I've been told by many folks here that you need to get out in the snow in order to appreciate it and enjoy winter. "They say" that if you don't, you just end up despising it and hating winter all winter long. That isn't hard with my family, all of the boys (including M) love the snow and winter sports. Last weekend was a big one which included a Cub Scout outing called Gold Rush.
This is an all-council activity in which the scouts form dog-sled teams to pretend to go into the Yukon during the gold rush. Each team has 4-8 boys, with one being the musher and the others being the "huskies." The boys had been studying for this for a month and M had his den take a test to see who would be the musher. R was the only one in the den to get 100%, so he was the musher. It's a very important job because only the musher can speak to the judges. The musher is the leader and the scoring includes leadership points. R did great! They had 5 different activities: first aid, where they had to make a stretcher out of a blanket and poles; "cooperative skiing' where all six of the kids were on these long wooden skis and they had to travel 20 feet: tree and animal track identification; trading post purchases where they had to make smart decisions on what to buy; and they had to save a wooden "man" who fell in the ice. What a fun day it was! R was amazing. The trading post judge said that he showed the most leadership of all the teams he saw that day. He listened to his teammates and then made great decisions. We don't know who won yet, but we're very proud of his den!
R poses with his team before the first competition. He's holding the clipboard (in a plastic bag) which he had to give to the judges at each station. No adults were allowed to coach or even talk to the boys once the competition started.
R tries to regain his balance while leading his team on the cooporative skis. This was the hardest event for the boys. They had some ups and downs, but did make it!
Another view of the team on the coop skis.
Transporting the "victim" on the home-made stretcher. Evidently, it was quite funny.
R and his team pulling the sled to the next station. The sled is full of the provisions they'd need in the Yukon, including a first aid kit, water, blankets, and so on.
2 comments:
What a fantastic experience for the boys. I'm so proud of R for doing so well on the test to become the Musher, and for making such good decisions as the leader. You are awesome, R! And I can imagine how hard it would be trying to get your whole team to move the right foot all together, then the left . . . all the time standing on skis in the snow! Great blog and fun pictures!
Wow! That sounds like a fun day and very educational too. Way to go R. I'm sure you made a great musher. Great pics! I'm sure that will make a great scapbooking page!
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