Klondike 2011

It was after dark when we began setting up camp. The temperature was dropping as fast as the tents were being set up. It was forecast to be the coldest night of the winter and the forecast proved to be true. We got the camp set up and settled into bed around 9. Bed consisted of two sleeping bags opened on the floor for insulation, a 15 below sleeping bag for Noah, Luke and I and then warm cloths to sleep in as well as hats. When we left our tents in the morning it was about 4 below and we were told that it got down to 11 below at the lowest. Just so I am accurately representing the trip, the boys and I had a small propane heater to take the chill off the tent while we were waking up and getting changed.

Imagine this, if our body temp is 98 and the outside air temp is -11 there was a 100 degree temp difference between the inside and the outside of our sleeping bag. Noah said he slept so well that he forgot that he was camping!

Luke stayed the night with me and Noah but wasn't allowed to participate in the activities because of his age. This was a boy scout event and the boy scouts invited Noah and Rowen to join them. Saturday was full of events to compete in, knots, fire building, orienteering and first aid were some of the events. The boys were judged according to how well they completed the task and given a score.
Late Saturday night the winners were announced, I didn't figure that we would place at all because our troop was one of the smallest but as they counted down 3rd, 2nd and then first they called our troop 403. We all stared at each other in disbelief but willingly took the first place pennant. Over all it was a very good time and the boys had a blast. We learned alot and had a great time getting to know the boys in troop 403 better. Noah will bridge up to boy scouts in the spring and will himself be a member of Troop 403 soon enough.
April will bring the next camparee. It is said that that this one will be a "disaster" with a focus on first-aid. Look for that blog around the end of April.

There are plans to run the Asas 206 today, I'll get some pictures and post about it soon. Also in the works is a return trip to Zambia to help CMML this spring and a door has opened for us to buy our house. Each one of these will get it's own blog in the near future so stay tunned. Josh