What it’s like to be on the end of the rope for the Scoutmaster drag at the indoor rally.

All night long, you’ve watched the scouts of Troop 103 compete and your heart is filled with pride. Second in the knot tying relay after just two weeks ago they were struggling to tie bowlines. First in the compass relay, our scouts are both smart and fast! Third in the bandage relay. They don’t win every event, but they are consistently near the top! Finally the time comes for the Scoutmaster drag. You think back to the time that Mr. A asked “Who can fill in for me? I asked my doc, but he said my knee’s not up to it just yet.” Despite your better judgement, you raised your hand. And now here you stand. Leather gloves and a blanket the only thing standing between you and some serious rope and floor burns. You see your friends on the side of the Gym and they call to you “Nice knowing you!” Mr A. comes up for what you think are words of advice. He looks down and asks, “What kind of flowers would you like?” He grins.

You swallow hard. They hand you your end of the rope. Tied in a loop, it looks exactly like a hangman’s noose. Perhaps this was a mistake. But the scouts have fought so bravely until now. You would hate to let them down. So you grab the rope and plop down on the hardwood floor. A couple of older scouts, suddenly so much wiser than you, offer words of advice. ” Wrap the blanket into the rope, you don’t want it to slip away like it did for…” Their words trail off as if in respect for a dearly departed scoutmaster. Trying to control the excitement, you twist the top of the blanket into the rope and dig in to your position.

Ahead of you, the scouts line up grabbing either side of the rope. Their feet are cocked into the starting position and their legs strain to keep from bursting forth. You are so excited, you don’t even hear the announcer’s call, but suddenly like a shot, they are off. Their legs churning ahead of you in a massive confusion. You lurch forward, desperately clinging to the rope as the crowd starts to blur by your side. Rounding the first turn, there is an older scout manning the rope closest to you. He is desperately trying to control the end to keep you from swinging wide and taking out a dozen or so spectators. The short chute passes like a blur and you approach the second turn. Suddenly one of the scouts ahead of you falters and goes down. The churning legs keep trampling and he manages to keep from underfoot, but when he finally reaches you, your swinging weight catches him full on the side. He tumbles over the top of you and then is gone. you try to look back, but a surge of speed from the scouts hitting the straightaway focuses your attention towards the far wall, now rapidly approaching.

Rounding the third turn, you are holding on for dear life. Another scout flies off into the void. At this point it’s impossible to tell if he was one of ours or a spectator. But you hardly have time to think of that as your vision is filled with the tangle of hardwood and steel that is the bleachers. Lowering your head in anticipation of a calamitous impact, you only raise it after you have somehow made the turn and miraculously avoided the bleachers entirely. Ahead of you, you can see the older scout that they assigned to the job, desperately holding the rope down and struggling to keep you from swinging to wide.

You are now on the home stretch. No more turns, just the finish line lies ahead. You shoot across your goal and spin to a stop. Standing up to thunderous cheering and high fives from all the scouts, you are on top of the world. You suddenly feel sorry for anyone who hasn’t felt the sheer thrill of the Scoutmaster drag and hope against hope that nobody will volunteer for next year, so that you can have one more lap.

–
Doug Hershberger

January 2012, Cook Off Campout

Cook Off Campout

By T103 Historian-Ethan L.

The campout took place in Los Mochos, near Livermore, from Saturday to Sunday. It was mandatory for anyone volunteering in Webelos woods to come. We Left in the morning, and arrived at about 10 am. Lunch officially began at around noon, which was when the cook off was. Justin and I (a.k.a. Black Dragons) decided to cook something simple, because we could not use a stove, we could only use an open flame. we had to use an open flame. We did not win, the Flying Eagles won. After the cook off, the testing of the Webelos woods campout began. We cycled through multiple activities, doing them around the soccer field. when we came back, the cook off was over, so we were permitted to use stoves, which made things much quicker when we were cooking. Afterward, we went to a campfire with the common songs and skits. Finally, we went to sleep and left in the morning. When we came back, everybody took troop equipment home.

December 2011, Mystery Trip

Mystery Trip of 2011

By T103 Historian-Ethan L.

