By Justin B-K

It was early on Saturday February 5^th, 2005 when two patrols and a handful of parents arrived at Our Lady of Fatima Church. We then drove to Resolute Boy Scout Camp in Bolton, Ma. We got there with about five minutes to spare till we had to be check in at 9 o’clock. We packed up the sleighs with troop gear and latched our backpacks to our back and went to our campsite with our reindeer, woops I mean scouts, pulling our sleighs. The weather was beautiful; it was more than 40 degrees outside! Unfortunately we missed the opening ceremonies because we got there too late and had to unload the sleds. The tents however were already set up because of the wonderful Mr. Matt and Mr. Gentile had gone there the day before and set them up. Before you knew it is was off to our first activity.

Bravo Patrol consisted of Andrew G, Ben R, Eric L, Mark V, Stephen H, Michael Z, and myself as Patrol Leader. Bravo had the blind water relay first. The Blind Water Relay was a game deigned to help you build leadership. The whole patrol was blindfolded except for one person, the patrol leader. The blindfolded scouts were given a full cup of water. The patrol leader led their patrol across a 100-yard plus course through the woods. The goal was to not spill any water out of the cups through the excellent guidance of the patrol leader. Our group did really well, but unfortunately we did not place in the top three but we were close. Since we finished the Blind Water Relay with plenty of time to spare before the next even we went to the first aid bonus game. Since we as a patrol had an excellent first aid kit and superb knowledge on first aid we got all the bonus points.

The next station was an Ice Rescue Relay. We practiced different methods of rescuing people from out on the ice. These included just throwing a rope to them, a human chain, and a ladder rescue.

Next we had to build an ice shelter. We could use only the materials that we had with us and the snow. We brought a tarp and rope for this purpose so that was the roof. We made a lean too with the tarp and rope. For the walls we borrowed Mr. Matt’s shovel and we built them out of snow. For the doorway we used the sled on its’ side. The adults running it thought when we began that we would never pull it off but we proved them wrong.

Next was lunchtime. So we decided to go to the station our troop was responsible for and eat there because we had them after lunch. For lunch we had Ramen noodles plus whatever we brought for ourselves. Some people even brought some sushi. After a fabulous lunch it was time to do the Amazon Ant Attack.

The Amazon Ant Attack was an activity based on the story that there was a truck filled with Amazon Ants overturned on the highway and we had to get a log and tie it up high enough so that we would be safe when the ants got there. After all the patrols had gotten there and we had a talking too about what was going to happen. Everyone started off and carried their logs to and around the flagpole. When we got back all the scouts held up the log except for two. The two boys tied the log to two trees using a Japanese square lashing. We all jumped up on the log (see the picture below) and lived! Because of use of this lashing, which is much easier to tie then the others, we won first place in the Amazon Ant Attack. Since we were done so early with the Amazon Ant Attack we did two bonus games. The first one was a knot tying one that my whole patrol flew through getting full points in that. The other bonus game was a twist on curling by instead of using curling stones we used skis. We however did not hit the cone with the skis that we were supposed to. In fact, out of the 280 boys at the Freeze Out in total only two hit the cone.

Amazon Ant Attack!

Our next station was called the Winter Apache Relay Race. This one involved us racing our sleigh around a fairly long course (see the picture below) then going on a group snowshoe, planks of wood that were all tied together so everyone had to be coordinated. Then we had to throw snowballs at cans and after that we got to go back on those planks and cross the finish line. They timed you individually so we went last. In the middle of the sleigh race part we past another sleigh that started a minute or more before us. Then after we went out and knocked down then cans and came back we finished first even though we started last. Because of our record time we won first place overall in that event.

Our next and final station was fire building. We had to build a fire and get it going high and hot enough to burn through string that was about two feet in the air. We finished that in very good time, but we didn’t place in the top three. We did however finish in time to do two bonus games. The first one was a merit badge identification, which we didn’t do so well on. The next one was an assessment of what we were all wearing. We did pretty well on this one but we got a little off for a few things here and there. So that was the competition part of the day so next we had to go back to our campsite and prepare for the night. On our way back to the campsite we filled the sleigh with firewood that we brought from home for the night.

The Winter Apache Relay Race

When we got back o the campsite. We first got back we had to get some kindling for our two fires for the night. We then made the fires in the two fire pits. One of the fires we put the bags of charcoal on. That was going to be our cooking fire. The other one was just for warmth, but we ended up using it a little for cooking because we ran out of room on the other.

The Dinner Line

Dinnertime! We had our three cooks prepare us a 5-star dinner. The cooks were Mike Ziter, Stephen Hulten, with assistance from Mark Vogel. They chopped up carrots, potatoes, onions, and steak. We put all those things previously listed salt and pepper and salsa, for moisture, in tin foil and wrapped it all up. Then we put these nice foil packages on the fire. After turning once we took them off the charcoal and opened up our packages. The food was heaven. It all melted in your mouth and was wonderful. It was so good I think I am going to do it at home sometime on the barbecue.

Desert --- now that was a true treat. For desert we used Dutch Ovens. We made a cake with fruit on the bottom and they named it "Shudbury Shlump." It was amazingly great. It was a perfect great desert to go with a great meal. After that everybody just hung around and chatted till it was time to go to bed.

The next day after we had a nice scrambled eggs and sausage breakfast all inside a pita pocket. After that we broke down camp in record time and made sure the campsite was cleaner than we had found it. Then we went to closing ceremonies where we won the two abovementioned first place awards. Karl Nyangoni’s patrol won a ribbon for Blind Water Carry. Then we went home to watch the Patriots become a Dynasty.

Making Fire!