I used to be a Bobwhite, a good old Bobwhite too,You all know that I love the scouting program. I knew it was important back when I was growing up and my dad was constantly going on scout campouts, as he was the scoutmaster for what seemed like most of my growing-up years. I enjoyed the high-adventure aspect of it when I helped James run the Entrada Boy Scout High Adventure Base in Moab, but I knew little of how the scouting program, in general, was run. When Cameron became a cub scout, I was given a Wolf book and received very little other information. I learned through experience exactly how the cub scout program worked. When Cameron turned eleven, he had a fabulous scout leader who assisted him in progressing through the ranks very quickly. And when I became the Advancement Chairman over cubs and scouts, I learned even more about the details of the scouting program. I still have a lot to learn.
If any of you feel some excitement about scouting, and especially if you have a scouting position, you should definitely go to Woodbadge. It was an incredible experience! I learned things there that will change my life. I came to value scouting even more than I already had. And I came home excited to get to work!
I left for Woodbadge around 5 p.m. last Sunday, June 7th. I followed the directions off Mapquest and made it easily the 4 hours to the turn-off, then followed the winding dirt road through huge rain puddles that I wasn't sure my car could make it through. I pulled in to camp just as it was getting dark and saw a parking lot full of cars, but not any people. I turned around and parked in front of the ranger's cabin. I knocked on his door and he and his dog eventually answered it. He told me to keep going further down the road to the lodge and check in with the staff there. When I arrived at the lodge there was some excitement because there had just been a grizzly bear spotted in camp 5 minutes earlier (about the same time I was out of my car knocking on the ranger's door). Sandy told me how to find the women's cabin and I ventured over there through the mud in the dark. Two girls were there already - Stephanie and Donnatella. They helped me unload my car and they walked me back from the parking lot so that I wouldn't be eaten by our friendly bear. Then after we made it to the cabin, I realized I had left my sleeping bag in the car. So we all trudged back to the parking lot through the mud in the dark, picked up my sleeping bag, and returned to the cabin. No sooner had we entered the cabin for the second time, that I realized I had a box of breakfast bars with me. I had been given strict instructions not to have any food in the cabin, so as not to tempt Mr. Bear. I think the girls were pretty tired of walking back and forth by that point, because they insisted that we would be fine to keep the box of breakfast bars in our cabin overnight. Kris stopped in for a quick hello. She went to Woodbadge in 2007 and was on staff this time. She told me I was in the BEST patrol, so I immediately knew I was a Bobwhite (she's a Bobwhite too).
The other girls had claimed the 2 small bedrooms, so I chose a bed in the large bedroom out of the 5 beds that were in there. I was closest to the bathroom and the heater. I thought this was a strategic move on my part. Little did I know that I would be spending the majority of my nights on top of my sleeping bag dripping in sweat! I slept very little that night. I never sleep well when I'm not in my own bed. When James and Kris had persuaded me to go to Woodbadge for the past year, I had always reminded them that I'm not very nice after going an entire week without sleep! At one point during the night, I got up to go to the bathroom. A little grey mouse followed me in, ran over my crocs, which were sitting by the door, and behind my bag, which was sitting (zipped up, thank goodness) under the sink. He turned around and looked at me, then quickly ran back out. Donnatella saw him run from my room to the hallway closet early in the morning. He was cute, but I wasn't anxious to spend the night with him. I was grateful that he couldn't climb up on to the bed. Of course, the next morning when I went to breakfast with the other 4 participants (2 women, 2 men) who had also arrived the night before, I told one of the staff about our grey pet mouse. He said that he'd slept in the cabin the night before and that mouse kept climbing onto his sleeping bag and trying to get inside. So much for him not being able to get on the bed! I knew I wouldn't sleep the rest of the week for sure!!! Here is the girls' cabin. Mine is the bed next to the wall. There were 4 other beds in the room, 2 in another room, and 1 in another room. The cabin included 2 bathrooms and 2 showers.
This was the first time in the Central Wyoming Council's history that they've had enough participants at Woodbadge to have all 8 patrols. That meant there were Beavers, Bobwhites, Eagles (James is an Eagle), Foxes, Buffalo, Owls, Antelope, and Bears. As the participants started to arrive, we did a variety of activities and were given a tour. Then we were all brought outside to figure out who was in our patrol. Our troop guide's name was Joe. I was in patrol #2, the Bobwhites. In my patrol there was Jason, Scott, David, & Roland. I would later come to realize that I had the four best guys in the whole troop all in my patrol. They were all excited to be there - very enthusiastic and ready to work. They were easy to get along with, even though all of them were used to being the leader. At one point one of the staffers (who I would later come to realize was in my ward in Bountiful when I was growing up) asked how I was getting along with my patrol. He said those who knew all 4 of the guys worried about how things would go. They worried that there might be contention or that one might just take over the whole group. I assured him that things were going fine. At first, I admit, I was not very happy. I hadn't slept much the night before and I was leery of being the only girl in a group with 4 men, thinking that they would consider me the tag-along and not able to do the various scouting activities that we would need to do. I was worried I would be left out of the fun. I was also used to being in charge at home, and was out of my comfort zone and feared I would be run over by these guys who were veterans in scouting. On the contrary, they were very good to include me and listen to my ideas. They taught me how to tie knots (you would think I would know how by now!). James said he was sending me to Woodbadge so that they would "fix me." Well, these guys taught me how to cook outdoors too. James can be glad about that. :)
We spent most of our learning time in this lodge where we listened to speakers and watched power point presentations about leadership. We even watched the movie "October Sky" one night. We also went outside to have separate lessons with our troop guide. Here's Scott and David sitting at our table in the lodge.
