We met at the trailhead of Quarry Trail in the Auburn Cliffs Valley area. This is a common hike that we do every year, but this time we took the boys up the hill to Scale Wall to do some climbing in addition to the hike. This allowed us to build on our climbin experience earlier this year in the gym.
Here is the info on Scale Wall if you’re interested in checking out the established routes: https://www.mountainproject.com/area/105734231/scale-wall
We served breakfast to raise fund for our Troop, after the first 3 Sunday Masses (7:00am, 8:30am, 10:00am). Fathers and sons volunteered for shifts to serve breakfast burritos and pastries. Thank you to all who helped out! We are also grateful to the coffee and donuts volunteers who prepared coffee and set up the room.
Our parishioners were very generous once again. We raised similar funds to our previous breakfast+lunch fundraiser, but only had to work the morning. God is good!
The funds raised can be used for Troop future events.
Our regular event this month got rained out (we planned to hike Quarry Trail in Auburn and rock climb).
We had already planned an additional event this month. This was a family event, open for everyone. We attended the Wings Over Solano air show at Travis Airforce Base.
We met at the gate at 9:00am. The show began at 11:00am. There were giant aircraft, helicopters, and various land vehicles to explore on the base.
A senior parishioner of St. Stephen’s needed help with some yard tasks around her property in Pollock Pines. This parishioner has been a long-time supporter of our troop, and this is an opportunity for us to show our gratitude.
We helped by cleaning up pine needles, sifting through and organizing wood piles, tidying up fallen branches, and clearing blackberry bushes that had invaded her back yard.
We met at the house in Pollock Pines at 9:00am to start work. After working and making good progress, we enjoyed a picnic lunch together at Sly Park Recreational Area. We may need to return again to continue the work.
Thanks to all the boys and fathers for your hard work!
Our service project to clean up a parishioner’s property was postponed due to snow up at her property. Instead, we went hiking and fishing at Howard Ranch Trail in Rancho Seco Recreation Area. Everyone had a great time, and enjoyed the view of this vast open country.
We met at Granite Arches on Folsom Blvd in Rancho Cordova for a 2-hour time block of climbing. Several of the dads in the group were already qualified to belay, and were available for any boys who wanted to climb. Many boys also took advantage of the auto-belay that was available for several walls.
We visited Prairie City Landing, a senior home in Folsom, to sing Christmas carols at 1:00 PM on Saturday. From 2:00-4:00 PM we took a tour of the Folsom train museum and blacksmithing shop (https://www.folsomhistory.org/). Next, we were honored to visit the new Chick-Fil-A restaurant owned by our own Lt. Younger, located at 2436 Watt Avenue, Sacramento, CA. Finally, we took a walk in the “Fabulous 40’s” neighborhood of Sacramento to view the Christmas light displays.
We took a tour of Black Chasm Cavern in Volcano, California, and hiked the nearby Miner’s Trail. This is located about 1 hour, 15 minutes from St. Stephen’s, directly east, in Amador County.
10:00am Cave tour
11:00am Short hike at Miner’s Trail
12:00 noon General Meeting covering patch requirements
12:30pm picnic lunch
For several years now, our troop has hosted a booth at our parish’s All Hallow’s Eve party. Our leader, Cpt Pratt, has experience running “The Catacombs” booth, so this became our troop booth this year. It’s a lot of work to setup and takedown! Thank you, Captain Pratt and helpers!
We pick up a bunch of large appliance boxes in the weeks leading up to the event (thank you, Zajic’s Appliance!). We set up a couple dozen of these on the grassy field behind the church in a maze for the kids to crawl through. At the front of the catacombs, an EZ Up tent serves as the official entrance, and another popup tent in back of the catacombs is the official exit (where the candy resides). This year, the tent in the back became a “laser swamp” where kids crawling through the catacombs could find candy. The fog machine added just the right atmosphere to this spooky, fun adventure!
We camped at Park Creek Bible Camp, near Jenkinson Lake, returning to this camp for our second year. The campout started Friday night and ended Sunday morning.