Troop 563 August 2001 Newsletter

Livingston, Montana August 2001 Volume 4 Issue 7

Troop 563 Across the Nation: by Nicholas
Troop 563 went on a 21 day trip through 17 states. Here is some information on some things the 10 boys and four adults did.
Day 1: The first day of driving turned out to be pretty good. We started out at 7:30 a.m. from the Lincoln School. We ate lunch in Sheridan, Wyoming. We drove all the way to the Badlands of South Dakota to spend the night. We took a scenic hike and then ate dinner and went to bed. Day 2: At about 12:30 a.m. a windstorm blew the rain fly off our tent. Jay and Nicholas fixed it and found Mr. Andrews out putting rocks on all the totes, so we helped him. In the morning, we got up at 5:00. After Lucky Charms we loaded up the trailer. We have decided to name the van the "Calypso". Gas is about $1.24 per gallon. We stopped in Sioux City for lunch. Iowa, Nebraska and SD are all part of Sioux City so we went to those states. At lunch Daniel and Nicholas went folfing. His disc landed in the Missouri River. Nicholas jumped in and looked for it, but couldn't find it. He was soaked for the whole day. The ride was about the same as yesterday. We're camping in Iowa where it was really hot. 3 miles away is the 3rd biggest filtered swimming pool in the US, so we went swimming. For dinner we had Nick Esp's Funk Burgers! They were huge. They gave us all gas. Day 3: We got up at 5:20 a.m. and were on the road at 6:40. Last night, everybody slept with the rain fly off until it started raining, so everybody got up and put the flies on. Then the rain stopped. In the Calypso, we all listened to music, read books and slept. We drove through Iowa into Illinois, ate lunch in Indiana at a rest stop. Dungeons and Dragons in the van doesn't work to well. Then we drove into Kentucky where we are spending the night in Mammoth Cave National Park. Our campground is very quiet and peaceful. We are trying to catch a million fireflies and put them in a bottle so we can use it for caving. Fried Chicken tonight. Day 4: Last night we once again had to get up to put the fly on. This time it really rained hard. After loading the trailer we went to the river ferry, but it was flooded and broken down so we went back and got the trailer and went all the way around to the Mammoth Cave Visitor Center. We took a tour at 9:15 a.m. through the biggest cave in the world! Then we drove through Tennessee and into Virginia and stopped at a Walmart and got food for the Appalachian Trail. Now we are setting up camp at the Damascus Methodist Church and packing for backpacking. We leave early in the morning. Day 5: We hiked from Damascus to Saunder's Shelter today. 9.4 miles. Billy had to go to the post office because his parents sent mail. He never got it. The scenery is cool, like a jungle. Very humid, but not too hot. Jerome, Danny and Nicholas were going to sleep in the shelter, but Nicholas spotted 2 mice so we screamed and left. We caught lots of salamanders today. Very small ones. Day 6: Sleeping in a sheet is really cold! Dad spotted a big black snake while we were hiking. It was cool. We found a trash can to get rid of trash. We didn't make it to our destination today. We decided to camp in a grassy meadow across from a cow ranch. Jerome and Nicholas went to get water and there was a salamander in the spring box. Freeze dried food for dinner. Day 7: We started hiking at 8 this morning. Dad has some massive blisters. We are staying at Old Orchard Shelter. Billy got lost today. The fast group got to the base of Mount Rogers and took off their packs and went to the top at 3:21 p.m. Billy didn't have a buddy and missed the junction so he passed us all. We found him on his way back. We saw some deer and wild ponies and a little snake. More freeze dried food for dinner.

Livingston, Montana August 2001 Volume 4 Issue 7
Troop 563 Across the Nation: by Nicholas Troop 563 went on a 21 day trip through 17 states. Here is some information on some things the 10 boys and four adults did. Day 1: The first day of driving turned out to be pretty good. We started out at 7:30 a.m. from the Lincoln School. We ate lunch in Sheridan, Wyoming. We drove all the way to the Badlands of South Dakota to spend the night. We took a scenic hike and then ate dinner and went to bed. Day 2: At about 12:30 a.m. a windstorm blew the rain fly off our tent. Jay and Nicholas fixed it and found Mr. Andrews out putting rocks on all the totes, so we helped him. In the morning, we got up at 5:00. After Lucky Charms we loaded up the trailer. We have decided to name the van the "Calypso". Gas is about $1.24 per gallon. We stopped in Sioux City for lunch. Iowa, Nebraska and SD are all part of Sioux City so we went to those states. At lunch Daniel and Nicholas went folfing. His disc landed in the Missouri River. Nicholas jumped in and looked for it, but couldn't find it. He was soaked for the whole day. The ride was about the same as yesterday. We're camping in Iowa where it was really hot. 3 miles away is the 3rd biggest filtered swimming pool in the US, so we went swimming. For dinner we had Nick Esp's Funk Burgers! They were huge. They gave us all gas. Day 3: We got up at 5:20 a.m. and were on the road at 6:40. Last night, everybody slept with the rain fly off until it started raining, so everybody got up and put the flies on. Then the rain stopped. In the Calypso, we all listened to music, read books and slept. We drove through Iowa into Illinois, ate lunch in Indiana at a rest stop. Dungeons and Dragons in the van doesn't work to well. Then we drove into Kentucky where we are spending the night in Mammoth Cave National Park. Our campground is very quiet and peaceful. We are	trying to catch a million fireflies and put them in a bottle so we can use it for caving. Fried Chicken tonight. Day 4: Last night we once again had to get up to put the fly on. This time it really rained hard. After loading the trailer we went to the river ferry, but it was flooded and broken down so we went back and got the trailer and went all the way around to the Mammoth Cave Visitor Center. We took a tour at 9:15 a.m. through the biggest cave in the world! Then we drove through Tennessee and into Virginia and stopped at a Walmart and got food for the Appalachian Trail. Now we are setting up camp at the Damascus Methodist Church and packing for backpacking. We leave early in the morning. Day 5: We hiked from Damascus to Saunder's Shelter today. 9.4 miles. Billy had to go to the post office because his parents sent mail. He never got it. The scenery is cool, like a jungle. Very humid, but not too hot. Jerome, Danny and Nicholas were going to sleep in the shelter, but Nicholas spotted 2 mice so we screamed and left. We caught lots of salamanders today. Very small ones. Day 6: Sleeping in a sheet is really cold! Dad spotted a big black snake while we were hiking. It was cool. We found a trash can to get rid of trash. We didn't make it to our destination today. We decided to camp in a grassy meadow across from a cow ranch. Jerome and Nicholas went to get water and there was a salamander in the spring box. Freeze dried food for dinner. Day 7: We started hiking at 8 this morning. Dad has some massive blisters. We are staying at Old Orchard Shelter. Billy got lost today. The fast group got to the base of Mount Rogers and took off their packs and went to the top at 3:21 p.m. Billy didn't have a buddy and missed the junction so he passed us all. We found him on his way back. We saw some deer and wild ponies and a little snake. More freeze dried food for dinner.

