Scouts update

Unlike the leaves of the forests they haunt, Boy Scouts don’t retire when winter comes. In fact, some of the best camping in Oklahoma happens when the air is cool and the nights are long. Nothing compares to crisp, quiet nights when sounds travel for miles and clear skies offer a view to every star in the winter sky.

Scouts of Troop 1 were busy prior to the self-isolation we all experienced in late winter and early Spring.

Nineteen Scouts and adults attended our annual trek to Dead Woman’s Gulch, in the deep woods of rural Cherokee County. Some of the boys built their own shelters using materials from nature and from the garage.

We started January by serving as the fire and safety crew for First Church’s annual Epiphany service and follow-the-cross lake plunge. Scouts helped organize discarded trees and greens from various Church members and managed the bonfire as well as the warming fire.

Our January campout was our annual trip to the Trappers’ Rendezvous, an annual event hosted by the Wichita (KS) area Scout council where Scouts interact with living history mountain men. It always is chilly at Trappers’, but this regional campout has evolved into a giant swap meet for nearly 6,000 Scouts and adult leaders.

In February, we traveled to western Missouri to Snow Creek Ski Area for a day of fun. On the way, we stopped in Kansas City to see Union Station and tour the Science Museum there. Snow Creek is a family-friendly ski resort northwest of Kansas City.

And, we focused on our own local history in March, camping and rock climbing at Robbers Cave State Park, a famous hideout for outlaws in the old Indian Territory after the Civil War. Scouts and parents were treated to horseback riding along the same highland trails used by Belle Starr and her outlaw band.

“I leant upon a coppice gate,
When Frost was spectre-gray,
And Winter’s dregs made desolate,
The weakening eye of day.”
   – From The Darkling Thrush, by Thomas Hardy