01/29/2011 – 01/30/2011
This year, troop 28 had to use all three sleds during the Klondike to support the rapidly growing troop. All three sleds were leadership sleds. The Phoenix patrol had only one life scout, Robbie, and was entered as a leadership sled accidentally. However, they still got higher scores than the other sleds in some of the stations. The sky was gray and the snow was just a little over a foot high. For most of the sleds, the snow made it much easier to move them, but Jack O’Brien’s sled hit a snow/ice drift and broke the fronts of both skis making it harder instead.
As usual, the Klondike began at 8 a.m. and continued until 3 p.m. Even though we had a good 6 hours to finish (not including inspection) the sled with Jack T, Thomas, Brody, Luke, and I finished all but one station. The troop had mixed luck with the string burning; my patrol and the Phoenix patrol burned the string and the wire but the other patrol had a little trouble. All patrols did well on river crossing and have obviously improved from last year.
Even though none of the patrols actually got anything other than those patches that they give everybody just for participating, it was still a rewarding experience and it helped us learn what we were good at, like string burning, and what we needed to work on, like not running our sleds into snow drifts.
Thanks to all drivers for driving us there and back.
Respectfully submitted
Dylan Marat, Troop 28 Historian