Lake Sonoma, redux

Lake Sonoma once this season? Why not twice?

The Troop returned to Lake Sonoma this weekend and instead of a full 8-mile day, we focused on a shorter paddle and then an afternoon of skills practice. This went down well: we had a few new / less experienced scouts with us along with a few scouts wanting to progress their Canoeing Merit Badge.

Kudos to John L. for his first actual capsize after around 8 years with the Troop! We all joined him later as part of practicing deep water rescue techniques.

Our scoutmaster challenge this weekend was an Iron Chef breakfast cook-off: rice as the base, with the scouts able to bring some add-ons, and the scoutmaster’s secret ingredient – “Oranges”. The resulting dishes were an impressive display of culinary innovation

  • Cheesy crunchy japeno rice with orange (the winner!)
  • Coconut, orange zest and egg rice

On the way back we stopped for lunch at Olompali State Park that turned out to be a gem, with shady oak trees to lunch under and an heritage that included being used by the Grateful Dead!

Click image below for photo gallery

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Explosive growth for spring 2019!

Maybe it’s been the wet and warm winter and spring that we’ve had around San Jose, but it isn’t just the flowers that are blooming: Troop 260 has welcomed 15 new scouts (boys and girls) to its roster in the past few months!

Many have come directly from cub packs, bridging over in key transition ceremonies. [see some pictures of these events below]. Others have joined directly. We welcome them all and look forward to the adventures they will have, and the leadership opportunity they open to our older scouts.

A huge welcome also to the families and guardians of these new Scouts. There are many adventures for you also ahead! Scouting is a family enterprise and we need and expect active family engagement to continue the vitality of our program.