Mt. Hamilton District Camporee 2007 (5/18/07-5/20/06)
Once again, Troop 163 has succeeded in dominating the Mt. Hamilton District Camporee! Upon arrival at the Camporee, but after setting up camp, much of the troop began construction of the cave; using chicken-wire rocks constructed earlier and, of course, poles and lashings. At some point during this, the patrols made and devoured their dinner. There was also a particularly troublesome tent that took several hours to set up (though it is worth noting, only twenty minutes after the instructions were found was it finally set up). Come Saturday morning, the troop awoke early and prepared breakfast. After cleaning up breakfast, the troop changed into uniform and proceeded to the opening flag ceremony. Not too long later, the events began, and Troop 163 was off to dominate. Later that evening, after the events had finished, the troop prepared a dessert for the dessert competition which did win a prize. After dinner and dessert was the awards ceremony, to which all of Troop 163 showed up in force. The troop performed a hastily-conceived skit, and accepted numerous awards for the events. A list of the awards won can be found under the "more" link.
[more]
Posted by Danny @ 01:50 PM PST, on Sunday, May 20, 2007. -><-
Santa Clara County Council, Mt. Hamilton District, 2006 Camporee (5/5/06-5/7/06)
This year's camporee was held at Coyote Lake Park, instead of the location of previous years at Grant Ranch.
The campsite was very nice, except in its positioning of every troop's camp within one large field, making for a noisier and less-organized camping experience.
The games were extremely fun, with troop 163 coming out on top (of course), and two patrols placing in the top three.
Troop 163 won the campmaster award as well.
The troop is looking forward to defending its title in next year's camporee!
Posted by Danny @ 04:56 PM PST, on Monday, August 7, 2006. -><-
Mt. St. Helena (8/5/06)
The troop's most recent expedition: a day hike of 10.6 miles up Mt. St. Helena!
First, the 2&1/2 hour drive to the start of the hike. Then, this long and grueling hike began in a nicely wooded area with plenty of shade - which lasted about a mile. The rest of the way to the top was all exposed and HOT. The troop ate lunch about halfway to the top, in a shady area (one of few, and small) where Larry found a nice pile of pine tree sap to sit in. This lunch break would provide fuel for the rest of the hike.
The top was quite exposed, and the troop sat on a rock outcropping for a handful of minutes before heading back down.
On the way back down, the troop made much better time, and made it back to the troop meeting place (after another 2&1/2 hour drive) just before 7 pm.
Posted by Danny @ 04:46 PM PST, on Monday, August 7, 2006. -><-
Camp Hi-Sierra 2006 (7/9/06 - 7/15/06)
Another year of Troop 163 legacy.
This year, the troop headed up to Camp Hi-Sierra yet again. The troop, once again, had the Delaware campsite, which sits at the top of a trail commonly referred to as "Delaware Hill."
This year at camp, the troop had 7 members/former-members working on staff. In fact, the entire nature area was staffed by Troop 163.
After a great week of merit-badge-earning and trail-to-first-class adventures, Friday arrived, bringing with it the camp wide games! And who better to win it than Troop 163? I give you Troop 163, with back-to-back first place awards in the campwide games!
Now, we wait until next year.
Posted by Danny @ 04:36 PM PST, on Monday, August 7, 2006. -><-
Mt. Tamalpais Hike (3/11/06)
Rain. Snow. Sleet. Hail.
And we hiked through it all.
This hike was perhaps the most demanding hike I have ever been on. Though the hike itself is far easier than the likes of Diablo or Mt. St. Helena, the horrible weather made this the hardest hike by far. After this hike, anything else will seem easy.
"We made it."
Side note: The Current splash page (as of 8/7/06) is a picture from this hike.
Posted by Danny @ 04:12 PM PST, on Monday, August 7, 2006. -><-
Ed Levin Overnighter (2/12/05-2/13/)
The Troop's latest outing was an overnight campout to Ed Levin County Park. This campout was created for the purpose of introducing Webelos to our troop in the hopes of their joining us. While waiting for the Webelos to show up, we did some advancements. We worked on fire building, rope whipping and fusing, and knots. The knots taught were the tautline hitch, two half hitches, the clove hitch, and the square knot. After that, we played a rather rough game of Muggle's Quiddich, using one rubber ball of one color for the Quaffle and two of a different color for the Bludgers, and a penny with a letter on it (to prevent fake snitches) for the snitch. After the Webelos showed up, we put on our campfire program, after which we played a game of capture the flag in the dark. After a little while, flashlights were outlawed due their ruining people's nightvision. Neither team ended up winning; the game ended upon the coming of quiet time at 10:00 PM. The next morning, a few scouts woke up early and began breakfast, and the later waking scouts had only what was left. Everyone had fun, except for one scout who left early the first day with a strange pain in his right side. Another scout who had had appendicitis in the past identified some of the symptoms as similar to what he had. Our best wishes to that scout and we hope it is something much less severe.
Posted by Danny @ 07:09 PM PST, on Sunday, February 13, 2005. -><-
Pinnacles (Saturday 1/29/05)
Latest expedition: Pinnacles Rim of the Bay hike.
The Pinnacles hike was a step towards our first backpacking trip of the year; an attempt to train the younger scouts about hiking and backpacking. The hike, though the day after some rain, was not particularly wet. However, several scouts said it was pretty windy. One scout said it was hot anywhere in the sun that didn't get wind, but anywhere with wind was cold. Everyone had a fun time on this hike and we look forward to our next Troop outing.
Posted by Danny @ 12:06 PM PST, on Sunday, February 6, 2005. -><-
Bowling (1/17/05)
For our meeting on the 17th, seeing as how the school where we usually meet was closed for Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, we decided to go bowling instead. The Troop bowled one game, and we had some scores exceed 100. Though nobody got a perfect game (300), everyone had fun and we look forward to doing it again sometime.
Posted by Danny @ 07:57 PM PST, on Tuesday, January 25, 2005. -><-
Bird Houses (1/15/05)
Bird Houses. Calpine. Power Plant. Mitigation. All words that come to mind when I think about our latest expedition. The Troop built bird boxes, with the help of some Audubon Society volunteers for the introduction and explanation of the bird boxes, as mitigation for Calpine's new power plant. The bird boxes are designed to replace natural bird habitats destroyed by the construction of the power plant. We made 10 Blue Jay bird houses, 2 massive Wood duck houses, and one huge owl house. Every house had some remarks from the builder, the Troop's number (163), and/or the date. There were also some puns involved, such as, "How much wood could a wood duck chuck?” Everyone who participated had loads of fun, and the pizza Calpine provided us for lunch was great.
Posted by Danny @ 07:55 PM PST, on Tuesday, January 25, 2005. -><-