On a beautiful weekend in mid-March, the scouts got together to work on a number of merit badges. Our original plan had us taking a trip out to Latimer Scout Reservation near Fall Creek Falls, but we pivoted to make it a stay-cation.
The scouts had the opportunity to work on the following merit badges: Citizenship in the Community, Citizenship in the Nation, Wilderness Survival, Game Design, and Geocaching. The boys also worked together in their patrols to cook all their meals. The weather could not have been better – partly sunny, high in the low 80s, light breeze.
In addition to working on Game Design and Wilderness Survival in the morning, the scouts prepared both breakfast and lunch outdoors for their patrols. It is rumored that electricity was used by one of the chefs to make waffles, in addition to several of Mrs. Lennon’s cooking utencils…
Following lunch, the troop saddled up and headed over to Edwin Warner park for a hike. We hiked the blue trail and a portion of the candy cane connector while working on a few of the requirements for the Geocaching merit badge. While hiking, we were able to find 2 geocaches (and were unable to find 1).
Due to the ice storm that we had during the winter that knocked down over 2000 trees in the park, we got to spend a few minutes watching some massive machinery move around the park and shred up huge piles of debris and mulch it back into the woods.
We were also able to make a short visit to the Warner Parks Nature Center. If you have never been, we can highly recommend it. Something for all ages (and lots of preserved animals, skeletons, etc.). After a little over 4 miles, we packed up for our final adventure of the day.
Our Troop leader works in the 100 Oaks area of Nashville, and he arranged for us to be able to spend the remainder of our day at his office. We made use of the conference room to help the boys complete some additional requirements for the Geocaching merit badge, as well as the Citizenship in the Nation. After a busy day of cooking, learning and hiking, we finished with the final meal of the day, and a little R-and-R. Well, those of us that weren’t driving the racing simulator or swinging clubs on the golfing simulator did.
