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Baz, you were well prepared!
Scouting was great. I was in a very active Troop (143). We had nearly 100 kids in the troop with 40 or 50 at every meeting.
We camped one weekend a month. Rain or shine. Hot or cold. We went camping and hiking all over the local Wildlife Refuge. Scoutmaster, Sgt. Gomez, was terrific. A master campfire story teller. I know now that many of his stories came from the Twilight Zone. He had on story about Cortez and Indian gods. We would camp at the top of Elk Mountain. There was a boulder as big as a house that was split in half. We would build a huge fire in front of it and he would weave a tale about Cortez being in the exact spot where we were sitting and the gods split the rock in half with a lightning bolt which scared Cortez away. Seems like I was sitting there wide eyed just yesterday.
He would take the older kids out on rappelling weekends. Rope harness that we made that he called a Swiss seat. What a rush! We even made the news when we rapelled out of a Ft Sill helicopter.
He really pushed me to go to Philmont. "See that mountain? Imagine climbing one 10 times as high! You can do it!"
RIP Sarge!
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