Troop 281 Cincinnati, OH

The drive up was 4 hours long. It was windy and snowy. The trip was also filled with things like pull overs, break downs,  and cell phone towers whose lights all flashed at the same time (we found out on the way back that it was a huge wind farm). When we got to Pokagon State Park, there was waist-high snow on the paths to our cabins. Luckily, the rangers came out to plow and shovel the next morning. It was... an interesting night.  On Saturday, we woke up early. The Eagles set up tables and chairs and got to work on breakfast. After the meal, the troop went tobogganing for a while. Everyone had fun, whether they tobogganed the whole time, sat inside eating Klondike Bars, or warmed themselves by the campfire and played in the snow. We then went back to camp for lunch, which was prepared by the Dragons. After carrying huge sleds up 1/4 mile hills, sandwiches had never tasted so good! After we finished stuffing our faces, we got in the cars to go to the skiing area. There,...

  At this Troop favorite, We head east to Camp Oyo where we then sign off requirements, Unwind in comfy cabins, and ,hence the name, eat loads of delicious foods made by our fellow patrols. So what if it was raining a bit? Ok, A LOT. Undeterred by the weather, Several scouts Hiked for five miles in the pouring rain just to get a single requirement. That's the spirit of our troop. We can do anything that we put our minds to. so after advancement,feasting,festing and fires (It wasn't exactly tropical) we were on our way home. But when in Troop 281, as one adventure ends another is sure to follow.

At most of the Troop's favorite campout this year we had a complete blast! For those who don't know what color wars is (Or forgot) here is a refresher. Color Wars is a competition held at our camp, Achewon, In which the patrol compete in a series of events including the cooking competiion, gateway competition and campwide hide and go seek game. At the end of the campout, Each patrol's points are added up and whoever has the highest amount of points wins the Patrol Cup. This Years winner was the (Drumroll Please) Thrashing Sharks Patrol. And let's not forget the new Serpents Patrol campsite which had been abandoned since the fall of the Moose Patrol and was also the first Campsite ever built when our camp was originally built. So I think I speak for all that (Other than a bit of rain) the campout was perfect.

As the accomplishments of summer camp are rewarded , we see many Scouts have been working toward as many merit badges as possible and were not shy about advancements either. Shown by a whopping 22 advancements and more than 180 merit badges, we were kept very busy. For our schedule this year we have planned some new campouts, such as the mysterious mystery campout, and repeated our old favorites like the crown jewel of our season, Color Wars!!!. But no matter what happens, This season will most certainly please this scout and many in the troop would agree.

 Another new year. And with it come many new plans. This meeting, we started off with a presentation by Ben about what this year brings. All these changes are for the better. This year, we will do things like camp in a non-commercial cave, go to a giant trampoline for a meeting, and go to a campout that nobody knows about. This truly is a promising year.

To start my review I've gotta say this service project exclaims that we can have loads of fun and do great things for others AND help our current Senior Patrol Leader earn Eagle! We gathered at the Batavia League for Animal Welfare on Saturday with a mission, To build a new a new piece of playground equipment to help dogs get adopted. We started out by unloading tons of materials and carrying them to a fenced in area. But not without some things being dropped my foot! We then assembled the equipment and laid down the mulch that we had ferried there with a constant line of wheelbarrows around it. After many hours of work we ate and departed, feeling good about what we had done.

The adult leaders started the last day of camp confused.  We awoke to the senior patrol leader calling for the troop to "fall in".  It was 6:15 in the morning...instead of the usual 7:30.  The scout leaders decided to get up early to clean up camp.  We sorted though all personal items under the shelter and matched them with the owner.  4 sweeps of camp yielded a full trash bag and a clean camp. Last night was a very successful night.  No visible homesickness and many scoutmaster conferences and requirement testing.  There is a rush to finish up remaining requirements to rank up in time for tonight's boards of review.  Many scouts also found time to go to the climbing wall, swimming, jumping on the blog, or attending open shooting at the range... and of course the always popular trading post for a slushie and a card game. Some pictures from the past 24 hours:  Friday Flags at Lakeview Troop service project- clearing brush ne...