We also played lots of games, one called "Win All You Can!" One fun thing about my patrol is that we are all LDS. In fact, most of the Woodbadge participants were LDS (36 participants), as were a few of the staff. At one point during this particular game, we were frustrated about the lack of honesty among other members of the troop (you'd have to play the game to know what I mean) so we stood up and sang "Keep the Commandments," and at another point when we saw how far in the hole we were, we stood up and sang "And should we die before our journey's through..." The next day at Patrol Leader's Council, we were given instructions to clear any songs or skits with the Senior Patrol Leader before singing them. :) I guess we'd gotten a little bit too churchy the night before (but we did get permission to teach the troop "Popcorn Popping" on the day we were the Program Patrol). We sure had fun. It was an eye-opening game and one that came with a powerful lesson. I am pleased to say that we are the only patrol that kept our integrity for the entire game. A scout is trustworthy, loyal...
One of the days we were assigned to build a rocket as a patrol. This is Roland getting our rocket ready for launch. At the bottom of this post are 3 videos of our rocket launch. We didn't exactly win... I think we received the prize for the Shortest Flight. Oh well, it was fun anyway.
Building this rocket together (and I must admit, I didn't get to help much with this. My 4 guys reverted back to their cub scout days and they were pretty determined to build the perfect rocket, and I was glad to let them do so) led up to the beginning of our real project. We needed to plan and build a project that represented scouting, and present it to the troop as a patrol. We built a monkey bridge, and tied knots to it to represent the progression of scouting through a boy's life. We started with the simple knots for cub scouts and progressed to a woggle to represent an adult leader. This is David, Jason, and Scott working on the lashing for our monkey bridge. They did let me help with the lashing of the logs, under careful supervision. :)
Here are the knots, starting with Cub Scouts on the left and progressing towards the right. When we presented our project, we each read a section about scouting, starting with me talking about Cub Scouts, Jason about Boy Scouts, David about Varsity, Roland about Venturing, and finally Scott talking about adult leaders and tying it all together. I think the project was a success, other than my terrible handwriting (I had written the speaking parts). Here is Jason working on the bridge.
And Scott and David working on knots. Before we did this project, I didn't even know how to tie a square knot. Now I can do the simple knots without help and some of the more complicated knots while following instructions. I still can't tie my own woggle. I somehow managed to make the one for my neckerchief, but I have no idea how I did it, and I cannot replicate it. I better put that woggle in a safe place!
Here is our completed project with labels on the knots. It may not look like much to you, but it was a very substantial project when compared with the others. We were pretty proud of it.
On Thursday night we were due to camp outside in tents. We set off with our loaded backpacks to our campsite, only to be met by a troop guide from another patrol. He said that Yvonne had found a chewed-off baby elk leg in the camp site, right by where she intended to put our tent. They estimated that the bear had killed it the night before. We walked along the trail looking for signs of bears, and I admit I was pretty scared. I thought a bear was going to come bounding out of the forest and gobble me up at any second. At that point, I had no desire to see a bear. We found some fur along the trail, as well as bear footprints in both the upper and lower trails. As a result, they decided to change our camp site to one much closer to the lodge. I was fine with that!
Here's a bear print next to my hand. The bottom, near my watch, is the pad, then the toes and up by my fingers you can barely see the claw marks.
Here are more bear footprints, next to Jason's chapstick.
Yvonne and I put our tent right in between the guys' tents from each of our patrols. The camp ranger gave her a big buffalo hyde to sleep on, and it was quite comfortable. It kept us warm and I wasn't able to feel any pine cones under the tent. We stayed up very late talking about all kinds of things. We could hear the guys snoring in the tents on either side of us. As soon as we finally went to bed, I fell asleep instantly. That was the first restful sleep I'd had all week! I think it actually helped me to be a little bit cold. I would rather be cool to sleep than hot. That was also the first night that it didn't rain. When we woke up, we both felt very rested. Yvonne is from Worland and I met her at the Woodbadge breakfast in March.
On Friday we did a service project. We redid the individual campsites' fire pits. My partner was a guy from the Penticostal Church (I can't remember where in the state). We carried our barrel & grill back to the campsite that we had cleaned up, and on the way it burned the sleeve of my jacket (they had just barely welded it together). I was lucky I had that jacket tied around my waist or else it would have burned through my pants and probably burnt my leg! After we finished our camp site, we lined part of the roads & trails with rocks. We collected river rocks for the big project. Above is the giant barbecue pit. James said he was at Buffalo Bill when they built this one. Obviously it was in need of some repair. They had 2 bags of cement for the new project, but everyone in the troop donated money and Scott called friends from Cody to deliver 20 more bags of cement so that we could build the new bbq. Actually, I'm not sure what the technical name for it is. They used cement and river rocks to build the sides, after building a frame around it that would be pulled off after the cement dries. I told my boys that since I was one of the people helping line the road with rocks, they could look at the rocks at Buffalo Bill Scout Camp and know that I touched all of them. :) When I said that, James said, "none of those rocks are still going to be there when the boys get there in 3 weeks!"
