“COCKADOODLEDOOOOOOO!!”
Scouts start their day waking up bright and early at 6:00 am, the most brutal challenge of the entire day. The wait for the few bathroom stalls stalls, even though the demand increases in urgency every second. After putting their Class A uniforms, everyone makes their way towards the morning flag ceremony. After bleary-eyed morning announcements, each troop gives their own chant that reverberates through the crisp morning air and head off to breakfast. What’s Troop 57’s chant? 1,2,3,4,5…,55,56,57! Yep, everyone’s tired of it by Day 2.
This annual Troop 57 Oljato trip took place from July 5th to 11th, and was a weeklong campout where scouts could each choose 3 merit badges to focus on through the week around the beautiful, “brisk and refreshing” Huntington Lake. Such merit badges included scoutcraft(ex. cooking, wilderness survival), handicraft(ex. basketry, woodcarving), naturecraft(ex. environmental science, astronomy), aquatics(ex. small boat sailing, swim, kayak), and all-time favorite shooting sports(ex. rifle, shotgun shooting, archery).
After their merit badges in the morning, scouts had afternoon time, where they played out on the lake, checked out other merit badge work areas, chill with friends, fished off the dock(a Troop 57 favorite), and pondered deeply of what their place was in this vast universe.
The sun dips below the horizon and the moon rises high above Camp Oljato as scouts make their way towards the campfire program. Some troops are funny, other are…funny.
Notably, some scouts and adults chose to wake up early in the morning and immediately dive in the “brisk and refreshing” morning waters of Lake Huntington, the “Polar Plunge” they call it. What a fun and pneumonic tradition!
Anyways, that’s it for this trip recap. If you enjoyed, please rate “Webmaster Aaron Chang” 5 stars down below.
Until next time!
-Aaron Chang, Troop 57 Webmaster