For the Troop 103 Mystery trip, we went to some abandoned gun batteries near San Francisco. We started at Bart. We took a bus to an area closer to the coast. We walked a short distance near an old swimming pool that existed in the early 20 century but burnt down after a fire. From there, we hiked for 10.2 miles, and then went to the gun batteries. At the gun batteries, the older scouts were free running, jumping up walls and over things. Younger scouts were sort of wandering around, I suppose you could say, exploring. After this, we hiked a small portion of the Golden Gate Bridge. We came back and went onto two buses, two different groups because the bus could not hold our entire troop. Group 1 was a lot more crammed than group two because we tried to cram as much people as we could in Group 1 and left the rest of the people to Group 2. I was group one, so I used inductive reasoning in comparing the sizes of the two Groups. Afterward, we hiked a shorter distance and went to the Sea Scout base in San Francisco, small compared to the surrounding buildings in the area. There were two groups, younger scouts and older scouts. Younger scout was classified as under first class, and older scouts were first class and above. I couldn’t really say what group I was supposed to be in, because I was on the brink of moving up the rank. The leadership had decided that I was close enough to be able to go with the older scouts since I already had my Scoutmaster’s Conference, but not my Board of Review. The older scouts went on a merchant ship built in the 1890s. We had an explanation of the rules, like no running on the ship, and requirements on how we got to the bathroom. We had a challenge of moving a barrel from the boat to the dock only using rope and a mast. We spent a long time attempting to move the barrel from one place to another, which was quite tedious, but we got the job done. From the experience, we learned certain parts of ships which we did not learn during any boating merit badges. Early in the morning, we got a cup of hot chocolate and some time to explore a limited area of the boat. The younger scouts went to two places, Ghirardelli and an arcade museum, the night before. They each got 6 dollars to spend at the museum on games, with the following opinion from a scout, “The older arcade games were the best”. They also went to Ghirardelli to have ice cream afterward. In the morning, we went and met at the Sea Scout base for breakfast and afterward went to the bus. From there, we walked and soon arrived at the Bart station, where we waited for our second group to arrive. When we arrived Fremont, we went to the school to claim our personal gear, took some food, and listened to announcements. We also attempted to take our claim on the leftover pizza and other goodies. The pizza was almost diminished instantaneously; while everything else (especially the salad) was left almost completely untouched. The people who got the remaining slices of pizza (including me) enjoyed it while the majority who did not get pizza wondered why they had missed out on the pizza. The mystery trip was a trip that I didn’t think any of us guessed right. It was the best mystery trip I have been to so far. Parts of the mystery trip were not hiking. Some parts we would take buses and, at the beginning and end, Bart. We truly hiked 6.3 miles, but the total distance was 10.2 miles.

Here are photos from Mr. Carter:
Mystery Photos from Mr. Carter

Thanks to Mr. Carter, here is the link to the Geolog:
Geolog of Mr. Carter’s pictures

Here is a overview of the mystery trip route from the link above

I would like to acknowledge Mr. Carter for supplying me with some basic information on this campout, and Ashwin for providing me with information on the activities the younger scouts did.

November 2011, Hobo Campout

On November 5th and 6th we went on a Hobo campout to camp Cutter in the Santa Cruz mountains near Big Basin. A hobo campout is where you make your own shelter out of tarps and cook your food over the fire using tin cans, foil and other makeshift cooking implements. On the way up to camp, we thought we were going to be even more authentically hobo than planned when one of the trucks hauling our gear sprung a leak in its oil line. We weren’t able to fix it with chewing gum and bailing wire, so the rest of the troop went on ahead while some of the adults stayed with the disabled vehicle. We arrived at beautiful camp Cutter and after some quick instruction the scouts began setting up their own shelters. Only problem was that a lot of the tarps and some of the food was still in the vehicle we had left behind. Luckily some adults were able to return to the gas station in Saratoga where the truck had been left and retrieve the gear. The truck was eventually fixed and made it up to camp with us as well.

There were all kinds of fun and interesting tarp shelters. Some of the older scouts made a virtual tarp city complete with a cardboard box that Mark H used as a shelter. Some of the scouts tried to build beds in the rafters of the picnic shelter but we had our first hobo ruling and it was declared that was cheating. The Purple Penguins and Falcons joined together and pitched an awesome 5 man tarp. More about that later.

We cooked Quesadillas on the tops of tin cans and soup in the cans for lunch. Then it was time for the hobo boat races. We built hobo boats using hobo cardboard and hobo duct tape. It was hoborific and everybody had a hobo great time. It started to sprinkle and the water was awfully cold. Some of the adults were worried that the scouts might catch hobothermia, but they were not deterred. Several boats were launched but in the end only one of them actually floated, the boat belonging to the Purple Penguins and piloted by Darryl C.

