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Welcome to Troop 14's website.
July 25, 2007
After a great Spring, we have already had a great first half
of Summer!
Our Summer Camp at Camp
Cherry Valley, was incredible. Our experience with CCV greatness
began soon after we left the crowds, smog and humidity of L.A. on
the two hour ferry ride to Santa Catalina Island. Our path was rife
with schools of dolphins and we even had a whale surface and then
dive right in front of our boat.
The most immediately impressive feature of CCV is its physical beauty.
The camp occupies a narrow, steeply walled valley filled with rare
Catalina cherry trees. (Alas, the cherries are basically inedible.)
The valley ends in a secluded cove of warm, crystal clear Pacific
waters, populated with kelp forests, garibaldi, leopard sharks (harmless
to humans), lobsters and crabs.
We swam, snorkeled, paddled, sailed, hiked, fired rifles, shot arrows
and learned a great deal about Catalina Island, Scouting, the world
and ourselves.
Troop 14 made serious contributions to the Camp's Scottish Highland
theme, including bringing our own Haggis to share and dramatically
re-creating the William Wallace speech from the movie Braveheart
at the start of the Highland Games.
The ten Scouts in attendance earned a combined 33 merit badges!
These ran from Archery to Oceanography to Rifle Shooting to Small
Boat Sailing to Wilderness Survival, and many more.
Our Senior Patrol Leader, Assistant Senior Patrol Leader and
our Scoutmaster earned the Mile Swim award, in the Pacific Ocean
no less.
Two of our Assistant Scoutmasters became members of the Dime
Club at CCV this year. To join this exclusive club, they had to
fire five .22 rifle shots in such a tight group that they could
all be covered by a single dime.
Based upon the Troop's activities, achievement and spirit, we
were awarded the Honor Ribbon.
The Troop also took on a challenging weekend backpack trip from
Kennedy Meadows to Kennedy Lake, featuring more than 2,000 of elevation
gain, much of it in the first two of the nine mile trek into the
lake. The trip was in the Emigrant Basin Wilderness Area near Sonora
Pass.
Last week, we celebrated Sam Tonelli's attaining the highest
rank in Scouting, Eagle. His Court of Honor featured many heartfelt
tales, a strangely inspiring interpretive dance and great (if somewhat
dangerous) gumbo and pies.
A few days later, Brian Oliver passed his Eagle Board of Review
to join Sam and other Troop 14 Eagle alumni. His Court of Honor
is being planned.
In August, we will backpacking for a week, exploring ghost towns
and abandoned hard rock gold mines and enjoying mountain lakes and
streams and peaks in a little-visited part of the Sierras.
Our Spring, wasn't too shabby, either.
Troop 14 won the Youth Talent competition (again!) at this year's
Guys Can Cook, Too! event, featuring amateur chefs from throughout
the region. The Troop's Black Forest Cobbler, cooking in cast iron
Dutch ovens, managed to beat the entries from the professional culinary
arts program at a local high school (which shall remain nameless),
that used all the latest professional kitchen gizmos.
The Troop also gave samples and demonstrations of various camp
cooking techniques at the Rose Parade and Festival, including the
multiple award winning Black Forest Cobbler, Biscuits on a Stick
and Backpack Oven Pesto / Sun-dried Tomato Pizza.
We spent a night aboard the famous WWII aircraft carrier USS
HORNET, where the Troop won both war game reenactments of the Battle
of Midway, once for the United States Navy and once for the Imperial
Japanese Navy. We also broke many coded messages and had 100% of
our cadets "earn their wings" and obtain the Aviation
Merit Badge. The Troop also enjoyed our "shore leave"
at a dim sum restaurant and feasted on Chinese delicacies, such
as chicken's feet (a
The Patrol Leaders' Council has planned a very event-filled
year. As you can see from our Troop
calendar, by clicking on the "Events"
button, we will be backpacking, camping and assisting the community
and lots of other fun and rewarding activities.
We hope that you will find useful information about our troop here.
We have added links to other websites with information about Scouting
in general, the Boy Scouts of
America, our council
and our district,
plus much more.
Our events
calendar will give you information about upcoming events and
pictures of past events.
We have information on how to join our troop,a uniform inspection
sheet, what kinds of gear new Scouts should be looking for and what
gear you should bring on an outing.
For our Scouts, we have posted a roster that only they can access.
For any questions or problems, please contact the Webmaster
or call our new 24-hour voicemail system at (707) 634-7285.
Thanks!
Oren Noah
Scoutmaster
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