troop93.com Blog

Hello Troop 93. It has been my pleasure to serve as the Troop Committee Chair. It has been very rewarding to see our boys progress with rank advancement and merit badges; not to mention seeing them begin to develop into great young men!
I would like to express my personal thanks to all the adults who have committed their time, energy, and resources for the benefit of the Troop. In particular, I would like to thank the committee members for their support. This Troop would clearly not be able to function without your help.

A mark of a great leader is one who is willing to do what he asks of others. In this spirit, I invite all adults with boys in the Troop to do whatever they can to help out.
I will be taking over as part of the “tag team” scout master rotation with Charlie Way this fall. This will leave a vacancy in the Committee Chair position. There are going to be more vacancies as we move forward because parents of boys who have “aged out” and/or “Eagled out” held a number of positions.
Another concern is that our Troop needs to continue to get more active members. Please consider inviting any boys and families you can think of to join our troop.

Thanks for your attention,
Kenneth I., MD
Troop 93 Committee Chair

“Pull!”….. Bang!!!

Troop 93 went on a Shotgun shooting outing on Saturday, September 3rd. Twenty people went. We met at the Toro Park 7-11at seven thirty and left at eight. We drove to Coyote Valley Sporting Clays. It is in Morgan Hill. It was a nice day, perfect weather. We split up into five groups of four scouts or adults. Each group had a guide with them. The guides were very nice. They helped us with gun safety, taught us how to stand, how to reload, how to aim and how to lead the target. It was a challenge to hit the fast moving targets. We shot at targets that simulated birds or running rabbits. We had a nice lunch on the patio. The only bad part was the long ride home because of heavy traffic.
Eric I.
Dragon Patrol APL

We began the weekend late on Friday afternoon with just enough time for the mighty Penguins to pitch their palace that all eight of them managed to cram themselves into. The evening passed quite smoothly. After some great dutch oven meals and some attempted new recipes in our bellies, we set off on a night hike on which we had an intensive explanation and extremely informational all you need to know lecture about the many constellations that were filling our bright spring sky. After the night hike, most of us crashed early in to our tents and dozed off listening to the sweet sound off Dr. Ishizue’s horn.

We rose early the next morning well rested and ready for flags. After scarfing down a hasty breakfast we made ready for our trek. The Dragons departed first along with my trusty staffer Ryan and I lead the Penguins on a five mile hike with the much appreciated help of Mr. Deyerle who helped identify all of our local plants and provided us with more than enough information on each plant. He was a real asset to the troop. After returning hot and sweaty back to camp we went over tons of requirements that help propel our younger base of Scouts along their way in Scouting. That night we enjoyed a great campfire presentation put on by all the patrols with songs and skits. Then once again we returned to our tents only to find ourselves asleep minutes later. The final day consisted of breakfast and clean up along with a talk from Scoutmaster McMillan about drug and alcohol abuse. Then it was time to go home. There are two great feelings in life. To arrive at camp, and to return home. Thanks every one for such a great weekend.

Zach

We had a great turnout for the Pat Springs trip. We had 7 people in total: Me, Mike W., Mike M., Gerard M., Reed T., Al S., and Bud H. It would have been nice to see more scouts come, but we still had a good group. The hike in went well and we ate lunch at devils peak. Amazing views and Bud’s deep psychological and philosophical thoughts kept the hike interesting. Reed and Al brought along saws and hedge trimmers to clear any small trees and brush blocking the trail. The hike took about 5 hours to get to camp. We all went over to the spring and filled up our water bottles. The water tasted very good. Soon after we set up camp and gathered firewood, the wind picked up. This made starting the fire a little difficult but soon it was roaring. Everyone had a great dinner, especially because Bud brought six ducks! It was very nice of him to share them and they were delicious. Everyone sat close to the fire for a while and went back to their tents one at a time. The hike out was even better than the hike in. There was no wind at all and it was warm out. We made it back to the cars in only 3 hours and did our Roses, Thorns, and Fertilizer. It was a great trip!

Scott C.

