SUFFOLK
Stay long enough in scouting and you’ll get opportunities for adventure that otherwise might not come your way. Sometimes you go west to New Mexico or south to sail on the high seas. Other times, you must make your own escapade. Since the Boy Scouts and Cub Scouts of Troop 41 couldn’t go north — to Alaska — for dogsledding, they instead brought it home.

They were among the 12 or 13 troops in the Colonial Trail District to participate in Boy Scout Klondike, which took place last weekend at Johnson’s Gardens in Suffolk.

R.A. Howell, committee chairman for Troop 41, shared details about this annual challenge.

“This event give the scouts the opportunity to show their scouting skills. They compete with sleds, very much like the dog sleds up north. Instead of dogs, each patrol has eight boys, and they pull the sled. At each location, they have to have a patrol yell, patrol name and all the equipment and supplies on their sled, which they may need to complete the task that is given to them. They go around to each event that has been set up, and each location has a new task for them to compete in a time limit,” Howell said.

Some of the challenges include skeet shooting or firebuilding and then cooking pancakes.

“Everything is geared toward working as team,” he added.are judges who observe for not only how quickly the tasks are completed, but also how much the scouts have learned.

“Everything is geared toward working as team,” he added. “This is very important in learning leadership skills in Scouting.”

Once each challenge is done, “gold nuggets” are awarded, which can be used at an auction to bid on items for a patrol.

Although Troop 41’s scouts and Pack 41’s Webelos Scouts reportedly didn’t make first place, they did compete, having a good showing and a lot of fun.

“I am sure that Scout Master Robert Locke and Cub Master Carter Goerger were very proud of how their Scouts worked together,” Howell said.

During a Saturday evening campfire directed by Lodge Chief Danny Gnieski, the Order of the Arrow was presented. The boys choose their own to decide who will advance to this brotherhood.

On Sunday, the Scouts cooked breakfast and attended a church service before folding the tents, packing up, cleaning up and heading home.

“It was a great weekend for scouting,” he said. “All the leaders of the troop and the pack should be very proud of how far these boy have come. This weekend the scouts aged from 10 to 16 years old, all became closer in the brotherhood of scouting.”