Well, the backpacking trek was called short, and the crew returned yesterday afternoon. One of the two adults hamstring started going out, so they played it safe and returned to the cars before they got too deep into the trail. Back country rescues are no fun at all. Even better since the one thing I forgot to give them were the med forms. Ops.

Next year it looks like the want to do more of a base camp thing with lots of day hikes rather than packing their entire gear from location to location. We should be able to come up with something. And this time we’ll start doing more shakedown hikes in the months preceding it.

Goshen was a success. Mostly. There were your typical blue card mistakes, nothing major. We had to make one short trip to the hospital in Lexington for a small hatchet slip. Nothing serious, just being overly cautious. Camp was a bit more understaffed than usual, and we heard a lot of stories about youth and adult staff quiting for various reasons, but mostly from poor upper management. But the boys had a good time, and that’s what counts in the end. But they got to do better or Goshen is going to continue to hurt in the years to come.

My second trip to Goshen this weekend as to take Phil and Eddie back down Sunday so they could join the Marriott staff. Phil at shooting sports, Eddie at Archery or Scout Skills, not sure where they will put him. Gone for three weeks. Looks like I won’t get out of mowing the lawn this season :)  Good news is that Phil got his Eagle Project approved in the 24-hour turn around we had. By the way, thats a looong drive down and back in one day. I’m still road weary.

Well, we had our last Roundtable of the season last night, and it was our annual awards presentation session. Among the many awards presented, our Troop got meritorious unit service awards for working 2006 Fall Camporee and 2007 Spring Camporee. I was surprised when they called me up for a meritorious service award for supporting the District and Chapter. Nice to be patted on the back from time to time. Congratulations to all the award recipients - you truly make Scouting work in our District.

Did I mention that the troop finally settled on summer camp dates? Well, they did. Of course there are some personal date conflicts, my heel spur is acting up so my attendance on the high adventure trip is questionable, and we’re still trying to get everyone (youth and adults) committed to going (or not so we can stop bugging them). So, nothing new I’ll keep you posted on progress. (As Jeff Foxworthy has said, ‘…what does an aneurysm feel like?’)

My high from Ordeal weekend has ended.

Well, while this is a rare occurrence for us, our troop had to cancel its May campout. Paul is in the hospital - he should be fine, but lets just say he’s not camping for a while. And since Phil’s Eagle project had to be rescheduled, the participation level for the campout dropped through the floor. Not to mention we were short on adults/drivers. That’s the most discouraging part - lack of participation from more parents. (Some are not to blame, it is after all a holiday weekend.)

I know thats typical fair for a scout troop, but it gets discouraging over time. I just hope things get better soon.

On the flip side though, Judi and I are going on a road trip to a gun show in Harrisonberg, VA.

Today we held our first Eagle Court of Honor in about two years. This was my first COH as an adult leader of our Troop. We had a lot of guests attend! Goes to show just how popular a guy our new Eagle Scout is - and how worthy of the honor of Eagle his is.

Some observations for future Eagle COH events though. We need to get a better candle lighting tool so we don’t have the speaker get out of sync with the candle lighting. We should also have someone other than the COH coordinator review the guest list so we don’t forget anyone important (ops…).

Pictures can be seen here