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
February Event – Iron Mountain Snow Park
Hey troop, the second Saturday is coming up in a week, and we have a snow day planned for the troop at Iron Mountain, located in Kyburz (about 2 hours from St. Stephen’s).
This is a public state park and a snow play permit is required for the day for $15 (https://secure.cloudwisesolutions.com/app/products.html).
To get to Iron Mountain, you’ll need to drive up highway 88 towards Kirkwood Ski Resort (about 50 miles from Jackson), and turn left on Mormon-Emigrant Trail Road. The snow park will be on the north side of the road.
https://ohv.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=23062
Iron Mountain used to be a ski resort, which is now defunct but there is still some infrastructure remaining in various spots. It’s a great place for sledding, cross country skiing, snow shoeing, and snow play in general. Thus far the winter has been light on snow in the mountains but hopefully this current storm will bring some fresh powder.
I propose the following schedule:
– 10 AM: Meet at Iron Mountain park (7 AM mass at St. Stephen’s prior if possible).
– 10-12: Snow play for the troopers
– Break for picnic lunch (possible hot lunch with portable grills, if we can do something simple like hot dogs or ramen?).
– 1 PM: Short Troop business meeting to go over future events (FYI, no Wings Over Solano air show being offered in March, so we’ll need to think of something else).
Let me know if you’re interested in coming but don’t have any snow gear. We have a lot of extra snow pants and boots that I can bring for most sizes up to 12T.
Also, if we can incorporate any patch skills requirements into this event, that would also be great. Let me know if you have any ideas.
Angel Island Trip
Events, I’m starting a new post here to help plan our next trip out to Angel Island this Saturday, October 12th. Below are some of the most important pieces of information that I gathered from the ferry website (https://angelislandferry.com) and Angel Island State Park website (https://www.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=468).
In April, the boys did a hike at the Indian Grinding Rock State Park in Pine Grove. The site hosts one of the largest concentration of grinding rocks in the state of California. After the hike, we visited the museum to look at the exhibits.
In March, the boys took a tour of the Gold Bug Mine (https://www.goldbugpark.org) in Placerville. After the tour, the boys did a tour of the mill, as well as the black smith station.
Once again, the troop started their year with their first membership meeting with a hike up Quarry Trail located near the confluence of the Middle and North Forks of the American River. We hiked this trail last November and the dads taught the cadets a knife safety training class.
This year Lt. McCain gave the boys a small talk about how to use their compasses. In addition, Lt. Watts gave a talk about radio communication along with a live demonstration using his radio while at Mammoth Bar.
The itinerary for the event was as follows:
9:00AM – Meet at parking area/trailhead
9:15AM – Opening prayer; Compass review and project.
10:15 AM – Arrive at Mammoth Bar; brief membership meeting.
10:30AM: Radio communication demonstration.
11:00AM: Hike back to parking lot. Recitation of the rosary on the way.
12 Noon: Estimated arrival at parking lot
