Gunnar's Oasis

This is Mr. McGrath filling in for Josh M who is at the Flintlock Tree House tonight.

After 12 years at Many Point, Gunnar Oas will go down in Many Point history due to him scoring a hole-in-one on a par 4 hole.  Disc Golf, that is.  This is an extremely difficult course through dense woods.  He was so excited he bought everyone a round of beers (root) at the Trading Post.  See photos for more about the event.  We’ve renamed that hole in his honor to: Gunnar’s Oasis (because Oas Hole does not sound right).

The weather has been awesome. 

Merit badges:  everyone is participating.  The adults are on patrol to make sure they keep it up.  Sabias and others have the clothing exercises in Swimming and Life Saving tomorrow.  Josh has a dig for archaeology while Trevor starts Tracking tomorrow.  Trevor and Josh finished Geology yesterday.  I am getting swamped with merit badges that the Scouts are electing to do on their own that are not offered at Many Point, or brought partially completed to Many Point and are now trying to get them done.  Mr. Devine has taken everyone attending this week through Citizenship in the Nation (Eagle) that did not already have it, so that they only have ONE requirement left, which is to write a politician.  A couple completed Communications (Eagle).  Well, just about every adult is engaged with Scouts in one way or another with merit badges.  Lots of energy.

Troop Activities:

See photos.  We have done a lot as a troop.  I’ll try to highlight key events.  Yesterday of course featured Disc Golf and that shot by Mr. Oas.  Most of us played a second round, while a few toured the Scout museum with Mr. Devine.  We also did Iron Man as discussed by Josh in the blog.  See the pictures just before Erik and Jack were in second place and about to take first, but the canoe capsized.  The Ahlquists came soon-after and Josh powered through the swimming leg to get us back in second.  Then Jonathan and Sabias raced away and secured second place in the running segment and second overall.  It was very fun, and all the adults participated.  We also did a Leave No Trace/Go Green campsite theme and had our site inspected.  Finally, AJ, Jon and Trevor did the older Scout insane mountain bike ride – I can’t remember the name of the hill – something sinister like Decapitation Canyon.  They broke two pedals and had a few spills.

Today was “GMEL” aka Greasy Watermelon and had the addition of Mr. Ahlquist, Mr. McGrath, Mr. Furlich and Erik Oas.  It was very fun until the watermelon broke and sank – but Mr. Ahlquist managed to use that to his advantage and sneak away with the melon and avoid his team being skunked (final score 3-1).  Think of it as water Rugby – lots of scrum action and even the watermelon is shaped like a rugby ball.  Then we took the remains and ate it.  Then Jack took a watermelon shower with the juice.  We did a troop climb, also fun.  They got to end the day in the sauna.  The Scouts had the usual Wednesday beach bash while the adults ate at Buckskin (Erik Oas, Mark Dierauer, Messrs Devine, Ahlquist, Furlich and McGrath).  It was cool to have Mark (our 5-Palm Eagle Scout) and Erik (our 4-Palm Eagle Scout) eat with the adults.  Mark is now 18 and entering his senior year in high school, while Erik starts his sophomore year in college this year.

I did ride my bike out to the tree houses tonight.  It was a punishing ride through root covered narrow trails.  My chain broke and since it was getting dark, I did not have time to fix it.  I wound up walking an hour back.  I did say hello to our Scouts at the Tree House.  Yes, Jon, I made it to the merit badge counselor meeting at Voyager with a few minutes to spare to wash all the bike chain grease off my hands.  I’ll try to fix my bike tomorrow.

Tomorrow is Water Polo.  Five are headed to Huck Finn for the overnight tomorrow night, which has the raft shelters in Flintlock.

Mr. Stamm and Mark Dierauer arrived today.  Mr. Ahlquist leaves tomorrow.  Mark is an Interpreter at the Northern Tier High Adventure Base in Minnesota.  He basically takes crews of Scouts out in canoes.  Sounds incredible.  He wants the troop to go to Atikokan (no way I can spell it) because he will be based there next summer.

YIS,
Kevin McGrath