This weekend was our Fall Camporee at Camp Cowles. We arrived Friday evening and had a nice hot bowl of chili and built up a big fire to sit around during our campfire program.

Saturday's activities consisted of teaching cub scouts first aid in the morning and scout skill competition in the afternoon.

We were lucky to have Howard Ashby, Kevin Innes and Aaron Binns (two docs and a chiropractor) with us to help our boys develop their presentations using the EDGE method. (Explain, Demo, Guide and Enable.


Logan Binns and Daniel Springman's graphically demonstrated the himelick method of helping someone that is choking. Logan would load his mouth with munched pretzels and spew them on the thrust.

Jacob Presley and Scott Innes did an outstanding job teaching how to dress an abrasion to the arm.

Zac and Spencer discussed how to wash and bandage an eye injury.

While we weren't graded, I was very very impressed what outstanding teaching skills the boys of troop 323 have.

The afternoon was full of scout history questions at each skill station. Of course you know the scouting came to America in 1910, but when did it come to Spokane and when did Camp Cowles come to be??? 1915 and 1920 respectively.

The skills stations included the following:

First Aid-simulated life threatening injuy. The boys had to assess and address.

Pioneering-rope throw, log tie, hoist and tie off with clove hitch.

Tomahawk Throw

Team Building obstacle course

Plant Identification

Fire Building-build a fire, light it at the bottom with one match and burn a stretched string 4' above the ground-timed.

We took a third place in the fire building event with a time of 58 seconds, BUT we took Grand Champion award for best overall score in the camp.

We had a very fun and successful camp.

Mancation in McCall

Last week we had our annual mancation in McCall. We rode three days to three different hot springs. We had a hard ride and and easy ride each day...but the easy ride almost cost an overnighter for three of the group. We ate breakfast pizza, burritos and lots of trail dust. We had devotionals and prayer. We got tired, dehydrated, cranky and sweaty. Our machines were beaten, smashed and abused in the rough terrain....but we came back to our jobs and routines with memories of good times and brotherhood to support us when times are tough. This trip was not for the faint of heart. Surprisingly we only did about 25 miles per day....but it was like a marathon on motos.

City Council Sept 20, 2010

In connection with the Communications MB we attended a City Council Mtg on Monday Night. We observed our City Government in action and noted all the challenges we face in our city. e.g. noise regulation, street and road construction, bicycle paths, code enforcement, traffic calming devices, gas lines under our city, water and sewer, etc. It was most enlightening for our Scouts. The purpose of scouting is to help young men make moral and ethical decisions based on the Scout Law. The opening prayer asked God to bless our city leaders with wisdom to do the same.

Scotchman Peak

Fall is here and the inclimate camping season begins. It was our first campout with Howard Ashby as our Assistant Scoutmaster. He has decades of experience and we are so lucky to have him. We celebrated his birthday by giving him a participant hat from the World Wide Jamboree and a new "cat hole" shovel, if you know what I mean.

We did have rain, but we did not have the non stop rain like we are having now as I type this.

We had Zac MacMaster-Life Scout, Daniel Springman-Star Scout, Jacob Presley-First Class and Spencer Harlan-soon to be Tenderfoot Scout. We missed Hunter, Ryan, Jace, Cullen, Adam, Josh and the other older boys. I hope we have all boys with us at the Fall Camporee next month.

Our purpose was to help Spencer advance to Tenderfoot. We also planned to summit Scotchman Peak; the highest peak in North Idaho. We did well with goal one and will have a second attempt at Scotchman next year, 323 doesn't give up.

Zac and Jacob tested and taught Spencer about the scouting skills required for Tenderfoot e.g. fuse a rope, explain EDGE as teaching technique, recite the Oath, Law, Motto, Slogan AND Spencer taught us all about the flora. He knows his forest plants. Huckleberry, Thimbleberry, Yarrow, etc. In fact he is the recipient of the collectible vintage BSA compass for his woods knowledge.

While we did not summit, I observed that we were the only group gutsy enough to overnight at the trailhead, disciplined enough to be on the trail at 8 am and the ONLY group our age. We saw approx 30 people on the trail come up behind us and NO one was younger than their 20's and most of the group were tough seniors.... amazing, where are the BSA of the Inland NW?

Happy Birthday Howard Ashby.
Well done Troop 323.
Well done Spencer Harlan.

Glacier Adventure

Derek and I have dreaming of a motorcycle adventure for sometime. Last December Derek bought an old 1982 Yamaha Maxim 750 and I had already older 1974 Triumph Bonneville 750. So we picked some dates and last Thurs/Fri/Sat we put the wheels in motion and rode some 800 miles and three states. The crowning glory was the ride in Glacier National Park, but the whole three days was an adventure. We camped out and ate some of our own meals from food we brought to keep it low budget. It was all we had hoped for and then some.....