February 22, 2006
Relief of Mafeking
If you are wondering why it got so cold in the midwest this past weekend, it was because once again my son's Boy Scout troop was going camping. The weather has been very mild this winter except when we have a troop outing -- and that's been the story since we've joined. We've missed two outings - one was beautiful, and the other was lousy weather-wise. But all the others - much colder than the weather either before or after.
While the most fun was at night, and the stellar display was far beyond what I'm used to seeing in my backyard at night, the scenery was better during the day, as this picture showing the council ring at Camp Sunnen, which the boys had to hike up to in the dark, and it's view overlooking the lake demonstrates:
So this past weekend is the troop's "premier" outing -- and the last before the "new scouts" join. Our extraveganza was The Relief of Mafeking, where Lord Baden-Powell, founder of the Boy Scouts held out for 217 days against a much larger Boer force in 1899/1900 during the second Boer War and which brought him the fame that allowed him to make Boy Scouting a success. Each patrol was briefed on their mission, smuggled through enemy lines covered under tarps in a trailer pulled by a real WWII jeep, dropped off at the foot of a ridge where they had to find a trail (OK, the embedded reporters showed them the trialhead) and then they were provided a series of challanging tasks by operatives along the way until after a couple of miles over hill and dale they made it into Mafeking where we all had a nice hot bowl of Chilli at midnight.
Did I mention this was done at night under only starshine? In temperatures around 5 deg F? With snow on the ground? And you know what, it was a lot of fun, even though it was the 2 and 1/2 time I'd been over the course, knew what to expect, and was working a lot harder than most outings. Saturday morning, the dads moved/gathered wood to the spots we needed it, Saturday afternoon the dads and older scouts ("staff") hiked the course discussing what we wanted to do and who was going to do it, and Saturday night the 4 scout patrols maneuvered all way to the end, given nothing but written orders to guide them.
Another nice touch was the heated cabins we stayed in, and the couple (Thank you Mr. and Mrs. Sifrig) who cooked all the meals we ate. We were worried that the snoring might collapse the building, but the noise wasn't bad even without earplugsm, or at least that what the one dad who wasn't wearing them said.
