Tales of the Sumo Toads - Scout Troop 317 goes for the gold

Cooking Sausage - The 1st step in breakfast, cooking the sausage.  We shared the fire

ring with another troop.  See all the excitement in watching the dutch oven with the lid

on?!?!  Photo by Bruce Pyper.

By J. Bruce Pyper, Scoutmaster

This month the young men in Troop 317 were in an annual camp-out featuring a Dutch Oven cook off along with other competitions. The Troop that wins receives a “Gold” dutch oven filled with candy and bragging rights for the year.

This year the Dutch Oven cook off was a Biscuits and Gravy recipe. The troops were graded on timeliness (the food had to be ready at a set time), appearance, completeness of cooking (no raw meat), and any extras added to the recipe. 

That might sound easy until you remember that 1) this was a Breakfast. The food and basic recipe was dropped off at 6:30am …. Yes, AM. Have you tried to get teenaged young men out of bed at that time of the morning?? 2) Dutch ovens take a while to cook. The recipe called for a cooking time of around 30 to 40 minutes. Have you ever watched a dutch oven cook? It is worse than watching a microwave cook (at least the microwave has a window and food goes around and around). Have you ever tried to keep teenage young focused on a dull task, early in the morning?? Troop 317 did pretty well. We did not start the coals quite on time so we missed the on-time delivery. The food was cooked through though.

The other competitions were more engaging:

Blindman’s Soccer – The troop was divided into two teams and every person on a team, except one, is blindfolded. The person who can see then tries to direct his team to the ball and which way to kick it while the opposing team is attempting the same thing. This tested the troop’s ability to work together and follow directions.

Troop 317 at one of the competition stations.  The boys are chanting the patrol

yell.  The patrol yell and name have been been in use for more than 10 years.  Why change

a great name like "Sumo Toads"??

Compass Test – The troop had to use a magnetic compass to measure a distance (a real world use of geometry). If their measurement was too far off, they had to do it again. Did I mention this was a timed event??

First Aid Scenario – This event tested the boys’ first aid knowledge and ability to think on their feet. The scenario was that the troop was coming back from a campout and got caught in a traffic jam on I-5. While they are stuck in traffic, they witness a severe accident. They are the first people on the scene. What do you do? The troop was graded on their knowledge (FYI, don’t do CPR on someone who is breathing… we were graded down for that) and ability to work together.

Plant Identification – The troop was shown a picnic table with samples of 10 plants that they were to identify. There were a couple of field guides to help out on the more obscure plants. I was pleasantly surprised when the young men were able to identify 8 of the 10 without using the books!

Soooooo close!!!  As you can see we had some folks get very close, but not quite

there.... and the boys came back with all their fingers!  Photo by J. Bruce Pyper.

Tomahawk Toss and Match Splitting – This was probably the most popular station. Each young man had 3 chances to throw tomahawks at a target. They then competed as a troop the best of 6 throws. The match splitting was a test of accuracy and control. The bottom of a wooden match was wedged into a log. The object was to split the match with a tomahawk or hatchet. A couple of the young men got pretty close, but no one split the match.

While Troop 317 did not win the dutch oven full of candy (much to their dentist’s dismay), they did have fun and learned lots. They may bring home the Gold next year!!