Hosted by Troop 900, Twin Valley District San Francisco Bay Area Council
What:
A Klondike Derby is camping in the snow and inter-troop or patrol competitions. T42 joined the Twin Valley (SFBAC) District event, since our council does not run a Klondike Derby.
Trip Leader:
Mr. Hitchings
Where:
Eagle Mountain Resort, Near Yuba Gap, off I-80, Elev. 6,000 ft, 1-1/4 hour from Sacramento
When:
Evening of Friday 19th Feb. (Drive up), Returned Sunday 21st Feb. Instead of taking the troop trailer, the SPL drove a 4WD gear-only vehicle. The only problem with the latter was that the cassette adapter for his CD player did not work, so all the tunes he took went unheard.
Who:
This was a first for Troop 42, attended by 11 scouts and 3 dads from T42. Many other northern California scouts do this, the Golden Empire hosts a Klondike Derby that is about 1,000 campers large.
Competition
Troop 42 fielded two composite patrols, the Hardcore and the Puppetmasters, in the following events: Cooperation (all members simultaneously on two huge "skis"), fire building, Klondike sled race, obstacle course, spear throwing, first aid/be prepared, and orienteering. T42 placed second overall. Afternoon events were canceled due to snow falling and windy conditions. T42 dads provided adult assistance at the Orienteering event. Check out the ribbons and two wooden Sasquatch feet on our flagpole!
Equipment Check:
All patrol-level scouts were subject to an equipment check prior to being accepted for this trip. The senior scouts had either been on last year's snow camping (March 98) trip or had been Winter Outdoor Awareness trained.
Clothing
Many scouts had problems with one or more parts of their clothing system, including boots and especially mittens and gloves.
Troop 42 practiced snow camping last March, and again in January 1999
Shelter
All attendees slept in tents Friday night, two quinzees (snow-mound shelters, hollowed out) were used Saturday night, all other T42 attendees slept in tents Saturday night, except for one scout who was chilled and frost-nipped, and another scout whose sleeping bag got wet in the foot area. These two scouts slept in the lodge, which is a valuable safe-haven at this facility. Two unoccupied tents were almost flattened under the snow Saturday night.
Snow
About 1 p.m. Saturday it began snowing, and by Sunday morning we had 2 feet of new snow on the ground. Since high winds were forecast, we did depressions for the occupied tents and built windwalls around the tents. Tents were anchored down to wickets buried in the snow. Those persons who slept in tents Saturday night spent a lot of time batting snow of the walls every hour or so, since the tents are not designed for four-season use. We found out the hard way that it takes a lot of work to dig out buried gear, pack up, and ferry gear out to the parking lot when there is two feet of fresh snow on the ground. All 2WD vehicles put chains on Saturday as soon as it began snowing, which made departure Sunday much easier.
Cooking
Since this was a very short hike, a big Coleman liquid-fuel and a Coleman propane-fuel camp stove were used. Mr. Cowing graciously did all meal planning and cooking on this trip. Sunday's breakfast and lunch were not prepared as we were busy digging out.
Sleds
Several scouts brought saucers or plastic sleds to help transport equipment over the snow. The Troop 42 sled proved to be an efficient high-capacity cargo carrier.
Special Award
Polar Bear Patch - requires one parent participation in a pre-trip meeting, scout must receive safety training from qualified adult leader, scout must camp overnight in the snow. We have completed the field work, and now that a video is available, may retro-actively do the safety training, in anticipation of next year's trip.
Lost and Found
At least one over-eager scout from another troop loaded some of our gear into a non-T42 vehicle. This necessitated a separate post-trip drive to Livermore to retrieve the gear. One dad-owned tent is missing. One pair of rental skis was left under the snow (waiting for the spring thaw, we have their serial number), and two big dad-owned snow shovels were lost in the snow