From the Scibe's perspective

In October, the Troop went to Palo Duro Canyon State Park in Amarillo, Texas. From what I hear, the early crew had a "fun" time coming down to the campout. Mr. Jones locked his keys in his car and had to call a locksmith to get them out. When they finally got down to the campgrounds, they played Frisbee for two hours waiting for the ranger. 

Finally, they got to the camp set up and went out for dinner in Amarillo at a Dairy Queen. The late crew got down to the campout relatively fast and only had to make two stops on the way down. We had one sick Scout in Dr. Brumbaugh’s car right after dinner at the McDonald's in Shamrock, Texas.

At the campgrounds, we had a few mix-ups but fi­nally got to bed. We woke up at 6:00 to the nicely played bugle by Brian Tay­lor. We cooked our breakfast and got ready to go on the hike. We all got to the trailhead at about 8:45 and started our hike. Going three fourths of the way there was relatively easy for most of the Scouts and Duds. But, the last fourth of it was going up very steep steps. Finally at about 10:00, we got to the top of Lighthouse Peak and most of us ate lunch. We hiked back down and finished 5 miles at about 12:00 and then some of us went on the last 5 miles back to camp.

When we got back to camp, we immediately started on dinner.  Then, at night we went and helped out at some carnival booths. We got back to camp and packed up a little bit and went to bed. In the morning, we did our service pro­ject and packed up pretty quickly and headed back home.

From the Scoutmaster's perspective

This month we visited Palo Duro canyon for the first time ever, or at least that anyone knows of. It was a great campout. As usual for our longer distance campouts, we had an early crew and a late crew. Our early crew did not have the best of days. At least no one was injured. However, although they did not get to accomplish any of their personal goals of relaxing and doing a little hiking, they did have camp all set up for the late crew.

Saturday morning, the Troop did a great job of getting up and around. We had a very enjoyable 6-mile round-trip hike to the Lighthouse for­mation and even climbed up to it. The Milk Duds (Cameron and Sloan subbing for Macky) were along for the hike again this year and once again they blazed the trail for the Duds. After the 6-mile hike was finished and everyone took a short break, most of the Scouts were encouraged to hike back to camp to complete a 10-mile hike. Mr. Brumbaugh and Mr. Jones were the guides. Many of the Scouts were surprised that they made it and were glad that they had been encouraged to go for it.

Saturday evening, we partici­pated in our first service project of the weekend. The canyon was hav­ing a "Haunt the Canyon" carnival. Our job was to help host many of the various stations. Our Scouts did a good job at all of their stations. Here is what some of them did: Jack spent most of his time at the first station where we handed out goody bags with candy. I am not sure, but I think that Jack ate as much as he handed out. Gavin particularly seemed to enjoy running the "yucky things' station where he tried to con unsuspecting passersby to reach in and feel simulated guts, brains and other disgusting things. Chris J. and Spencer got to chase errant hula hoops at the pumpkin ring toss. Chris M. roamed the carnival area handing out flyers. Most of the Pearson family along with Paddy and Colton ran the "pop the balloon" station.

Sunday morning was an early one again as we were up early so that over half of the Troop could get started on their service project, while the others began breaking camp. Our Sunday service project was to walk the trails, which were used on Saturday for the Palo Duro 50 mile trail marathon, and pick up all the trail markers and trash.

The canyon was impressive and enjoyable. We probably won't be back there soon, but it is a location to try to return to in the future.

-- Allen