BSA Troop 60 :: Boy Scout Troop of Farmland and Parker City, Randolph County, Indiana

by Matt Howell, Assistant Scout Leader (Webmaster)

Friday evening I arrived at Camp Redwing for the annual Fall Camporee. This years theme was “Leave No Trace“. Here are the 7 principles of Leave No Trace:

1.  Plan Ahead and Prepare
2. Travel and Camp on Durable Surfaces
3. Dispose of Waste Properly
4. Leave What You Find
5. Minimize Campfire Impacts
6. Respect Wildlife
7. Be Considerate of Other Visitors

Frank took me out to Reece Airport (about a mile from Camp Redwing) and dropped me off to hike into camp with the boys of Troop 60. We got started around 5:15pm and made it into camp about 1/2 hour later. We setup our campsite and started on dinner which consisted of Sausage Grillers and chips. I had to run into Wally World to get some hot dog buns. This camporee was different because of Leave No Trace…all participants of the camporee setup camp in the large grassy field instead of the actual camp sites.

After dinner and evening flags, Frank and I went to our Leave No Trace station and taught two rounds of classes. We even had nature helping us out with a gartner snake that showed up for our “Respect Wildlife” principle. We turned in around 11pm.

After a great night of ground sleeping (rolling around from side-to-side all night), we awoke to smoked sausages and blueberry pancakes for breakfast. After morning flags, Frank and I made our way to the “Lone Cherry” campsite to setup for the morning classes. I was amazed that the boys paid attention to us and were interacting to our questions with enthusiasm. For lunch, Frank made us chicken noodle soup and we had granola bars as well. We were better off than the rest of Troop 60, they had beef jerky and canned cheese spread & crackers for lunch.

After lunch, Bob showed up and helped us setup our testing course. We had 4 decoy ducks, one fawn, a 3-foot goose and a couple of deer antlers we placed along a trail. The point of the exercise was to see if the boys observed the items and how they interacted upon seeing them. It was interesting because some groups found almost all of them while others, found only a few.

We cleaned up our area around 3:30pm and headed back to the campsite. The Troop 60 boys had a water balloon fight in their free time, while us leaders sat around and took it easy. About 4:30pm, we started preparing for dinner which consisted of hobo dinners (ground beef, sausage, squash, onions, carrots, hash brown potatoes, optional mushrooms, tomatoes and zucchini). The troop beside us also offered us their massive amount of chilli they prepared (yep, it was good, spicy and yummy). We headed up for evening flags around 7:30pm and had closing campfire afterwards. Highlights of the campfire included awards, skits, a Leave No Trace movie and a special “Baby Bird”, “Twist and Shout” & “LaBamba” medley. Very funny stuff. Once we got back to camp, the leaders prepared blueberry cobbler and the boys of Troop 60 went off to the woods for a game of “Commando”.

Sunday morning found us under a heavy mist and dew. We had a quick breakfast of cold cereal, pop tarts and quick heated oatmeal. Flags took place around 8:30am with Chapel following after. I was home by 10:30am.