Adventure

Michael Hooper an Eagle Scout from the Colonial District (Troop 680 Eagle, March 3, 2020; Grand Slam of High Adventure 2020)recently completed the Everest Base Camp trek. 

Michael said that while he was struggling to make the climb he remembered his intro to backpacking five mile round trip to Manassas Gap on the Application Trail shortly after he crossed over to the Troop and later completed his Backpacking Merit Badge with his Scoutmaster, friends, and fellow members of the Hawk Patrol as well as our trips to Philmont and Northern Tier (Okpik dog sledding).

The Everest trek took him 11 days in total. Six and a half days trekking up the mountain, two acclimatization days, and two and a half days trekking down the mountain. While the trek up was difficult as each step towards basecamp at altitude became laborious and his breath was constantly out despite flying up the mountain the previous few days, he finished the entire trek two days early because they were moving so fast, and they ended up skipping a stop. He said the views were some of the best views he has have ever seen in his life.

Michael lives in Virginia and returns from India and Nepal in June and will go back to UVA in the fall.  He hopes to register as an adult leader when he comes back so that he can do a few backpacking trips with the Troop 680 Scouts when he’s not busy at school.

Shared by: Scouter John Mirvish

Pack 257F had a blast at the Patuxent District’s Cub-n-Pal over the weekend at the American Legion Youth Camp in Cheltenham. This year’s theme was Cubmaster Gadget and we enjoyed 6 stations ranging from knots and nature to knife safety and orienteering. The Cubs had a blast!

 

Pack 1100 recently earned their Art Explosion pins in an extraordinary way. The Military Program at the Lorton Workhouse asked them to participate in a project for First Lady Dr. Jill Biden‘s Joining Forces program. First Lady Biden is both a military mother and grandmother, she has witnessed first hand the great amounts of sacrifice these families make. She shared a poem written by a fourth grader whose parents are stationed overseas. The student explained her military suitcase is filled with both happiness and sadness having to relocate constantly.

Being that April is the National Month of the Military Child, Scouts were provided copies of the student’s poems. They decorated suitcases and wrote reflections representing what the poem meant to them. The suitcases will be on display in the East wing of the White House.

 

The Scouts of Pack 493 in Rockville, MD traveled to Baltimore to board the USCG Cutter 37. The Scouts learned about the history of USCG Cutter 37 including its crucial role in the Attack on Pearl Harbor. During a team-building exercise, the Scouts had to use teamwork, quick thinking, and ingenuity to figure out to stop a leak on ship in just 5 minutes! This outing was a stretch goal from our Scouts’ popcorn fundraiser in the fall as they exceeded their fundraising goal! Way to go, Scouts! #weownadventure #poweredbypopcorn

Photo Credits: Jack Kwait-Blank, Alicia Kwait-Blank

 

 

An adventurous crew of six scouts and two adults from Troop 58 in Ashburn, VA spent a year eagerly anticipating the troop’s first arctic adventure at the Northern Tier Okpik program in northern Minnesota. The word Okpik (ook’-pic), which means Snowy Owl in the Inuit language, identifies the Winter Camping program at Northern Tier that began over fifty years ago in 1971.

On the first day, the crew skied with sleds weighing up to 75 pounds holding their gear and made camp at Moose Lake. The adventurers then embarked on an 8-hour cross-country journey across Newfound Lake. Led by the highly skilled guide, Amos, the skiers braved slush fields and followed a wolf trail to reach Canada. Despite skiing the last miles in the dark, the group was rewarded with an incredible dinner prepared by Amos.

The following day, the group packed up camp and headed to Flash Lake, where they set up camp and participated in various outdoor activities. The day began with a 30-minute ice fishing demonstration and later the group had the opportunity to try their hand at Gaga ball in the snow. In the afternoon, the mushers brought over their sled dogs, allowing the group to go for a ride around a small island. The day was capped off with a star walk led by Amos, who shared old Indian folklore with the group.

Troop 58’s crew was the first one of the season to make it to prairie portage this winter. Amos said about the Virginia-based crew, “… for our base this was the first trip (to prairie portage) this winter and the kids reminded me that when you are part of a group of positive people working toward a shared goal no amount of slush or open water or skiing in the dark can stop you.” This trip was a true test of endurance and a celebration of the great outdoors, offering a once-in-a-lifetime experience for all who participated.

Five of the seven crew members earned the coveted Triple Crown Award having completed three high adventure trips together over the course of the last two and a half years. Eric A. (Assistant Scoutmaster), Ben L., Chris C., Grant K., and Jack A. all earned the award by successfully completing a Philmont New Mexico trek in August 2021, Sea Base Virgin Islands sailing adventure in April 2022, and Northern Tier Opik Minnesota trek in January 2023.

Troop 58 is already preparing for their next high adventure trip back to Northern Tier for a summer 2023 portaging adventure to Atikokan, Ontario Canada!

Fourteen Cub Scouts in Pack 1280, based in Potomac, Maryland, (http://cubscoutpack1280.org/) discovered the wonders of space exploration, enjoyed a special behind-the-scenes tour of NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, and earned their “Out of This World” Nova Award.

Scouts followed two tracks to achieve their Nova Award. Some began at Camp Goshen last summer, while others began at the Pack’s Fall campout. At the campout, Scouts participated in an interactive activity where each of them took on the roles of various celestial bodies to demonstrate the differences between rotation and revolution/orbit. Then, after this dizzying bit of engaged learning, the entire pack was invited to attend a star party to look for constellations and gaze through the telescope of NOVA coordinator Dan Tobocman.

“Unfortunately, because there is so much light pollution in the region, during the viewing party Scouts had a tough time picking out constellations. However, we had a great view of craters on the moon, four of Jupiter’s moons and the rings of Saturn,” Tobocman shared.

Tobocman then arranged for Jonn Van Eepoel, an aerospace engineer at NASA Goddard Flight Center, to meet the Scouts at Observatory Park in Gaithersburg to discuss gyroscopes and his work on the Osiris-Rex mission to collect samples from a near-Earth asteroid. Scouts also shared their Mars rover or Moon base models and discussed the research on the wobble of the Earth that was conducted at Observatory Park starting over 100 years ago. This research still plays a role in the GPS in our smartphones today.

Van Eepoel, who has a Master’s degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, was so impressed with the questions that the Scouts posed to him that he reached out to invite the group to visit him at NASA Goddard over winter break for a special behind-the-scenes tour!

The Scouts eagerly accepted the invitation and arrived on campus the morning of December 27th. After gathering their badges and passing through security, Scouts observed the largest Class 10,000 clean room in the world, learned about the upcoming Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, saw a giant vacuum chamber, and talked with one of Van Eepoel’s colleagues about Solar radiation. At the end of the behind-the-scenes tour, Scouts made their way to the visitor’s center and outdoor rocket garden.

Best of all, participating in the NOVA and taking the special behind-the-scenes tour planted seeds of curiosity in our Scouts regarding space science and space exploration!

Learn more about Pack 1280 at: https://cubscoutpack1280.org

Learn more about Nova Awards at: https://www.scouting.org/stem-nova-awards/awards/cub-scout/

Learn more about NASA Goddard Space Flight Center at: https://www.nasa.gov/goddard