Mammal Study



In February we went to the San Bernardino County Museum and earned the Mammal Study Merit Badge



 It was pretty cool since we got to tour part of the Museum and see all the stuffed mammals!

Here's the crew that went and earned the badge in 3 hours!

Adam, Jacob, Tyler, Keanu, Jared, Dallas, Sam.

Devils Punchbowl January 13-14, 2012

We had 12 Scouts and 8 leaders show for the outing. Sometimes I don't know who has more fun!

 First hike of the year!  We're starting off 2012 with a hike to Devil's Punchbowl. It's really just a big hole in the ground, but I guess in the summer it's hot or something. Anyway, someone gave it that name for some reason, I'm sure.  It's actually pretty impressive and inspired an original joke from Adam. It goes something like this: The Devil thought he'd make a big hole so he made Devil's Punchbowl, but Chuck Norris thought he'd show him how it's done so he made the Gulf of Mexico.  hahahaha   Well, it was something like that. I can't believe I forgot the exact words, Adam told it to me about 6 times!

 So here we are gathered around the fire which we only jumped over a few times.  After Andrew fell in we had them stop.  We didn't want anyone else to get hurt. We had tin foil dinners and had a good time talking into the night.

 Andrew, Logan, Tofer, Adam, Jacob, Keanu, Sam

 6 miles, from Southfork campground to Devil's Chair and then to the Nature center at Devil's Punchbowl Natural Area. Not a bad hike. Nobody passed out or anything. Well, Keanu kind of fell over exhausted but that's not like he was injured or anything.  He was fine after he laid on the ground and rested a few minutes.

Here we are at Devil's Chair.  It's actually just a rock. Pretty much everything around here is just rock. That's the San Andreas fault you can see behind us. That's a crack in the rock.

So, next month is Snow Camp... assuming we get any snow. If we don't we'll just have a regular dirt camp. We hope to ride the chairlift at Mountain High and then hike over to Blueridge Campground and ride the lift back down the next day.  So we'll see how that goes! 

Summer Camps

Merry Christmas to BSA Troop 159!

Here are some dates for summer 2012. Along with our regular camp outs on the second weekend of each month, here are some super activities to ad to your wish list:

June 28,29,30 Monache Meadows

This is a High Sierra high adventure camp with 4 wheel drives. Also invited are mountain bikes, horses, fishing poles and day packs. We will be camping, riding, hiking, fishing, exploring, eating and taking naps (me!) in this beautiful paradise. Click HERE for more pics.

Horseshoe Meadows June 6,7,8,9, 2012 .

The Varsity and Venture Scouts will head into the High Sierras again for a 3 (or 4) day backpack trip into the Golden Trout Wilderness area (guess what's for supper!?). If we feel adventurous we just may bag Mt. Whitney on the way out! Anyone feel like hiking to 14,500'? Click HERE for more pics.



Scout Camp at Camp Emerson July 9-14

The 12 & 13 year olds will head to Scout Camp at Camp Emerson in Idylwild to work on rank advancement and merit badges (we want the badges!).   Anyone else that wants to work on merit badges may come if they want to. For info on Camp Emerson click HERE.

Channel Islands National Park August 8-9-10-11.

I've wanted to do this for years, so here it is!  We will go to the least visited National Park in the country. We will rent kayaks, head over on the ferry and spend a few days kayaking, exploring, and snorkeling in this awesome park right here in Southern California.  You've got to see this to believe it! Click HERE.

Paddle On!

Sycamore Flats 12-10-2011

Cold but no wind!  We made tin foil dinners & we got to have another "Retire a Flag" ceremony and paid tribute to America's Veterans

Da Quinns

Tanner, Brad, Ken

3 of the 5 Barnes cousins... the other 2 were too fast and got away...

Aaron, Robbie, Tyler

The Winns and friend

Jared, Dallas, Sam

Keanu & Jacob

James, Jer

We gathered mistletoe to sell for our fund raiser.  I think that is Aaron way up there.

Calico 11-11-11 (Not a Scout trip)

The wind was very cold. We had a big fire. Most of the boys jumped over it and most of them didn't singe their hair.

Had a quick breakfast in the morning and then went shootin'.

Tannerite

Buckhorn Campground October, 2011

When school is in session we try to camp close to home. Here we are heading down the canyon from Buckhorn campground looking for the waterfall.

We found it! Not very impressive after Havasupai, but it is probably a a bit bigger in Spring.

So here we are posing for a picture to impress the girls.

It's our calling. We have to go on outings.

Troop159Wrightwood

Ride to the Beach, Sept. 2011

So, here's the deal...  This group set out for a 2 day ride to the beach.  Hwy 39 at Hwy 2 to Asuza, stay overnight at a members backyard, then on to the beach the next day.  Almost everyone made it the total 65 miles!  However, we had a record number of flat tires and broken bikes. And one camera (mine!) with an uncharged battery! Bummer. Not many pictures this year, but a great trip and some bike rides to cover some requirements for Cycling Merit Badge.