Day 8: Today we lost Jere. He didn't have a buddy and he ended up on the wrong path. We found him though. Dad went to Troutdale because his blisters were too bad. We will pick him up tomorrow. We have 7.7 miles left. We got to Hurricane Campground at 3:30 today. We all took showers. Tonight is our last night on the AT. Day 9: Mr. Andrews got up early this morning to head for the van which was 7 miles past our stopping point. We got started kinda late, but got to the road at the same time as the van. We have completed our 50 miler! We had pizza for dinner at Pizza Hut. Drove for awhile and camped at a very rocky place in West Virginia. Day 10: We woke up early and got a bunch of stuff ready and stopped at another Walmart Super Center to pick up groceries. Then we went caving in a very wet cave called Buckeye Creek Cave. We found some orange salamanders, crayfish and crickets deep in the cave. We came back to camp and once it got dark, we played "Capture the Flag". Cosmos lost. Day 11: We had a big breakfast in celebration of reaching the half way point of our trip. We went caving again this morning in McClung's Cave. This cave had a lot of tiny areas to crawl through. We got out of the cave late and then headed off for the Jamboree. We did our laundry today which was a chore. Once we got to camp at 10:00 p.m., we took showers and went to bed. Day 12: Today we arrived at the 2001 National Jamboree. It is so so so hot! There are a lot of different displays and activities here but it is all spread out and it is too hot to walk too much. We all obtained a bunch of free stuff, especially the Eagle Scouts. Some of the Scouts met up with Josh who was attending the whole Jamboree with the Montana Council. At the end of the day, it started pouring rain so we all got back in the van and left. Once we got back, we started to set up camp. Dad left the fly off his tent all day and it was a puddle. He slept in the trailer. Nick in the van. Hugh was moving a tote and saw something moving. We flashed a light on it. It turned out to be a copperhead snake slithering under his tent. We ran and told Mr. Andrews. We lifted the tent very carefully with sticks and totes to protect us, snake bite kit at the ready, but the snake was gone. Day 13: Today we went swimming at the campground pool after packing. We caught a bunch of frogs in the pool and threw them over the fence into the forest. Then we drove for awhile and crossed the Potomac River a bunch of times. We went to George Washington's birthplace. Right now we are camped in Maryland. We ate pork chops tonight. We had to eat in the parking lot because we left the barbecue with the trailer which is 0.7 miles away. We played hearts a bunch.
...continued in the September Newsletter. See our Troop Web Page for the early edition.
Future Events Summary:

August
Backpacking Merit Badge Focus

25 - 26 Backpacking Trip, meet at Lincoln School at 8:30 a.m. back to Lincoln School at 11 a.m Sunday. Bring $7 for food. Bring gear ready to backpack two miles.

27 Dog Care Merit Badge at Humane Society at 10 a.m.

27 Scout Meeting 7:00 - 8:30 p.m. at Armory. Deadline for Merit Badges and Rank Advancement awarded at the Summer Court of Honor. Board of Review #4

Sept.
Space Exploration & Personal Fitness Merit Badge Focus

3 Labor Day (no Scout Meeting)

6 District Roundtable Meeting 7:00 - 8:30 p.m. in Bozeman

7 Green Bar Meeting 3:30 - 4:30 p.m. at SGMS room A105.

10 Summer Court of Honor 7:00 - 8:30 p.m. at Armory. All family members are invited.

15 Jay's Eagle Court of Honor, 7 p.m. at Grace United Methodist Church

17 Troop Committee Meeting 7:00 - 8:30 p.m. at Armory. Scouts have a guest speaker and should attend.

21 - 23 District Fall Camporee

24 Scout Meeting 7:00 - 8:30 p.m. at SGMS room A-105.

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