Well, I hope all of the scouts had a great week. Each scout accomplished a lot individually, and we as a Troop ultimately earned the Honor Troop award. I am very proud of the boys. They worked hard this week to earn many awards, merit badges, and rank advancement. I hope you are proud of them and that they are proud of themselves. Finally, I hope they all sleep well. They have earned the rest. Looking forward to next year!

Six brave scouts (and leaders) began the day with the Polar Bear Swim. We got up at the crack of the crack of dawn to line up to voluntarily jump into the frigid (85ish degree?) waters of Lake Woodruff. All they brought with them were their towels, their buddy tags, and buckets full of courage. We swam out to the floating dock, climbed up on to the dock, stood there shivering in the 65ish degree air while the aquatics staff heckled us until we broke into singing Take Me Home, Country Roads in unison. Then we swam back.

The rest of the morning was uneventful as we all eagerly anticipated getting onto the buses to take us to our rafting adventures on the Nantahala and Ocoee Rivers. The weather was perfect and the rivers were wild! Some rafts flipped, some rafters were ejected while others merely “fell” out to cool off a bit, but most of us escaped unscathed with fantastic stories to tell. Unfortunately, we are lacking leader pics of the scouts in action but check out myriverphotos.com. We were on the river around 2:30 -5:30 or so in case there is a time stamp on the photos.

We are looking forward to one last full day of merit badge classes, troop activities (we are gunning for Honor Troop but still lack a few requirements), and the closing campfire. We are sad to see our week at camp near its end, but we are looking forward to being home soon.

Another fun-filled day of activities here at Woodruff. The morning consisted of the usual merit badge activities. A rain shower moved in right at lunch time and allowed us to slow down a bit after lunch. Once the rain cleared we had our shift cleaning the shower room again, but then we played a Troop game of ultimate frisbee on the athletic field. We had some free time for swimming, snack bar, and gaga ball before dinner. After dinner the newest scouts went on a 5 mile hike to fulfill one of the requirements for the Mountaineer program, and they did GREAT! The rest of the Troop attended the flag retirement ceremony. Us hikers finished up just as the cannon fired and the bugle played Taps. We can’t wait to tell you about our rafting trips to the Ocoee and Nantahala tomorrow!

We had another fantastic day today! Again, lots going on. Reveille blew at 0630 today so with the extra time we raised the colors in our campsite and said the Pledge of Allegiance together. After breakfast of sausage and biscuits we were off to our merit badge sessions. It was Taco Tuesday at lunch, and from there we went straight to the climbing tower. We bouldered, climbed the 30′ tower, and rappelled off either the 30′ or 60′ towers.

Once we were done climbing we had some free time to swim, relax, visit the Trading Post (sugar!), and whatnot. We had red beans and rice for dinner and we just finished up with the Spoof merit badge. Superhero Ethics Awareness was offered this year. We discussed what distinguishes a superhero from a super villain and discussed qualities and examples of each. We finished the merit badge by designing our own hero or villain and presenting it to our instructors. We can’t wait for all of the great activities coming up tomorrow!

We arrived safely at Woodruff and quickly got through check in. After a Troop photo we got briefly situated at our campsite before it was time to get our swim tests done. We quickly changed back into our Class A uniforms in order to meet on the parade ground for the retrieval of the colors and then a delicious camp meal of chicken fingers, mac n cheese, corn, and a salad bar. Yum! We finished the night with an always fun and entertaining campfire program put on by the staff.

Today we awoke to reveille at 0700 followed by breakfast of French toast, sausage patties, and cold cereal. Then we were all off and running (not really; no running in camp) in different directions where we worked on merit badges such as Citizenship in the Nation and the World, Communications, Riflery, Emergency Preparedness (or E-Prep as the cool kids say), Chess, Swimming, Shotgun Shooting, Environmental Science, and the list goes on and on. The newest scouts spent a good chunk of the morning at the Mountaineer program where they started working on the Totin’ Chip where they learn the safe use of woods tools (blades of all shapes and sizes!) and worked on the bowline and sheet bend knots.

After a hot dog lunch we had some free time to fish, hang out, drink Peace tea (it’s a camp thing), swim, or enjoy the open ranges at the shooting sports. We did get organized enough to even attempt some Troop orienteering late in the afternoon with mild to moderate success. It was our turn to clean the showers this evening, but presently we are enjoying some refreshing mountain air after a busy but productive day. We can’t wait to update you on all of the fun stuff we get to do tomorrow! (Oh, and if you were wondering, it was chicken fried steak for supper.)