Troop 281 Cincinnati, OH

Greetings parents and readers everywhere! By now you should have all the info you need for 281's experience at Friedlander.  The editor (that's me, Nick Rechtin), and quite possibly others, will be periodically updating this blog - daily, we hope. Put this website on your favorites and check back regurlarly because there's a lot that goes on here.  We especially hope to continue the daily "Letters from Camp" column (among other things). Here's a six-minute promotional video for the camp directed toward Scout leaders: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yvYCdSrxZzM (Or Google:        Camp Friedlander Youtube        for other interesting videos.) While produced for last year's season, it's well done and may fill in some blanks that we, the leaders, may also have forgotten. ************************* To see last year's entries, go to June and July 2010 in this blog.  (...

For the final campout before summer camp we had watersports at Rocky Fork State Park.  At the watersports campout, many different activities were available: you could go swimming, canoeing, kayaking, sail boating, tubing and some people even played soccer part of the time.   I went on the sailboat, it was really fun.  People said that the tubing was pretty good.  A big storm blew over during the night and we were afraid that we wouldn't be able to  get in the water because it was lightning.  The storm died down in the morning so we could go to the lake. Joe S. Historian

This week we had a meeting at Woodland Mound park and played Frisbee golf.  There were also six Boards of Review, which is a lot.  The Frisbee golf was a lot of fun. There were eighteen holes.  If you don’t know what Frisbee golf is, here is a quick rundown.  You try to throw a Frisbee into a basket in the least number of throws.   That’s the basics.  This was one of the best meetings of the year. Joe S. Historian

On this campout we went white water rafting on the New River.   The rapids ranged from class one (easy) to class three (medium to hard).  We towed duckies, inflatable kayaks behind our rafts.  We had four rafts, and there was a guide in each raft.  We had lunch at a stop on the river.  There was a stone throwing contest.  The winners were Alex R. and Nathan H.  After lunch we went under a old railroad track to a waterfall.  You could stand behind the water fall.  It was an epic trip. Joe S.  Historian The recent (June 2011) issue of Boys Life (p.15) features the very section of the New River that we travelled.  We rode the pictured "Surpise Rapid."    (Ed.)

This week’s scout meeting was different from normal meetings.   We did not have a skill session because Alex S. did not come; we played knock out the whole meeting.   Coincidently, Alex S. showed up just in time for when we circled up at the end. Joe S. Historian

   This week we went to RockQuest for a rock-climbing meeting. The Scouts who went said they had a good time.   The walls that were roped were 40 feet tall and the bouldering walls - ones without ropes - were 10 feet tall.   Thanks to the adults that came, we could climb on the roped walls.    The building is covered with roped walls around the edges and an island of bouldering walls in the center.   With the bouldering walls there was a little room on the top where you could sit and watch.   You didn’t have to climb to get up there. You could take the stairs leading up to the room.  It was a good meeting. Joe S.  Historian

We had a backpacking trip to the Red River Gorge and a Scout meeting this week. There were three groups for the backpacking trip: the Philmont crew, the intermediate group, and the day hikers. The Philmont crew went seven miles the first day and two miles the second day.  The intermediate group went three miles the first day and one mile the second day.  The new Scouts day hiked. We were going to go to the Appalachian Trail but the weather was too bad. It was a good trip in all. At the scout meeting Steven L. did a presentation on Honor Flight.  Honor Flight is a program that flies veterans to Washington D.C.  World War II veterans have first priority for flights; they only occur once a month. This meeting we were going to play dodge ball, but Alex S. couldn’t find the dodge balls. We played swing the thing instead. Joe S.     Historian