It was a busy summer for Sequim Boy Scout Troop 1498, from whitewater rafting to camping, a 55-mile hike to summer camp, a day on the U.S Navy’s USS Somerset to a week of summer camp at Camp Parsons.
Peter Craig, Scoutmaster for Troop 1498, notes that the troop is looking for new members — specifically, “young men of good character who are interested in joining our adventures.”
Chartered by the Sequim Elks Lodge 2642, the troop is hosting a recruitment party for boys/young men of ages 11-17 on Friday, Oct. 21. Email to 1498bsa@olypen.com or see the group’s Facebook page (“Sequim Boy Scout Troop 1498”) for more information.
The goal of the Scout group, Craig says, is “to provide opportunity for leadership and goal-setting development (and) for young men to demonstrate independence, responsibility and teamwork skills by using the Scout oath and law as our guide.”
Craig offers this recap of the Boy Scout Troop 1498’s summer adventures as some background:
“We started our summer off with a couple days of rafting in Eastern Washington. Twenty-one Scouts spent the Memorial Day weekend conducting a flag retirement ceremony, camping, swimming and whitewater rafting.
June found a couple members of the troop working as camp counselors at Camp Parsons on the Hood Canal.
Scouts from 1498 enjoyed summer with a series of local hikes in the Olympics. These included a Klahhane Ridge to Hurricane Ridge hike that involved a bear sighting, a trip up the Dungeness watershed past Camp Handy to Boulder shelter, and a backpacking trip down from Deer Park to Three Forks campsites, then hiking out the Greywolf River drainage through Camp Tony and up out of Slab Camp.
Other Scouts spent time on various conditioning hikes in preparation for a 55-mile hike across Olympic National Park in mid-July. Ten members and a couple of adult leaders started on the southwest side of the park and hiked through and out the Elwha River Valley.
Five great days of hiking and camping with one intense lightning storm at the end (highlighted) the trip.
August was time for a cruise — well, not exactly. We boarded the USS Somerset for a day with the U.S. Navy. Scouts got up early to arrive at the Naval Station-Everett thanks to a lift from Rocket Transportation and Jared Dickson. The USS Somerset is a Navy amphibious assault vessel that came up from San Diego for SeaFair in Seattle. We were able to ride the ship into Seattle with a lap around Elliott Bay.
U.S. Marines had an M1 Abrams tank, helicopters, V-22 Osprey tiltrotor aircraft, a Humvee, a Bradley fighting vehicle and numerous other items on board for the Scouts to explore. It was an amazing day with our servicemen and servicewomen.
Camp Parsons Scout camp came next for a week of fun near Brinnon. Camp Parsons is the oldest continuous Scout camp west of the Mississippi. This year, the Scouts earned more than 70 merit badges in the following various topics: art, fingerprinting, water sports (waterskiing), motor boating, swimming, kayaking, lifesaving, wilderness survival, climbing, pulp and paper, citizenship in the world, soil and water conservation, woodcarving, Indian lore, signs, signals and codes, mammal study, small-boat sailing, nature, leatherworking, world conservation award, lifeguard BSA, cooking and environmental science.
On top of their advancement/achievements, they also won awards for second-best patrol during the Scouting competitions on the last day, second-best troop for the week overall, second place in the camp relay race (which is four runners, a swimmer, two canoe paddlers and a speed walker). They topped it all off with crushing all the other troops in the 1.5-mile canoe race and earning the Honor Troop award, which is Camp Parsons’ highest award.
My favorite moment was seeing troop member Braven Headley reach his goal of becoming a “BSA Swimmer” — this is something he has been working on for three years. The entire troop is proud that he has never given up on this personal challenge.
Another great moment was how the troop worked with five other young men who were added to our troop for the week. These were individual Scouts from three different troops who did not have their fellow troop members present for the week but wanted to get the camp experience. I was proud of how our troop worked to help make these young men feel they were part of our troop and would enjoy summer camp.
Recently, troop members helped out with the United Way Day of Caring. With other local volunteers, they worked to help get the Sequim YMCA closer to opening. They were rewarded with the ability to test the swimming pool out afterwards.”
Everyone has a story and now they have a place to tell it. Verbatim is a first-person column that introduces you to your neighbors as they relate in their own words some of the difficult, humorous, moving or just plain fun moments in their lives. If you have a story for Verbatim, contact editor Michael Dashiell at editor@sequimgazette.com.
