Feb 14, 2011

The next question from the book was more about pets that I already included in the ast post. So since my mind has been heavily upon the experiences with David Nemelka that I have had I am posting a story from my history that took place while he was a Scout Committee Chairman and led to the event where we had 14 Eagle Scouts at one time.

Scout Camp of 1992 - 400 MB's

In 1986 I attended Wood Badge at Camp Maple Dell and learned some very important leadership principles that I later used as I was asked to be the Scout Master of Troop 66 in 1988. However I was asked in 1989 to be an Assistant Scout Master (specifically the Quartermaster) for a Junior Leader Training Course known as Timberline in the Utah National Parks Council where I was Scout Master.  A cousin Mark Poulson was the Course Director/Scout Master and had asked me to participate and to bring Ben along as a Junior Staff Member. I became very involved in Timberline at that point and 16 years later finally retired from involvement on the District, Council and Area Junior Leader Training Staffs. I expanded my leadership knowledge through participation in this area of Scouting. It not only helped me with leadership in the council responsibilities it also helped me in my troop responsibilities.

After I had participated in Timberline for about three years I decided to put the principles to use in my troop. I had been Scoutmaster for over four years and from the knowledge that I had gained decided to put together a summer camp that would not just give the boys a good experience but jump start them in a huge way toward their Eagle Rank.

I had a number of boys in the troop that were 12 and 13 years old but had a lot more in the ward that were still not Eagle Scouts. I decided to use these older boys for my staff and then put together a camp where we would specifically work on just merit badges. I used the Patrol Leader’s Council at the end of the summer prior to the year that I wanted to do this and we decided on 20 to 25 merit badges that we could do during the year. My plan was to work on the badges during troop meetings from October to July and we would concentrate on the requirements that included paper work and research at home. Then in the end of July we would do a summer camp at Bristlecone where we would work on all of the rest of the requirements that required we be in the outdoors to accomplish. So it began in October and we studied, as I remember, about 25 merit badges. Over a few weeks we decided to limit them to 22 merit badges. We spent troop meetings late at night one month doing astronomy since there was a special event occurring that spring where three planets were lined up very close to each other in the night sky. My home at that time was still far enough away from the city lights that we were able to see the stars and planets clearly. We also did other special projects to help do the other merit badges.

We still held our monthly campouts and had great participation in them from all of the boys in the ward. We prepared by using the patrol method and continued to build up our camping equipment.

Finally we were ready and went to Bristlecone early on Monday morning. I had three adult assistants. There were 20 boys and we had put them into three patrols. I took an old motor home that had been lent to me by Dave Nemelka for use in the scout camp. After I had driven it down into Bristlecone I worried that I wouldn’t be able to get it back out the steep road to get home. We did make it but had another vehicle chained to it to help get enough power to climb out.

At Bristlecone Varsity Teams form Carbon County had used a number of trees to build villages off the ground. It had killed a lot of the trees and so each year they would cut down some of the dead ones and make shorter logs out of them. There was an old log cabin where we set up our camp. We kept all of our food in it to help keep it from predators. (It didn’t help as skunks could still get in and did so during the week.) However the trees that were cut down were just down off the hill from the cabin so we pulled them up out of the trees and lashed them together for our tables for the week. We built three of them, as we needed one for each patrol.

During the week the 16 and 17 year old boys acted as merit badge counselors for the camping part of the badges. We did merit badges like hiking, bird study, camping, and other easier ones like basket making and leatherwork. It was fun and I still specifically remember studying an ant farm in a tree and others on the hillside in mounds. We did bird study and did a number of hikes around the hills. We looked for wild animals and even spotted a large herd of Elk that we watched during the week. We did a mountain top patriotic experience and then did all the normal camping stuff which helped us to complete the cooking merit badge as well as others. I can’t remember all of the badges we did that week but I do remember the last hike required for our hiking merit badge.

