Raven Knob 2004

Troop 1131:

Yesterday was somewhat eventful. Ian Dulaney, our 17-year-old visiting scout from Texas, was fooling around with some of our older scouts and wound up with a fractured ankle bone. Ian had jumped on Nathan Frederick's back, to ride him like a horse. Nathan, a wrestler, flipped Ian off, and Ian twisted his right foot in the landing. The boys went to the camp Health Lodge where Ian got an ice pack and an ace bandage around his ankle, and a ride back to our campsite in a camp golf cart. The advice from the health lodge was to give Ian a couple of Advil tablets and monitor him.

After a couple of hours, the pain had not subsided, and I drove to the camp administration building to arrange for a trip to the hospital for x-rays. We had brought our BSA Insurance forms with us and, of course, they had Ian's medical form. Ian also had his personal insurance card with him. The hospital accepted the personal insurance card, and Ian will have to file a claim with the Boy Scouts when he gets home. The hospital told Ian that he had suffered a fracture, but it must have been relatively minor as they only put a soft wrap around the ankle instead of a cast. They did give Ian a set of crutches, and we arranged for Bryan Burley to drive Ian to his various classes from now on.

All of this happened during the afternoon yesterday. In the evening, after dinner most of the troop went to the Rifle and Archery ranges for our troop shoots. Some of our scouts are quite proficient at rifle shooting and at archery; Evan Bowen, in particular, is a very good marksmen. Evan's rifle target group of ten shots was in a cluster smaller than a quarter twice, and his arrows were almost all in the bull's eye. I suggested to him that he consider joining the rifle team at Woodson HS next year.

The scouts and adults who climbed the knob on Monday included: John Jaskot, Matt Abbott, Jay Miller, Matt Wolfe, Stephen Livick, Zachary Pampel, Billy Nugent, spencer Reynolds, Mike Salomon, Bryan burley, Ned Wolfe, Dave Nugent and Mike Tiffany. All will get a special "rocker" to attach to their camp embroidered patch this year.

Four Scouts completed a "make-up" Frog Hunt last night with Bryan Burley. They were Spencer Reynolds, Kyle Frederick, David Mazzocco, and Patrick Maton. The Frog Hunt is a requirement for Nature and Reptile and Amphibian Study Merit Badges. The boys said they saw a couple of frogs and heard some jump into the lake.

We had several more Boards of Review yesterday. Scouts Jake Lieber, Zachary Pampel, Jack Phillips were promoted to First Class, but Jack did not bring his handbook to camp so we will have to record his progress when we get home. Our evening Pizza went very well. The Aluminum Foil oven worked, and the limiting factor was Mozzarella cheese. We ran out of cheese after around 60-70 18" Pizzas. If we had more, we could have continued making Pizza into the wee hours of the night.

Each year, I collect and bring to camp funny and interesting stories that people send me over the Internet. Last night, while Pizza cooked, we sat around the campfire and I had a chance to read some of these stories to the scouts, and the boys really seem to enjoy listening to these stories. Of course, we have many chess sets available, and some of our scouts are excellent chess players. Some of the boys brought cards and poker chips so sometimes our campsite looks like a little Las Vegas.

Tonight, the families of scouts from the local council will visit camp. Many bring chicken dinners for their home troops. We will make our famous Taco Bar. I bring soft and hard shells, refried beans, salsa, and spices from home; we get ground beef, lettuce, tomatoes and onions from the camp dining hall, and we buy sour cream in town. The ground beef is cooked in our Dutch ovens. Generally, our scouts consider this the best meal of the week.

Philip Sternberg
Scoutmaster