advancement date had to be known for the application, and every merit badge earned with the date that it was earned must also be on the application.

A troop that doesn't have a good Advancement Chair would have a difficult time keeping up with everything that a Scout needs for his Eagle Award.  Our Troop has strong leadership in the committees, and for that I am not only thankful, I'm spoiled!

Thomas is a 12th grader.  He is 17 years, 5 months, and 2 days old as of the date he earned his Eagle Award.  At age 18, a Scout can no longer advance toward the Eagle Rank.

This past Saturday evening, the day before the Eagle Board of Review, Thomas filled all the missing camping trips that he attended in his Scout book.  He camped 107 nights with our Scout troop and with the Order of the Arrow before he became an Eagle Scout.  For summer camp, he went to Camp Crooked Creek, Camp McKee, Camp Michaels for NYLT while the rest of the troop was at Camp Friedlander, he went to Philmont while the troop went to Camp McKee 2 years ago, and last year he was in the high adventure sailing at Camp Roy C. Manchester while the rest of the troop did the normal summer camp at Roy C.  He slept in several caves, he slept in the USS Silversides Submarine in Muskegon Michigan, slept in the USS Yorktown battleship in Patriots Point, and many smaller campouts in between.

Scouting is not about camping, and it's not even about earning the Eagle Award.  Scouting is about learning leadership skills while at the same time learning good citizenship, learning how to serve other people, and having a good time while doing all of it.  This was as long a trail for Dad as it was for Thomas, but I am the happiest man in the world to have been able to see him as he traveled this trail and traveled with him on a lot of it.  You are missing out if your only involvement in scouting is dropping your son off at the door when the meeting starts.

I'm glad I still have another son who has not yet earned the Rank of the Eagle.  He is close, but not there yet.  My youngest son, Tyler, is a Life Scout, but his Eagle Trail is a little bit different than my oldest sons Trial to Eagle.  Tyler will get his Eagle Rank probably by age 15, and his involvement in scouting will have him working more with the Order of the Arrow, Kawida Lodge.  Thomas was the Awards Committee Chairperson this past year.  Starting next year, Tyler will be the Drum Team Chair, and will at the same time be the Vice Chief of Tecumseh Chapter, as well as a member of the Elangomat Committee.

Something sad to note is that on the same day that I helped Thomas fill in his camping nights in his Scout Book, an 11 year old Scout from a Boy Scout Troop in Louisville was camping with his troop in Red River Gorge.  My boys did some backpack camping there 2 weekends ago.  This scout went to his tent after supper, and while he was resting, an 18 inch diameter limb from a tree fell on his tent.  He died immediately. 

When we talk to Scouts about First Aid, we tell them that it is usually the adults that will need first aid on camping trips.  I feel horrible for the scouts who will live with this death for the rest of their lives, and for the family of the Scout who passed away. It was a horrible accident, and nothing that a troop could be prepared to face.

Out of all the boys who start in Scouting, very few scouts make it to Eagle Award.  It is a difficult trail to follow.  I am not an Eagle Scout, and I'm happy to have our first Eagle Scout in this side of the family.  If I had the opportunity to travel this trail again from the beginning with Thomas, or in other words start over with him as a 7 year old, I would say ABSOLUTELY!  WITHOUT HESITATION!!  I would start over in a heart beat.  It was a great journey, and it will continue on past the Eagle Award for Thomas.  He wants to be involved in the troop throughout college.

I know I will never have the years back where my boys were growing up, but I haven't miss out on anything!  I have been there every step of the way, and for that I am the happiest father and Scoutmaster that you have ever met!

The Eagle Review Board

Thomas and the current and former Scoutmaster of Troop 215

Baker Family

Natural Bridge & Red River Gorge - October 21 to 23, 2016

Troop 215 October Outing - October 21 to 23, 2016

Location - Natural Bridge for younger scouts, and Red River Gorge Backpack Camping for older scouts.

Total Mileage - 145 miles round trip from Georgetown KY and return.  Roughly the same distance as going to Camp McKee from Frankfort.

