Saturday, November 17, 2012

Cooking Over a Campfire is the Best!

We had a camp out last weekend, but I forgot the camera, so this camp report is without pictures.

If you remember, last weekend was the time the winter storm blew in. We camped at Willow Park in Lehi, one of our favorite places to camp close to home.

The wind was blowing a bit and it was snowing lightly when we arrived. We did a little fudging on our fire starting and used a bit of lighter fluid to get things started.

We had some awesome dinners cooked over a very nice hot fire including hot dogs, sloppy joes, foil dinners, and even burritos.

We took the liberty of really enjoying this camp by bringing a camp trailer and playing cards out of the wind and cold until about 10 pm.

The scouts slept in the trailer, one leader in his car, and I slept in my tent. Does that seem a little backwards to anyone else?

In the morning we built another nice hot fire and cooked waffles, and a really yummy hash over the fire. One scout had pop tarts. Can you guess which one chose pop tarts?

We packed up camp, played cards for awhile as well as built snow forts out of the newly fallen snow and then headed home.

We always find that no matter what the weather or time of year, Willow Park is always a great place to go and practice our campfire cooking skills. And this time was no exception.

Wednesday, November 7, 2012

Ride 'Em Cowboy!



With football season coming to an end for some of the scouts, and an opportunity to ride horses, what a great turnout we had for our scout meeting.

Ten scouts anxious to jump in the saddle and "ride like the wind, Bulls Eye!" (Thank you Toy Story 2)






But before they could ride like the wind, it was time to learn about safety first.

So this is how you work your way around the back end of a horse. This is one of those situations where closer is better to the wrong end of the horse.







The scouts learned you don't just throw a saddle on and hit the dusty trail. It takes care and precision to get a horse ready to ride.










Before riding, it is important to learn how to walk the horse first. This gives the horse and rider a chance to get to know one another.

Our merit badge counselors, Paul and Craig, really emphasized the importance of being a leader and making sure the horse knew who was in charge without being mean or abusive.



Attentions spans were short when we had to wait our turn to ride.










So who has the happier face, Garrison or the horse?













Kyle was so busy smiling for the camera he forgot who was driving. He's supposed to be turning left.








Care and maintenance of the horse is critical to its well-being and cooperation with its rider. Part of getting a horse ready to ride and when taking care of the horse after a ride is caring for the hooves properly.

The scouts were shown out to clean the hooves and then they all got to take a turn at it as well.



The final part of the evening was to put the horses in their own individual stable and feed each horse a treat.

We learned from a sign inside that "Horse people are stable people." Maybe that's why the scouts had so much fun learning about horses. It's such a stable environment.




Next week we complete the merit badge by learning the names of the equipment used in riding and what the different parts of a horse are called. The scouts will be equestrian geniuses by the time we're done! Yeehah and let 'em buck!

Saturday, October 6, 2012

The 4th Annual Cooking Contest Is In the Books!

The 4th Annual Cooking Contest in now in the books. And what a competitive contest it was!

The scouts started showing up at 5pm to begin the process of preparing and cooking their dinners and desserts.

Five scouts competed this year, and we were all very impressed with there creations.

Casey came with Mulligan Stew and Chocolate Banana Cream Pie.

Max came with Sloppy Joes and dutch Oven Cinnamon Rolls.











Richard came with Breaded Fried Chicken and Churro Bits.

Garrison came with Philly Cheese Steak Sandwiches and Chocolate Pudding.

And Dylan brought Taco Soup and dutch oven Cinnamon Pull-a-Parts.













The leaders came with some additional dinners and desserts to make sure everyone had plenty to eat.













We had 4 couples and 1 individual judging the meals. One of the things we love about this contest is the judges represent many years of history in scouting and awesome scouting experience. Most of the men have are former scout masters and it's great to have their participation.

After the judges submitted their score sheets, we enlisted Dana's math skills to ensure an accurate result.












After the points were totaled, the results were announced. Our second place contestant was Casey Anderson who pulled off a tremendous stew even though he really was a beginner in the kitchen. Nice work for a rookie!













And the winner is: Dylan McLain with his Taco Soup and Cinnamon Pull-a-Parts. He was already comfortable in the kitchen as he likes to cook anyway, and it really showed in his excellent presentation and taste.








A new tradition we started last year is that we'll now use the winning meal in the cooking contest as our meal for the Klondike Competition in January.

Congratulations to all the scouts for their excellent meals and great skill in preparing five outstanding results.













And thank you to our esteemed judges for their time and effort to help make the 4th Annual Cooking Contest a success.

After the contest, we (the scouts) did a backyard campout with a pancake breakfast in the morning.

It was an all-you-can-eat deal and Max was the winner downing 8 pancakes.


The others tried to keep up, but no one else could match 8 pancakes.

The scouts called this "Yoda Butter." We'll let you figure it out....


Some additional photos:

Wednesday, October 3, 2012

Who Will Crowned the Champion Cook?

Are you ready to show off your most excellent outdoor cooking skills? The 4th Annual Cooking Contest is coming this Friday, October 5th. You can start anytime after 5pm at the Stake Pavilion. Have your dinner ready to be judged and served at 7pm and your dessert ready at 7:30pm. Your families are invited to come at 7pm and enjoy the dinner with you.


For the dinner you will be judged on Presentation, Nutrition, and Taste. For the dessert you will judged on Presentation, Decadence, and Taste. Keep in mind each judge can intrepret what this means in their own way. See the July 29th blog entry for specific contest rules and may the best cook win!