Thank you to everyone who showed up last Saturday to help collect food from Toro Park neighborhoods and transport it to the Monterey County Food Bank. We had 12 scouts and 8 adults show up to help so it went really fast. We collected 961 pounds of food–200 pounds more than last year. Way to go! Check out the photos uploaded to the group web page.
Scouts participating:
Penguins Jack H, Dominic V, Mason B, Ivan D, Alex J
Dragons Eric I, Mike M, Phillip D
Timberwolves Shane K, Ian P, Zach W, Cameron J
Adults participating:
Michael M, Allen B, John H, Dominic V, Ken I, John P, Diane D, Lynne J

On September 25th, Troop 93 met at Monterey State Beach (also known as Seaside Beach) to participate in the California Coastal Cleanup. After some doughnuts (and some hot chocolate, requested by one such man, Bud H., who neglected to show up) and an awe inspiring introductory talk given by Save Our Shores volunteer Chanel H., we split up in our search for trash on the beach. We had a total of 14 scout participants and 9 adults from our troop, and overall it was a very successful outing. I hope those who joined us enjoyed themselves and those who didn’t, I hope you’ll consider joining us next year!

We had a great turn-out for the Pinnacles camping trip, and we all had a lot of fun hiking and climbing. On one of our hikes we explored the caves by Moses Spring, just below the reservoir. Everyone liked the campsite and condor slide show on Saturday night.

On Sunday morning before leaving for home, several Scouts and adults hiked back to the Reservoir to see how big it was and to explore the caves some more.

The hardest parts of the trip were packing the climbing gear up to the Top Rock climbing site on Saturday morning, and keeping the bees away from the food at our campsite.

A special “Thank You” to Al S. for sharing his climbing expertise with all the Scouts.

David S.
Scout-in-Charge

The following Scouts attended:
Penguins: Alex J., Spencer A., Kyle N., Mason B., Aaron H.
Dragons: Mike M., Philip D., David S., Jacob G.
Timberwolves: John S., Brendan M., Cameron J.

The following adults also attended: Al S., Joe S., Ed J., Gerard M., Daniel W., Ralph W., Spencer A.

Also, Julie A. drove several Scouts to the Pinnacles on Saturday morning.

Eric I. was the scout in charge for a Boy Scout outing for Troop 93.  On August 28-29, 2010, they went on an overnight backpacking trip to Pine Valley.  The Scouts who participated were Mason B., Alex J., Spencer A., Mike M., Phillip d., David S., Mike W. and Patrick R. Adult guides were SM Charlie W., ASM Ken I., and Mr. Allen B.  Pine Valley is located in the Los Padres National Forest.  They left Toro Park Seven Eleven at 7:30 Saturday morning.

To get to Pine Valley you have to drive into Carmel Valley onto Tassajara Road.  It was a very bumpy dirt road most of the way to a place called China Camp.  From China Camp, they hiked the Pine Ridge Trail and the Carmel River Trail to Pine Valley.  It was very hilly and was six miles each way.  We had to make sure we had enough food and water.

Pine Valley was very dry and had a lot of weeds.  But there was a river and a waterfall that was another mile in.  Even with all of these good things happening, bad things still continued to happen.  Mike M. fell in the water twice, David S. was attacked by at least thirty hornets, and Eric accidentally hooked himself with a fishing hook.   They cooked their own food at Pine Valley.  Mike W. and Patrick R., who are the older scouts, cooked cheeseburgers and bacon while Eric, Phillip, and Mike M. and the rest ate freeze dried vacuum-packed food and top ramen.   It got cold enough in Pine Valley to cause ice crystals to form on everyone’s tents at night.

In the morning they had a snack and then they left the camp.  After they got back to the cars, they were tired and they drove back to Seven Eleven.  Everyone had a good time.

Eric I.

Our troop tried something new and exciting to get the kids and parents caught up with each other after having been to camps all summer. For the August 2nd meeting our troop organized a hot dog social. As the hot dogs cooked, people interacted and exchanged tales of adventure and comedy from the camps that they had attended.  Afterwards, we held our regular troop meeting outside and had a fun game of capture the flag. The whole night served to re-unite our troop for the fall.

Daniel W.