The rain was really coming down at that point, so we headed back to camp and changed into dry clothes and started preparing dinner. Dinner consisted of foil packs with spam and ramen noodles. The scouts in the 5 man tarp (now with a few extras) were so cozy and warm they could not be persuaded to come out in to the rain to cook. Some of the other scouts gorged themselves on ramen noodles cooked in the can. Some of those tarps that had looked so good in the afternoon were starting to get a bit soggy inside and a few more scouts moved in with the Purple Penguins and Falcons. The 5 man tarp with quickly becoming “the tent of infinity” as more and more scouts took refuge inside its sauna like interior.

As the evening grow long, Many of the tarps were no longer as warm and dry as they had been in the afternoon light. Several scouts pitched a troop tent we had brought for emergency purposes. Meanwhile in the “tent of infinity” there was a might party raging. Dr. Dubro surprised us all by showing up in the middle of the darkness with a cool umbrella and a massive bag of popcorn to share. The scouts in the party tent had a ball eating the popcorn and who knows, they just might have figured out a way to show movies inside their tent.

The rain came down throughout the night and there were a few pulled stakes and quick yet slushy repairs but the next morning we checked and two scout shelters were still going strong. One of them was this amazing A-frame/hammock shelter built by Konnor D. The other was the tent of infinity. It was hobotastic. During a break in the rain, we managed to get breakfast, clean up and load the cars after a brief Scouts’ Own. Everyone agreed that the Purple Penguins and Falcons with their amazing tarp and unsinkable boat had rocked the hobo campout.

As we drove down the mountain we all breathed a sigh of relief. We had survived! Some of us had even thrived. And the Purple Penguins and Falcons stood just a little bit taller that day, knowing that they had conquered the rain and the wilderness and done a good deed for their fellow scouts in need.

Mr. Hershberger

January 2012

Troop 103 Scout Campouts / Activities

November
Sat Nov 12, 2011
9am – 3pm Scouting for Food
Where: Warm Springs Elementary
Calendar: Troop 103 Activities

Sat Nov 19, 2011
9am – 3pm Scouting for Food
Where: Warm Springs Elementary
Calendar: Troop 103 Activities

December
Sat Dec 3, 2011
8am – 4pm OA Winter Camp Awareness Seminar
Where: Council
Calendar: Troop 103 Activities

Mon Dec 12, 2011
7pm – 8:30pm Troop 103 Court of Honor
Where: Warm Springs Elementary
Calendar: Troop 103 Activities

Sat Dec 17, 2011
All day T103 Campout – Mystery Trip
Sat Dec 17, 2011 – Sun Dec 18, 2011
Calendar: Troop 103 Activities

Sun Dec 18, 2011
All day T103 Campout – Mystery Trip
Sat Dec 17, 2011 – Sun Dec 18, 2011
Calendar: Troop 103 Activities

January
Sat Jan 14, 2012
All day T103 Campout- Snow Camping
Sat Jan 14, 2012 – Sun Jan 15, 2012
Where: Pinecrest
Calendar: Troop 103 Activities

Sun Jan 15, 2012
All day T103 Campout- Snow Camping
Sat Jan 14, 2012 – Sun Jan 15, 2012
Where: Pinecrest
Calendar: Troop 103 Activities

February
Fri Feb 3, 2012
7pm – 9pm Indoor Rally
Calendar: Troop 103 Activities

Fri Feb 17, 2012
All day T103 Campout – Cook-off
Fri Feb 17, 2012 – Sun Feb 19, 2012
Where: Los Mochos
Calendar: Troop 103 Activities

Sat Feb 18, 2012
All day T103 Campout – Cook-off
Fri Feb 17, 2012 – Sun Feb 19, 2012
Where: Los Mochos
Calendar: Troop 103 Activities

Sun Feb 19, 2012
All day T103 Campout – Cook-off
Fri Feb 17, 2012 – Sun Feb 19, 2012
Where: Los Mochos
Calendar: Troop 103 Activities

March
Mon Mar 5, 2012
7pm – 8:30pm Troop 103 Court of Honor
Where: Warm Springs Elementary
Calendar: Troop 103 Activities

Sat Mar 17, 2012
All day T103 Campout – Angel Island Biking
Sat Mar 17, 2012 – Sun Mar 18, 2012
Where: Angle Island
Calendar: Troop 103 Activities

