It is 4:55 p.m. and I am at Prince of Peace with the rest of my troop and we are ready to head up to Camp Hoyt, in Redding, CT and have the Klondike Derby begin!
Our troop arrives at Camp Hoyt at 5:45 p.m. and we start setting up our gear. We get the tents up and staked into the frozen ground. My friends and I bring over some logs that the leaders had cut up so that we could get a fire going. Soon enough the fire is going and we are all standing around it. The troop talks a little bit about tomorrow and hopes that the snow forecasted to come is true! Soon enough it is 12 a.m. and we are heading to bed.
I wake up around 6 a.m. and start getting changed. Since the Klondike Derby is only a one night campout (our only campout that is one night) we also have to pack everything up on Saturday morning. By 6:30 a.m. I am up and out of the tent. Around 7 a.m., Jake, Brandon and I start taking down the tent. Venture patrol cooked breakfast for us — pancakes! Venture Patrol always cooks breakfast on the Klondike Derby campout. After breakfast we put the gear that we won't need during the day in Mr. Meyer's truck.
Find out what's happening in Brookfieldwith free, real-time updates from Patch.
Since it had snowed during the night we all had extra layers on. The two patrols are combined so all of us put our back packs on a wooden sled (a different kind than the one you ride down a hill), the two patrols go and check in and then we head to the first station. There are a total of 10 stations that each troop has to go through.
Station 1: Demeter’s Bountiful Harvest — Baking cookies in a box oven!
Find out what's happening in Brookfieldwith free, real-time updates from Patch.
Station 2: Sea of Poseidon — Navigation of sled over ice flows (pallets) without falling off.
Station 3: Gift From Prometheus — Fire Building
Station 4: Artemis Goddes of the Hunt’s Training Camp — Sled patrols compete to find six monsters along the blue trail and defeat each one with tennis balls.
Station 5: Navigate the Layrinth — The Patrol leader must lead his blindfolded patrol through the labyrinth by following a string trail left behind by others.
Station 6: Hephaestus’s workshop — Sled Patrols are required to build a sled using the materials in the instructions provided using only lashings.
Station 7: Hermes challenge — CPR and First Aid Skills.
Station 8: Ares god of war’s boot camp — Safety and shooting (bb guns).
Station 9: Prometheus’s scavenger hunt — Sled patrols must find 10 orienteering points somewhere around Camp Hoyt.
Station 10: Athena’s battle strategies — Patrol members will spar against each other in a one-on-one karate style match with the foam swords and shields provided.
At the fire building station we had to cut up some wood and then build a fire big enough to burn through a string about a foot off the ground. Once we get through that station we go to the other eight of them and do some of the orienteering points for the 10th. When we were about half way done with the stations we went to the Lashing station (which our troop was running) and ate lunch.
After lunch we did our station and then finished the rest. Ryan, Jake and I headed down to headquarters to hand in our scoring card. We got there just in time to hand it in. On our way back we run into Stephen and Mark from Troop 5. They are another troop in Brookfield.
We get back to camp, grab our stuff and head home. Now all we need to do is wait till we find out who won the klondike!
For more info about scouting in Brookfield please contact the following people: Cubscouts - Rob Libbey Pack 5 at 203-7445-2412, Rob Janofsky Pack 135 @203-775-9578, Boyscouts Kirk Lauri Troop 135 @ 203-470-9050, Jonathan Gibney Troop 8, Tom Tyrell, Troop 5 @ 203-775-4448.
Written by,
Nicholas Palmer
Troop 135, Troop Historian