This was a game we played on Friday afternoon. Unfortunately for my patrol, there were 5 of us (some patrols had only 4) so they had to do this game again so that everyone could participate.
Here was our outdoor cooking site. Most of our meals were eaten in the lodge and were cooked by 3 cooks. They were very delicious (even though the kitchen appliances weren't working right) and extremely plentiful. I felt guilty because by the end of the week I was wasting half of all my meals (my most often-quoted line at home is, "we do not waste food in this house!"). I don't remember ever being so full. And there was a dessert with every meal. Plus there was cracker barrel at night. Talk about calories! And absolutely no exercise! We did cook a few meals at our outdoor cooking site. Dinner the night we camped out, breakfast the next morning, then dinner again the next night. These meals turned out to be really delicious.
On Friday evening we went on a short hike. I was hoping to spot a bear in the distance. I didn't want to bump into one face to face, but if he'd been on the other side of the river, I might have been able to take a photo of him. I was disappointed that I never actually saw a bear, although we did see lots of footprints, fur on the trail, and even bones from animals who had met their sad fate at the hands of Mr. Bear. We went on another short walk the next day and still didn't see any bears. Here are 2 of the women from the troop. Since there were 8 women and 8 patrols, each of us were put in to different patrols. This is Nancy and Yvonne.
Here are the guys in my patrol: Scott, Jason, Roland, and David. Scott is from Powell, Jason is from Casper, Roland is the mayor of Cowley (how 'bout that?!), and David is from Basin. All of them have Lander ties in some way or another. A couple of them know the Whiting family personally. Others know people that I know. It was fun trying to figure out people that we knew in common. Scott remembered Liz (used to date my friend Cindy when they were in high school), and Jason remembered Laura from the LDS Dentists trips they all went on. Scott remembered James also. James will see a couple of my guys when he takes our boys to scout camp in a few weeks. James keeps teasing me about this photo. He says, "you make our boys wear scout uniforms to everything, and YOU are not in a scout uniform!" Well, I can promise you that this was one of the very few moments within the whole week that I was wearing "civies," as Nancy called them, and I did so with the permission of my patrol leader (thanks, Scott!).
Here is a totem pole that David and his lone scouts built. That's Scott, Jason, Roland, David, and me. Why are we always standing in that order? We must be more organized than we thought! I had to spend most of the week in this scout uniform. It was mighty smelly by the end of the week (sorry guys!). I was sooooo glad to take it off before I drove home! But that resulted in missing goodbyes from half of my guys. Oh well, I'll see them again later. We have to work on those tickets, after all!
We met here for our religious meeting where a variety of songs were sung, readings, and prayers.
During the course of the week, a rivalry developed between the Bobwhites and the Foxes & Beavers. This was partially due to the fact that Roland had 2 sons in the troop, one in the Beaver patrol, and the other in the Fox patrol. One night when my guys were showering, the Beavers and Foxes ran in to the shower house and threw snowballs at them. My guys were defenseless. The rest of the week this was a joke between the patrols, and our patrol even put on a skit to reenact the event. This finally culminated in our patrol receiving an anonymous gift of this snow cone on our table after one of our outdoor events.
On the final day when we were able to recognize people who meant a lot to us at Woodbadge (we recognized our troop guide, Joe), the Beavers and the Foxes presented our patrol with a miniature Snowman. I guess you had to be there, but we sure got a kick out of the whole snow ball incident and all that it led to!
Roland's Snow Man
Here is Kris being presented a recognition by the patrol she was the troop guide for, the Buffalos.
Here are all the women in the troop:
Here is our patrol. Jason, me, Scott, David, and Roland, and with our patrol flag as well. Bobwhites rule! 
Here is the Wind River District people: Bob, Kris, Dan, Jay, Brett, and me.
Me and Kris -- we didn't get to hang out a whole lot, but she did eat meals with us sometimes.
Here are all of the participants in the troop. The flags were lowered so that they were seen in the photo that the scribe was taking.
Here are all of the women with our flags.
Here are all of the Bobwhites that were there: Kris, me, Jay, Donna,
All of the staff members shook our hands as we stood in a circle, and then they lined up on the road to say goodbye.
We walked through them as we headed down to the parking lot, where everybody left (except me -- I snuck back up to the women's cabin to change into my civies!).
In order to earn our Woodbadge beads, we need to complete our ticket items. This includes 5 goals that need to be completed by a certain deadline. My goals are as follows:And here is a video of one of the games we played on Friday.
1 comment:
Wow - you were busy! I would be scared to death knowing a bear had been around my camp. Glad you didn't run into one!
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