Sun Mar 18, 2012
All day T103 Campout – Angel Island Biking
Sat Mar 17, 2012 – Sun Mar 18, 2012
Where: Angle Island
Calendar: Troop 103 Activities

April
Fri Apr 13, 2012
All day T103 Campout – Capture the Flag
Fri Apr 13, 2012 – Sun Apr 15, 2012
Where: Lost Mochos
Calendar: Troop 103 Activities

Sat Apr 14, 2012
All day T103 Campout – Capture the Flag
Fri Apr 13, 2012 – Sun Apr 15, 2012
Where: Lost Mochos
Calendar: Troop 103 Activities

Sun Apr 15, 2012
All day T103 Campout – Capture the Flag
Fri Apr 13, 2012 – Sun Apr 15, 2012
Where: Lost Mochos
Calendar: Troop 103 Activities

Mon Apr 23, 2012
6pm – 8:30pm Troop 103 Youth Protection Training
Where: Warm Springs Elementary
Calendar: Troop 103 Activities

Sun Apr 29, 2012
8am – 3pm Rim of Bay Hike – Mt. Diablo
Where: Mt. Diablo
Calendar: Troop 103 Activities

May
Fri May 18, 2012
All day T103 Campout – Webelos Woods
Fri May 18, 2012 – Sun May 20, 2012
Where: Los Mochos
Calendar: Troop 103 Activities

Sat May 19, 2012
All day T103 Campout – Webelos Woods
Fri May 18, 2012 – Sun May 20, 2012
Where: Los Mochos
Calendar: Troop 103 Activities

Sun May 20, 2012
All day T103 Campout – Webelos Woods
Fri May 18, 2012 – Sun May 20, 2012
Where: Los Mochos
Calendar: Troop 103 Activities

June
Sat Jun 2, 2012
9am – 2pm Gear Clean-up Day
Where: Warm Springs Elementary
Calendar: Troop 103 Activities

Mon Jun 4, 2012
7pm – 8:30pm Troop 103 Court of Honor
Where: Warm Springs Elementary
Calendar: Troop 103 Activities

Mon Jun 11, 2012
7pm – 8:30pm Troop 103 Summer Camp Meeting
Where: Warm Springs Elementary
Calendar: Troop 103 Activities

December 2011, Mystery Trip Announcement and Survey

Hello Scouts & Parents of Troop 103,

Have you heard some of the interesting “clues” for Troop 103’s upcoming “Mystery Trip” Campout and wondered what it was all about. It’s clues to the identity of our upcoming Mystery Campout this December 17th – 18th. (Sat/Sun). Your scouts will be traveling to an unknown destination where a true mystery will unfold full of adventure.

I’d like to share some “general information” about what this type of campout is all about.

WHAT IS A MYSTERY TRIP?

Once every two or three years, we have a Mystery Trip. It is always a trip shrouded with mystery, excitement, anticipation, and most of all secrecy. The trip leader would not announce the trip destination but would provide clues throughout the weeks leading to the trip departure date. The challenge would be put to the scouts to guess the final destination. The trip is always packed with activities that focuses on an adventure over the typical campout.

Many of the trips turned out to be very memorable. For example, one trip was to San Francisco spending the day criss-crossing different neighborhoods and landmarks, enjoying different cultures, and tasting every delicacy. Next morning, was spent at a Greek Orthodox Church and observed different custom and culture. Other trips have been to Monterey Bay for whale watching, white water rafting down the American River, Caving (Spelunking) in the gold country and Eagle watching in central California.

WHAT ARE THE CLUES ABOUT?

The purpose of the clues given each week leading up to the outing is to allow the scouts and parents to use their imagination to engage and build excitement for what will be a most memorable outings.

IS IT DANGEROUS / STRENUOUS?

Each trip has its own style and challenges. We have provided a survey to gather information from the scouts on things they are or are not interested in. It is positioned with real information and misleading information as to not to give the outing away. We have included the survey and would like you to take a few minutes to fill it out and return it during the next Troop meeting, November 21. Based on the responses, we will notify the parent of any possible concerns we would have for the scout going on the outing.

WHAT IS THE COST?

This type of campout will incur additional cost over the traditional campout to cover the reservation and activity fees. The costs will be shown in the upcoming permission slip available in a couple of weeks on our website and will be announced as we are closer to the trip date.

WHAT TYPE OF GEAR IS NEEDED?

We let the parents / scouts know via permission slips and list of any special things they need to bring on top of standard camping gear. You will also be provided details at the parent meeting prior to allow you to plan accordingly without giving the destination identity away.

