We went to camp Kickapoo to ride bikes around on the roads around the camp to complete the cycling merit badge. We left around six thirty and arrived around seven o’clock [Friday evening].

When we got there we had to sign in at the front gate and go to our campsite from there.  We set up camp by lines of patrols behind the pavilion from the road.  The patrol boxes were set up on the tables under the pavilion.

In the morning we got up and cooked breakfast, the Falcons had Mountain Man casserole as usual. We decided to have two rides that day, one in the morning and one in the afternoon. Those who didn’t need ride time could choose whether they wanted to ride in the morning, afternoon, or neither.

The first ride left around ten o’clock and came back close to eleven thirty. Next we ate lunch and played football for a while or rested from the early ride. Then it was time (about one o’clock) for the afternoon ride to start.  The ride came back after about an hour and thirty minutes. That night it rained really hard for about thirty minutes. We all got in the cars to wait out the storm. After the worst of it was over, everyone went to bed. On Sunday morning everyone ate their small breakfast of doughnuts and packed all of the gear including the bikes into the trailer and we left for the church.

From the Scoutmaster's perspective:

The year 2000 has been interesting for us.  We have had some kind of bad weather for each of our campouts.  April was no exception, of course.   

Camp Kickapoo was the site for our campout  and bicycle riding.  Twenty-five Scouts went out and twenty-three rode mountain bikes on Saturday.  Thanks to Mr. Luff, Mr. Milburn, Mr. Lucas, Mr. Rose, Mrs. Rogers, and Ms. Kirkpatrick for providing the transportation, including extra trailers to haul all the bikes.

Also thanks to the Scouts for all there participation and good behavior.  We had an excellent campout as far as I’m concerned, except for the brief round of thunderstorms of course.  

The bicycling was awesome.  We rode for almost six hours during the day with a stop back at camp for lunch.  My speedometer showed 25 miles when we were finished.  The neat part was the mileage was logged on rough roads, trails and loose sandy terrain.  Excellent riding by all, even though we had a couple of spectacular crashes.

Brent B. gets a 10 for his crash on a winding downhill run, including an end-over, bike toss and a couple of barrel rolls down the hill.  Lucky for the helmet and soft sandy soil. I’m not sure, but I think, both Brent and his mother were more worried about his new mountain bike than Brent’s body.  Both were fine, I’m glad to report.  Brent’s mom, Paula also rode every mile along with Betsy D.  Way to go girls!!

David M., Chris J., Brent W., David R. and several others also had minor falls. Brent W. had the worst bruise that I saw.  Bad day for "Brents", I guess.

The Thunderstorms rolled through about 9:45 pm on Saturday night.  The Camp staff had us well prepared and we hopped in the cars for about 30 minutes until the storms passed. No problems except for wet tents on Sunday morning.  Thanks to all the senior Scouts who took home tents to dry out.