Klondike Camping

A few months ago I was called to be the Assistant Scoutmaster.  This is a calling I knew I'd love.  Working with the young men, fun activities, playing with toys - what's not to love.  The only thing I was a little worried about was WINTER CAMPING.  Don't get me wrong - I love to camp.  It's just winter camping that I wasn't so gung ho about.  Honestly, I didn't want to force a bunch of 12-year-olds to camp out in the freezing cold.  That being said, we felt that it was important to take our kids to the annual Klondike Derby in Heber last weekend.

It couldn't have turned out better.  The camp is actually at the Heber Valley Girls' Camp, so instead of freezing in a tent all night, we were relaxing in the bunk houses (rough I know).  It was perfect for our younger boys - for three of them this was their first scout camp.

Leading up to the Klondike Ryan got our boys super excited building our sled; they spent three weeks working on it!  It was so cool to see how proud the boys were of their new ride.  They wanted to compete with the other groups and show that they could do anything they set their minds to.  Wow, isn't that the purpose of Scouting, building boys into men.

The Klondike events were very fun.  The boys raced in snowshoes, build winter shelters, navigated obstacles courses, raced the sled, and administered first aid.  In the end our troop finished 3rd overall.  Not bad considering there were 23 troops in attendance.  Our sled time was third fastest and we finished second in the snowshoe relay.  Our boys couldn't have been happier!

In the end, I don't know who had a better time this weekend, the boys or the leaders.  I really love the guys I work with in our Ward and it was a total blast going camping with them.  I can't wait for future outings so I can be a scout again!

BTW - The trip was even better because Coleton and Evan came with their troop!  Fun to watch Coleton compete with his friends...

Take a look at Troop 332 is action!