On Thursday morning we left early for our “20 mile hike”. We had all of the maps of the area known specifically as the Kyune Quadrant. (I learned a lot about the area that week especially of the history of the railroad that winds through the canyon.)  We went east from camp and wound down off the mountain headed toward the Price recreation campground area. I had never been to that area but knew that it existed.  I had different boys leading us to the area by the use of the map and compass skills we had been developing. One leader went with me, Orin Bawden, and he became a key player toward the end of the hike. We stopped and had snacks along the way and had our canteens of water. It was a hot summer day but the first part of the hike was even somewhat cool as we were hiking at 9000 feet elevation. We had a great time and even ended up on a nature trail that led us right down off the hill into the park. We filled up our canteens, rested and the first 6 miles was over. We then left the park following the road down to highway 6 that runs from Spanish Fork canyon to Price. It was three miles to the road and just as we were getting to the junction of the roads we met a US Forest Service Fire Fighting truck headed up to the park. He stopped and got out his hose and sprayed the boys. It got them soaked and I was worried about them hiking in wet shoes but they thought it was great and really had a good time. We left there following Highway 6 up to the rest stop at the top of the canyon which was another three miles. We practiced our hiking skills that we are supposed to use along highways. I went first and Orin followed at the end. There were parts of the hill where we were spread out several hundred yards. I tried to keep a slower pace so that we could keep the boys closer together but it didn’t always work. ( I learned over the years that no matter how fast or slow the leader goes that there will always be boys who keep up at the front and boys who will lag as far behind as possible whether it be a short five mile hike or a long 20 mile one.) I had planned on filling our canteens again at the Kyune Rest Stop at the top of the hill near the highway before we continued up the hill to the camp. It was at least a 1000 foot climb over 7 miles to return to camp and I knew we would need water for the afternoon part of that hike. I was sorely disappointed when we got there and no water was to be found. The water I had remembered being there years ago had been taken out some time earlier by the state road department. So it was early 1 pm and we had the heat of the afternoon to walk up the dirt road back to camp. I have said many times since then that I would go the opposite direction if ever given the chance to repeat that 20 mile hike. At least that way we could get water for the last 6 miles.

At that point I knew the boys couldn’t get lost and decided to let them go as fast as they wanted since the sooner the lead boys got back to camp the sooner we could have the other scout masters bring water to us. I stayed behind with Orin as we were already having a couple of boys that were resisting the rest of the hike. Two boys in particular were really struggling to make the hike. Orin had kept most of his water and ended up walking about 100 yards and then telling them they could have a little water as soon as they got up to him. After about three miles it became evident to both of us that we would need more water, and faster than we had planned. I started hiking faster and told Orin I would go to camp and bring back water. I had hiked another three miles and passed several of the boys who were starting to also struggle. By the time I had reached the top of the hill a half mile later I was met by one of the leaders in a vehicle with more water. I relaxed my hiking at that point and he took the water to the boys as he went down the road. I was surprised to later discover that Orin and the two boys that had the hardest time were only about a mile behind me at that point. Orin’s 100 yard method had worked pretty good even though he was out of water before our other leader got to him. There were also boys that had been back to camp almost a half hour before I got there. We all had some blisters and some had some real bad ones form hiking in their wet shoes but it ended up being the highlight of the camp that week.

Friday night we were joined at camp by three other adults (Tom James and David Nemelka were two of them) who were members of the Scout Committee and the adult leaders wives. We had a great patriotic camp fire, great dutch oven food and retired an American flag. Then we went to work the next morning  making the camp official and the merit badges official. Several of the boys had written reports during the week to finish up the paperwork parts that they had missed at various times through the year when they had missed troop meetings and others were still doing them that morning. The troop committee then held a long Board of Review as we had to get each boy through the process. They would each meet with me in my tent and we would make sure that they had finalized all of the merit badges and then they would meet with the members of the troop committee that had come up. I had a spread sheet with all of the merit badges requirements and the boys names so that I knew where they were. We had a lot of work to do that morning and while some of the boys were completing requirements the others were breaking camp and cleaning up form our week.  It ended up being a great success in that we completed 400 plus merit badges for a combined total of 22 boys. I was thankful for all of the help that had come with me and I was very impressed by the boys who had acted as the counselors during the week. They had each prepared well and in so doing had passed off a lot off the requirements for themselves.

I had been successful because I had used the principles of leadership that we had been teaching in Timberline. The principles of sharing leadership, knowing and using resources and counseling were especially useful that week and I will include other stories from the week to illustrate that later in my history.