No Kegle this year but we keep the Stinky Shoe

Yesterday we held the 2nd Annual Kegel Challenge which is a bowling tournament that our troop puts on with Troop 799. The idea was to have a fun and friendly competition with another troop in our area to meet new Scouts and to broaden our Scouting horizons. It's actually a lot of fun and is helping to forge some links between the units. Last year, each PLC attended a troop meeting at the other troop and 799 joined us on our annual ski trip to Timberline (as they will this year as well).

The tournament works this way: each Scout and leader bowls a game. The six (this year seven) highest-scoring Scouts from each troop then bowl a second game. The highest combined score of those teams wins the coveted Kegel trophy which is a bowling pin. All other Scouts also get to bowl a second game for fun.

There is also a competition among the adult leaders for an equally-coveted prize: the Stinky Shoe award. This is a size 14 bowling shoe (that's not really stinky at all) that we've fashioned with brass plaques on the bottom. The premise is similar to the Kegel challenge except only the top three adult leaders from each team compete. Plus the boys are a lot better behaved than the adults. There's quite a bit of trash talking down there on that last lane.

The results this year were the same as last year but with bigger margins. The Scouts from Troop 799 retained the Kegel by 52 pins with a score of 632 to 580. Last year they won by four pins. And also like last year, the adult leaders from Troop 737 keep possession of the Stinky Shoe by a whopping 110 pins with a score of 449 to 339. Last year the margin was a mere two pins. But since the ultimate goal was to have fun I think we all won.

OlderSon, YoungerSon, and myself all competed and I think it's safe to say that none of us are destined for the PBA any time soon although after posting a 72 in the first round I hit my stride and got a 146 in the second round which I think is about the best game I've ever bowled.

Laid-back Scout weekend

Our Boy Scout troop camped out at our local scout reservation this past weekend ... just for the heck of it. We had originally planned to travel over the mountains to Lake Sherando but the group campsite was already booked every weekend in September by the time we got our ducks in a row. In attempting to come up with an alternative we were reminded of desire expressed by some of the boys during summer camp for a campout just for the sake of going camping. No structured activities, no big event, but just camping for the fun of it. So we got a reservation for a campsite in Douglas Fleet and actively engaged in non-planning of activities.

And it was great!

Aside from the rain while we were setting up on Friday night, the weekend couldn't have been much better. On Saturday and Sunday we were blessed with perfect camping weather. Bright sunny skies with highs in the upper 70s and lows at night down around 50. Absolutely beautiful.

Through a reservation quirk we also had the entire reservation to ourselves. Turns out that the council office shouldn't have allowed us to camp as there was a big triathlon taking place on Sunday. The camp director, who I know pretty well, stopped by on Friday night to ask how we managed to get a reservation. After we discussed the circumstances he said we'd be fine as we would be leaving before the activities took place and even though the organizers were setting everything up on Saturday we should be okay using the trails and such.

While no formal activities were planned, the adult leaders (all 3 of us), and the older Scouts all said they'd be happy to help anyone complete rank requirements or teach Scout skills. This worked out extremely well with some motivated youth learning woods tools, fire building, knot tying, lashings, cooking, plant & animal identification, among other topics.

Around 2pm we led the Scouts on a 5-mile hike using the new circumferential trail that goes around the reservation. Again, the weather was perfect and everyone got to see whole sections of the camp that we hadn't been to before. Near the start we stopped by to admire the new shooting area at Brady Saunders before diving into the woods and heading over to the Cub Camp side of the reservation. This was nice because we took "Angelo's Trail" over which is a nature trail dedicated to one of the boys from our Cub Scout pack who died when he was just eight years old.

I think this campout may become a staple for us in September as it doesn't require a lot of pre-planning and was very well received by the boys who went. We do our annual program planning in August so September is always one of the harder campouts to plan because of the short amount of time available to make reservations, secure equipment, line up transportation, etc.

A great way to spend the weekend.