AS A PARENT, I STILL HAVE CONCERNS BEFORE COMMITTING MY CHILD TO THIS OUTING

We understand you may have additional concerns. We will have a parents meeting during our troop meeting on Monday, November 28, 2011 at Warm Springs School. We will meet in either the teacher’s lounge upstairs or a classroom, depending on number of parents. This meeting is to share details on our trip to all parents. We of course, will ask you not to share with your scout the destination or events of the trip so as to allow your scout(s) to experience the whole mystery of the trip to its fullest.

In closing, please submit your survey by November 21st and plan on attending the parent meeting on November 28th .

Thank you,

Doug Brown
Assistant Scoutmaster
Troop 103
DBrown@us.fujitsu.com

Procedures on Publishing and Maintenance Tasks

Procedures for reviewing and publishing the Historian’s posts

1. Find out from the Historian the title of his new draft.
2. Login to http://troop103fremont.wordpress.com/admin.
3. Go to “Posts -> All Posts”. Find the new draft on the list.
4. Move the mouse under the title to show the selection choices. Click “Edit”
   to view the draft in the editor. Click on the “HTML” tab of the editor.
5. Review the draft. Make sure it complies with the Troop103 Blog Publishing and Moderation Guideline.
6. Highlight the whole content and click “Proofread”.
   Edit the incorrect words and sentences as needed. Add any missing HTML tab if required.
7. When finished, click the “Preview Changes” button on the right “Publish” pane
   to preview the draft. Fix any problem you can find.
8. When complete the final correction, click the “Publish” button to commit and publish.
9. Go to “Posts -> All Posts” to see a list of all the posts.
10. Find the same post. Move the mouse under the title to show the selection choices
    and click “Quick Edit”.
11. Assign the publish date to the last day of the month. Mark the check box of
    the category of the current year. Enter name of any tag appropriate to the post. Click
    the “Update” button to commit and publish.

Procedures for approving comments to any post on Troop103 Blog Site.

1. Login to http://troop103fremont.wordpress.com/admin.
2. Go to “Comments”. Look for new comments that were submitted recently and have not be approved.
3. Read through each comment. Make sure it complies with the Troop103 Blog Publishing and Moderation Guideline.
4. When completed, move the mouse under the comment to show the selection choices
   and click “Approve”.
5. Repeat the same procedure until all the new comments have been approved.

Procedures for entering the Historian’s posts:

1. Login to http://troop103fremont.wordpress.com/admin.
2. Go to “Posts -> Add New”. Enter the title of the post.
   Follow the naming convention: Name of the month followed by year.
3. Click the “HTML” tab on the WordPress editor.
4. Open your Scout activity report. Copy and paste the report onto the content area
   of the WordPress editor.
5. Your report, without the HTML tags, will show no white space and wrapping around
   continuously on the browser.
6. Identify any heading in your report and add the < h? > … < /h? > tags.
7. Identify the lines that need to be separated and add the < br > tags.
   You may not add the tag to every line, and let the lines without the tag to wrap around.
8. Identify the paragraphs in your report and add the < p > tags.
9. Identify the words that need to be highlighted and add the < b > … < /b > tags.
10. Identify list of items and add the < ol > … < /ol > or < ul > … < /ul > tags whatever applied.
11. Identify tables in your report and add all the table tags.
12. Identify hyperlinks and add the < a > … < /a > tags.
13. Identify images and their location in your report. Upload each of the images
    with the following 2 steps:
• Go to “Media -> Add New”. Click the “Choose File” button and enter the file name and path. Then click the “Upload” button to upload the image.
• After the file is uploaded, go to “Media -> Library” to look up the new image. Move the mouse below the title of the image to show selection choices and click “Edit”. It shows an “Edit Media” screen. Add 6 digit year-month number to the title to make it unique. Write down the “File URL” of the image for later use.
14. Add images and < img src= > tags. Assign the url of the image to the “src” attribute of the < img > tag.
15. Add other html tags if required.
16. Highlight the whole content and click “Proofread”. Fix any spelling errors.
17. When finished, click the “Preview Changes” button on the right “Publish” pane
    to preview the draft. Fix any problem you can find.
18. Check also and make sure your post complies to the Toop103 Blog Publishing and Moderation Guideline.
19. Click the “Save Drift” button on the right “Publish” pane to save the drift.
20. Inform Junior Webmaster of your new draft that he needs to review.