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Recap of 2007 Mountain Man Rendezvous

Posted by scout_master on October 24th, 2007 filed in Outings, 2007 Fall




Here’s an email from Mark Christopherson, the Troop 57 ASM outing leader at the 2007 Mountain Man Rendezvous.

Hi Dave,

We had a great trip, but we didn’t bring any camera equipment so I’ll have to write about our experiences instead of show pictures.

Troop Guide Steven Wilbourn did a great job of leading the outing and was ably assisted by Patrol Guides Scotty McComas and Grant Harmon.  We had four drivers (John Crouch, Kien Vi and Howard Look plus me) taking up 14 Scouts so our ratio of adults to kids was also excellent.

The Mountain Man staff at the Boulder Creek camp was expecting 400 Scouts for the Rendezvous (the camp is supposed to hold 300) so they were very meticulous about a tightly packed parking lot and filling the lower campsites first with Weblos and first years.  We were set up in Cubland on Friday night and if you recall that area it is like a sloping football field.  It was filled with a sea of nylon tents and we all shared the covered pavilion with picnic tables for meals.  Naturally, making fire and playing in the fire ring consumed most of that evening and everything was pretty loud and crazy.  But a well-timed rain at just after 10 PM chased everyone into their tents and quickly to sleep.

The morning broke with a slight overcast and quickly burned off to blue skies and perfect temperatures.  Breakfast was dollar pancakes, sausages, oranges, and hot chocolate.  (I forgot coffee for the adults and we searched in vain for the Mountain Man Starbucks!).  We met for a camp wide Flag ceremony and then spent the day going to the various Mountain Man exhibits.  They had Black powder rifles, archery, tomahawk/knife throwing, Dutch-oven cooking, Indian Lore, Spanish vacqueros, candle making, blacksmithing, flint & steel firestarting, panning for real gold, rope-making, and a number of other old-time set-ups.  The volunteers were dressed in period costumes and did an outstanding job of keeping things moving so the throng of boys could get to as many activities as possible.  There was also a trading post where boys could buy “assorted trinkets & mercantile.”

Some of the boys cooked their lunch over an open fire to earn that requirement for Second Class while the rest snacked on sack lunched from home.  Dinner was Hobo Stew and each Scout and adult had to fashion their own foil pouch and fill to taste with hamburger, potatoes, onions, mushrooms, carrots, etc.  After about 30-40 minutes over the coals, we had our feast.  Most of our party pronounced dinner as a success; although, a few struggled with keeping their pouch well-sealed and had a somewhat drier evening repast!

We then spent the evening at a camp-wide campfire with a very talented folk singer/guitarist and a cowboy singer.  Any songs about “road kill” or dismemberment were particularly well-enjoyed by the boys, while the standards like Blowin’ in the Wind and Puff the Magic Dragon were better aimed at an older (much older) audience.  After the long day, some Olympic-caliber log rolling sapped the rest of the group’s energy and it was lights out.


Our breakfast was a mixture of bear claw pastries, bacon, oatmeal and any leftovers.  We quickly struck camp and headed down the mountain in time to get the first year Scouts back to Palo Alto in plenty of time for their Skill Session.

Next year will be the 20^th Mountain Man Rendezvous and they hope to make it even better.


Regards,

Mark Christopherson

Reid Kleckner

Posted by ben_eastburn on October 23rd, 2007 filed in Uncategorized, Eagles, 2006 Eagles





Biography at time of Eagle Court:
Reid was born at Stanford Hospital and raised in Palo Alto, attending Walter Hays Elementary School, Jordan Middle School, and Palo Alto High School. In the fall, he will be attending the Massachusetts Institute of Technology as a freshman. Reid was in Cub Scouts with Pack 57. He has been active with Troop 57 starting with skills learned at Camp Oljato and building up to his passion of doing almost every high adventure outing available, including the Mt. Whitney hiking 50-miler, Boundary Waters/Canada canoe 100-miler, 4 snow camping trips (!), and the Wyoming Wind River Range 40-miler. (more…)

Yosemite Recap

Posted by robert_fox on October 22nd, 2007 filed in Outings, 2007 Fall




By Ryan Vertelney, Patrol 4 Scribe
 
            This year at Yosemite, we had a great turn out. Fifty eight kids and seventeen adults showed up for the kickoff Scouting event of the year. Everyone arrived at the Scout House at 4:30, and we started to head \ to Yosemite shortly after that. In my car was Walker Mees, Sam Moses, and myself. My driver was my dad, Harry Vertelney. About a 1/3 of the way up, many scouts and their drivers stopped at an In-n-Out Burger in Manteca. After we ate, we continued our trip up to Yosemite. Once we arrived, we had to set up our tents in the cold, dark campground. Once our tents were set up, most of us went straight to sleep. The next morning we got up at 7:00 am and started to make breakfast in the freezing cold. To make matters worse, our fire did not want to start, but thankfully we had hot chocolate to warm us up. A little bit later, the leaders had a  meeting to decide which hike each patrol was going to go on. My patrol (patrol 4) got North Dome. Our hike started out great and everyone liked it, but then it started to get up hill. Many of our scouts did not like how it was so hilly. Finally after 4 hard miles, we stopped for lunch. After a short break, the adults on our hike (Harry Vertelney and Tom Haverstock) decided that we should go to the point of north dome. It was a mile out and a mile back out of our way. It was a very downhill slope on the way there, and an uphill climb on the way back. Once we got to the point, we looked of a cliff to see a great view. While we were there, a Spanish speaking lady talked to us, and our patrol leader Joey translated for us. When we started to head back up, everyone’s feet hurt really bad. When we hit the very uphill part, they were really stinging. The hike finally ended at 4:45 pm. Aside from our feet hurting, (especially mine because I had bad shoes and they gave me quarter sized blisters) and some of the scouts were angry that we had to go an extra two miles with hurting feet, we had a very good time. When we got back to camp, we made dinner. My patrol made hobo stew. Everyone thought it was very good. Following dinner were troop skits. Patrol 4’s skit was J.C. Penny. Then everyone went to sleep. When we woke up in the morning, we packed everything up and ate breakfast. We headed out by 9:30 to take pictures on Olmstead point. At 10:15, we went to a campground and did an hour of community service, cleaning up campgrounds. After that, we drove back to Palo Alto. It was a very fun trip for all.

Pictures from the trip:
Troop 57 Pictures from Olmstead Point
Patrol 3 hike pictures
Patrol 4 hike pictures

Mountain Man Rendezvous

Posted by tim_hedge on October 14th, 2007 filed in Outings, 2006 Fall





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Kayaking Trip

Posted by tim_hedge on October 14th, 2007 filed in Outings, 2006 Fall





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Pinnacles Climbing

Posted by tim_hedge on October 14th, 2007 filed in Outings, 2006 Fall





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Ventana Wilderness Backpacking

Posted by tim_hedge on October 14th, 2007 filed in Outings, 2006 Fall





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Mt. Diablo Hike

Posted by tim_hedge on October 14th, 2007 filed in Outings, 2006 Fall





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Pinnacles Hiking

Posted by tim_hedge on October 14th, 2007 filed in Outings, 2007 Winter





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Ski Trip

Posted by tim_hedge on October 14th, 2007 filed in Outings, 2007 Winter





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