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.
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