Weather - Arrival Friday at 8 PM, temperature 50 degrees.  Woke up 6:15 AM Saturday, temperature 41 degrees.  Hiking Saturday morning, temperature 46 to 55.  Bed Saturday night 11 PM, temperature 43.  Departure Sunday morning 9:30 PM, temperature 46.  (temperature given by weather underground website).  NO RAIN!

Clothing - Shorts.  Hiking Socks.  Thermal undershirt, Flannel Shirt, Fleece jacket overnight.  Sock cap and neck warmer

Shoes - Keen Sandals in the campsite.  Hiking boots while hiking.

Tent - I slept in my Slumberjack Trail Tent 4.  Super easy to put up, and it's a double layer tent.  Very sturdy!  

Sleeping Bag - Teton 0 Sleeping bag.  My favorite bag!  I always look forward to cold camping so I can use this bag!

Main Activity - Hiking Saturday morning.  We hiked from the Whittleton Campground where we camped to the top of Natural Bridge.  We went around past the bridge to the place that was close to Lovers Leap, but we didn't continue.  We then hiked back to the campsite.  We hiked 5 miles.

Upon arrival back to the campsite, we had lunch.  After lunch, we rested for a while, and then a few of the older scouts taught Scout Skills to the younger Scouts.

We started a fire in the campsite around 5 PM, and kept the fire going until the other Scoutleader and I went to bed around 11 PM.

The older scouts went backpack camping at Red River Gorge, which was only about 15 miles away from Natural Bridge.  My two sons were in this group.  I was originally scheduled to hike with them, but I had to back out since another leader backed out of the Natural Bridge campout because of work (caused by Hurricane Matthew).  For that reason I switched groups.

Extra Gear - I really only had one piece of extra gear.  I had purchased a neck warmer a week or so before the campout.  I used it for the first time, other than testing it at the house, during this campout.  I really like it!  I kept it on my neck the entire time.

I kept wool socks in my tent to change into at night.  That way I didn't sleep with cold feet.  On Sunday morning, I wore the wool socks home.

Food - 

Friday night cracker barrel was skipped due to the fact that the scouts asked to go to bed around 9:30. It was awesome!  

Saturday morning I cooked scrambled eggs, link sausage, toasted bagels with cream cheese, and I had instant Starbucks coffee.

Saturday lunch, I cooked sausage, South Western Flavored Chicken, and Refried Beans in once skillet.  When it was cooked fully, I wrapped the mixture in a tortilla shell.  It was good.

Saturday supper was cooked over campfire.  It was bratwurst, sauerkraut, and pre cooked cheese broccoli that we cooked in foil packs.  It was really good!

Sunday monring - We at the rest of the bagels and cream cheese that we didn't eat for breakfast the morning before.

It was a good eating weekend.  There were only two adults, and we split the cost of the food by buying what we wanted to eat.  I took breakfast and lunch, and Mark, the other scout leader, brought supper and snacks.

Nights Camping - 2.  

Next Campout - Troop 215 will be visiting the American Museum of Science and Energy in Oak Ridge Tennessee on Saturday November 19 after camping at BSA Camp Pellissippi on Norris Lake.   We will visit the Lost Sea Caves and camp in the cave on Saturday evening.  I will only get 1 night out of this campout since I have a board meeting Saturday morning, November 19.  I will then drive to Tennessee to join my troop at Lost Sea Caves in Sweetwater Tennessee.

Total Camping nights in 2016 - 21 nights so far this year.

Saturday breakfast cooking

Breakfast plate Saturday morning

Balanced Rock (Trail) to Natural Bridge

A big crowd on top of Natural Bridge

The scene from the top of Natural Bridge

Our youger scouts on Natural Bridge

Under Natural Bridge

This may one day be a favorite picture of mine.

Scout Skills Instruction by Scouts

cooking supper by campfire

Antelope in the fire

Another strange fire shot

Red River Gorge Crew - Scouts 

Red River Backpacking Group

Red River Gorge

Campfire at Red River Gorge