This year we headed to Elkhorn Slough with a group of about 40 Scouts for our Spring canoeing trip.

The Elkhorn Slough is one of 27 National Estuarine Research Reserves established nationwide as field laboratories for scientific research and estuarine education. It is the largest tidal wetland marsh in California after San Francisco Bay.

The Troop took our canoe fleet on a tour of the Slough, giving the Scouts an opportunity to enjoy the local wildlife, while continuing to build on canoe skills.

The weather is was excellent with clear skies so we were able to see some stars and planets in the night as well.

Well Klondike 2018 was Great!!!

The Troop (22 Scouts and 14 Adults) Left the church about 8:30am, we got to Cisco Grove about noon on Saturday and started Hauling the gear up to the camping area. When we arrived we found out about a lone Scout and his father that came up to Klondike by themselves. They are in Troop 42 in San Mateo, We asked if they would like to join up with Troop 27 for the weekend and they gladly accepted the offer. The Scouts spent most of the day building their Snow shelters. Luckily it snowed earlier in the week and we had just enough snow to build shelters for the night. The temp was about 45deg on Saturday and dropped down to the 20’s at night. The Sky was clear with little chance of rain or snow (we had none of either). It was cold but not too cold! We had a campfire, ate our hot water meals and drank hot chocolate then it was off to bed.

Sunday morning came Quick! The Scouts were up and making a fire before 7am! The Scouts ate Hot water Breakfast and more hot chocolate. 8am was Flags Lead by Nick Lee and Troop 27. Then we did Scouts Own and it was off to the Klondike events. Statue of liberty, Killing Sticks, Jumbo Skis, Snow Shoeing, Ptarmigan shoot, tobacco spit, Gear Rescue, Spear Throwing, and they finished it off with the Infamous Sled Race! 14 patrols from various Troops competed in the events. A Great time was had by all! Troop 27 took 6-1st places and 2-2nd places and 1-3rd place in the events and also won the Sled Race! While the Troop was competing in the events Dr. Horn was making a huge bowl of soup (5 Gal) to feed the Scouts and Adults before we packed out for the afternoon, it sure was good! (we even fed a Webelos patrol from P-132) We ate almost all of it! We got on the road home at 3pm and made it back to the church at 7:30pm. All the scouts and adults were very tired from all the excitement of the outing and quickly unloaded the trailer and went home. We had a Great Klondike, can’t wait until next year!

YIS,

Scoutmaster Ammenti

Again this summer our troop continued its unique, 50-plus-year tradition of building its own week long summer camp at a lake in the high Sierra. This year it was Loon Lake in the El Dorado National Forest.

13 scouts started off camp working on and achieving their Canoeing and Swimming Merit Badges.

On Wednesday the scouts got to do the troop’s traditional 5-mile troop hike including a great foil pouch dinner cooked on coals.

Many more skills were offered from the troop’s dedicated ASM and core and scout leadership core including Camping, Emergency Preparedness, Environmental Science, Lifesaving, Nature, Orienteering, and – of course – Swimming and Canoeing.

Again this year there were patrol contests, wood chopping and the two-man saw, Kajabe Can-Can, Two Ball and the very popular White Bomb!

All in, an incredible time for the troop!

The annual June canoe trip outing was fantastic success. Fifteen scouts went on the outing together at Coyote Lake Reservoir in Gilroy. We also had five parent ASMs join the fun on the trip in addition to driving and towing 12 of the troops 18 canoes. The trip gave many of our newer scouts a chance to get a head start on their canoeing skills for summer camp.