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
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
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.
Due to poor weather for December’s event, I had to postpone our ziplining and rock climbing trip to Quarry Park Adventures to January. Thankfully, the weather for January 11th appears to be favorable thus far, so hopefully we can keep our reservation.
The good news is that all of our tickets are still payed for and valid for next Saturday at the same time (9 AM – 11 AM). The bad news is that our waivers appear to be expired and need to be redone here: https://go.theflybook.com/manage/YQVRBX#/lite
If anyone needs to change their availability for this month’s event, please let me know. I can still add/remove tickets to our reservation up to 48 hours before the event date.
Cancelled due to weather
| Father confirmed that the classrooms are likely available this Saturday morning and made sure with the organizer for the Woman’s Day of Recollection that we can use classrooms 1, 2, and 3. Here’s a tentative plan that I’m thinking for our woodworking event: 8:30 AM – Mass 9:30 AM – Meet in classroom 1 with the troop – Flag ceremony (I can bring a flag) led by senior cadets – Prayer invocation led by religious director9:45 AM – Troop Business – Discussion of events for next couple months: November (Hunter Safety Training), December (ziplining, climbing) & Christmas caroling at senior home, January (woodworking), February (snowshoeing, sledding, snow play @ Iron Mountain)10:00 AM – Tool demonstrations (perhaps we can split this up into groups of 3 or 4 dads, where each dad takes a group of similar tools and discusses them with the troop) 11:00 AM – Building projects: stool, nativity manger, etc. 12:00 PM – Concluding flag ceremony and closing prayers |
| When Saturday Nov 9, 2024 ⋅ 8:30am – 12pm (Pacific Time – Los Angeles) |