Scouts BSA Troop 72

Located on the crest of the Cascade Range, Stevens Pass receives an average of 460" of snowfall each year over 1,125 acres of skiable terrain. The area offers a wide variety of trails, bowls, glades and faces for every level of skiing/snowboarding, cross-country skiing and snowshoeing. Our stay in the rustic, bunkhouse-style Mountaineers Lodge features group meals and ski in/ski out access to the slopes.

The Troop will offer Scouts the opportunity to earn Swimming merit badge here on the hill. This important merit badge is a requirement for the Eagle Scout rank, and earning the badge is also a pre-requisite to participate on the Deschutes River Rafting Trip in the spring.

Blewett Pass is the name that Troop 72 uses to refer to Pipe Creek Sno-Park, a snowmobile-free area located just south of Blewett Pass on highway 97. The Troop uses the area for a 2-day, 1-night winter snowshoe backpacking overnight. The total hiking distance is approximately 4 miles roundtrip with elevation gain of approximately 600 feet. We use ungroomed ski trails for our approach on Saturday, and descend through the backcountry on Sunday. Travel is entirely on snow and camping is in tents.

This is a two-day, one-night campout at Gold Creek basin. We snowshoe with backpacks about 4 milse up the trail to the location we call our campsite. We dig snow caves into the snow slope and stay in them overnight.

Blake Island is located in Puget Sound between Bainbridge Island and Vashon Island. It is a state park with 475 acres of marine camping and five miles of saltwater beach. It is the home of Tillicum Village near where we will camp.

The Troop will offer Scouts the opportunity to earn First Aid merit badge. This important merit badge is a requirement for the Eagle Scout rank, and earning the badge is also a pre-requisite to participate on the Deschutes River Rafting Trip.

For this camping trip, the whole weekend will be dedicated to cooking. In addition to training and demonstrations, we'll have a fire-building competition, an Iron Chef competition, a cooking with Dutch oven competition and a best Patrol meal competition.

Camporee is a challenge event in which Patrols demonstrate their camping skills, leadership abilities, teamwork and self-sufficiency in completion with Patrols from other Troops. The program may include contests and demonstrations of outdoor Scouting skills as well as campfires, games, and field events.

A 3-day rafting trip over Memorial Day weekend is the highlight of the year for many Scouts and adults. We drive out and camp on Friday night before hitting the river on Saturday morning. We spend Saturday, Sunday and most of Monday rafting. We use a combination of gear boats (to transport gear between campsites), paddle boats (rafts for 5 to 8 people) and inflatable kayaks to float the river. On flat parts of the river between class 2, 3 and 4 rapids we enjoy a healthy dose of water gun fights.

Camp Easton is a 383 acre forested camp with 3/4 mile of lakefront on Gotham Bay (Drum Beater Bay) on the East side of picturesque Lake Coeur d'Alene. It provides ideal waterfront for a comprehensive aquatics program: water-skiing, motor boating, sailing, kayaking, canoeing and rowing; as well as snorkeling, SCUBA, the ever popular water trampoline and 24-man 'war canoes'. In addition to a premier aquatics program, Camp Easton offers shooting sports, crafts, nature areas.

Every summer, the Troop does a nine-day backpacking trek that is open to all Scouts, and the level of challenge is tailored to participants. The venue for our trek is yet to be determined. Past treks have included the back country of Yellowstone, Yosemite, the Juan deFuca Marine Trail on the coast of Vancouver Island and the Wind River Range in the Rocky Mountains of Wyoming.

The Troop has tentatively set aside this weekend for our fall 3-day high adventure backpacking trip (The Seattle School District can't plan as far ahead as our youth leaders, so we'll have to wait until February to see if these dates work). The High Divide Loop and the Encantment Lakes are both candidates for our destination depending upon weather conditions.