03/11/2026
Time for a tiny update. Troop 88 participated in the Annual Council Hosted Klondike campout. Generally speaking its a 3 day camp but several of the troops decided to set up Saturday morning, full day of activities, camp over night then pack up Sunday morning, attend the awards ceremony then head home. Awards you might ask??? Well as per normal Klondike, the scouts got to participate in a mock "Iditarod". Each troop that camped were given a few hints as to what was to take place. We knew there would be several stops (kind of like mimicking visiting different towns along the actual Iditarod course) At each stop the team, which consisted of 1 oldest and youngest scout from each troop. The rest of the scouts would act as the sled dogs to help push the home made sled full of gear. Each station would test the scouts ability in various skills such as snow bowling, setting up a tent then breaking it down, fire building etc. The teams were scored based on how fast they could complete the course. Each "town" visited presented its own challenges and each troop had various skill levels that either worked in their favor or it could have hindered them. While Our troop didnt bring home any trophies, all of us adult leaders are incredibly proud of the hard work and effort they demonstrated. The teamwork and camaraderie it took to complete the course was on full display. While the scouts were taking part in the course, the Scoutmaster and assistant scoutmasters went back to camp and worked together to create a lunch for the all troop potluck. This was also a competition. We really felt that we had a fighting chance as our menu was absolutely stellar. With the help of Maureen, Luke, Stephen and James, in a beachesque them, we prepared Korean Bulgogi Beef over jasmine rice with a sunomono cucumber salad. There were about 17 troops that participated but we felt we brought the heat to the game. Once we looked around and saw someone made french fries, and another brought soda, we knew we were doomed. The crazy thing is we had a line of people probably 25 deep for almost an hour straight to sample our goods. Tons of great feedback and lots of people returning for seconds. When they announced the winner, we discovered we lost to a troop that didnt even bother to show up for the awards portion, and from what we are told, they served some kind of hotdog dish. Its ok, we in fine troop fashion, held our heads high, went back to camp and started dinner for the troop. Oh, and dinner was marinated shoyu chicken and vegetable stew with chicken and ginger dumplings. we of course served this over rice. Our group eats well at camp lol. In any case, the troop got in another round of cold weather camping and did an exeptional job. Until next time........