Don't forget, after the dinner we will have a backyard camp out with all you can eat pancakes in the morning.

Sunday, September 16, 2012

September Camp Out


The September camp out had beautiful blue skies and warm temperatures.












Once again the sunrise about 20 feet from the tent was incredible, rivaling the sunrise we had at our week long scout camp at Bear Lake.











The sunset was just as spectacular from Waikiki Beach!












We had our choice of tent camping or grass huts. But scouts are tough, so we chose tent camping just a few yards off the beach. It was awesome.

Wait a minute! Was this a scout camp???? Oh yeah, this was the scoutmaster's camp in September. I hope that when we do camp, that you decide that you really don't want to miss it, wherever it may be.




I guess it shows that your scoutmaster really does like to camp. We spent 5 of our 8 nights on the island of Oahu camping on a beach. It was awesome! Quite frankly, I enjoyed our camping on the north shore much better than our hotel near Waikiki Beach in Honolulu.

One of the days we were lucky enough to see a taste of what the winter swells bring in. First swell of the season brought out the hard core surfers and boogie boarders. Here's some boogie boards on the north shore not far from the famous Bonzi Pipeline.

We won't promise to have camp outs like the possibilities offered in Hawaii, but we can promise we will go camping a lot and  go to some of the best places Utah has to offer.

The next camp will be totally exotic, in my backyard after we have the 4th Annual Cooking Contest. Pancakes in the morning, all you can eat! Hey, I'm trying to sell this one the best I can!!!

Saturday, August 11, 2012

The "Fantastic Four" Climb a Mountain


We arrived at the Catherine Pass trail head and started hiking around 5pm. The sun was shining and it was pretty warm on the trail.

Max and Elijah were the only two that were able to come this time, and we were all excited to hike.

Elijah needed to put on a few pounds to get the waist belt to be tight enough. He even tried using his bag of Cheetos to tighten things up, but that didn't work either.

The trail was wide and well traveled and a steady climb. We could see all over Albion Basin as we climbed towards Catherine Pass.










There was the occasional break to wait for the "photographer" who was taking his time to get lots of pictures. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.









We worked our way up to the first meadow in good time. We heard from some of the hikers coming down that there may be a moose in the meadow, so we approached quietly.







We were pleased to find a mother and her baby grazing in the meadow.

We enjoyed taking a few photos of the two.








The baby was the closest and we made sure to be cautious around a mother and her baby. Of all the unpredictable situations to be in, a mother moose and her baby rank pretty high. So we made sure to be very careful.







Out of the meadow the trail got a lot steeper, but it wasn't very long until we reached our first goal:

Catherine Pass









Here's the group once again waiting for the "photographer" to reach the pass as well.

Fortunately, Elijah didn't mind hanging back a bit so I wasn't left in the dust.





When we reached the pass we could see our ultimate destination, Lake Catherine.

But we had a goal to reach another destination before dropping down to the lake. That was to reach Sunset Peak before it got too dark.






So we dropped out packs and headed to Sunset Peak without the extra weight.











Ben took the opportunity to challenge Max and Elijah to be very quiet and "drink in the view" from the halfway point up to Sunset Peak.


I think they lasted about 20 seconds before breaking the silence, but at least we tried.






We're just a couple of switchbacks away from the summit. But even from here we could see down the Lake Catherine and the other lakes that eventually reach Brighton.








Here we are on top of Sunset Peak. One of the unique things about this peak is that we are now in 3 counties; Salt Lake, Utah, and Summit counties.







Here's the view from top of Sunset Peak.


Max decided to take the opportunity to call his mother. He said he wanted to brag that he made it to the peak, but we're not so sure. :-)












Down from the peak and getting ready to head down to Lake Catherine.








We found our camp and it looks like Ben is putting on a "how to set up your campsite" clinic for Max and Elijah.










The camp was excellent and we had a great view of the lake. We also appreciated being in the trees as the weather was beginning to change.

In fact at about 8pm it started to rain and rained pretty hard until about 9pm. Then it settled down as the light disappeared and we got the water boiling for dinner.





In our scout meetings we learn the seven "Leave No Trace" principles. At this camp it looked like others could also have used a lesson in Leave No Trace.






After the rain returned and the wind picked up again, we figure it must of rain most of the night.

However, we woke up to clearing skies a beautiful sunrise across Lake Catherine.

For those who missed this camp, you missed out on another awesome sunrise. Add this to the sunrise canoe trip on Bear Lake and I'd say we're doing pretty good with some very memorable moments in our scouting activities.



Getting packed and ready to head back up to Catherine Pass and back to the cars.










It's a pretty steep climb out from Lake Catherine to Catherine Pass. Luckily for the "photographer" it would be all downhill from that point.









We were pleased to see the moose still in the meadow. In fact, this time even closer to the trail. So again we were extra careful to keep them from worrying about us.








The drop from the meadow down to the overlook of Albion Basin gets pretty steep, but going down sure seems a lot easier than going up.










Time to stop for a water break.

Is it just me, or is Elijah's pack just about as big as he is????





Almost there. The cars are in sight, the trail is leveling out, and the sun is shining.

The hike to Lake Catherine is a little over 4 miles round trip, not including the side hike up to Sunset Peak. It's a perfect hike for anyone who doesn't have a lot of experience backpacking. And it's also a  nice hike for those who do have experience.

And it's right in our "backyard"!



Enjoy a few more photos from our hike to Lake Catherine: