Bike Hike Weekend @ Hard Labor Creek April 17-19

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Discouragement and asking for help

If anything, we should have learned 2 lessons this weekend.  Don’t get discouraged, and ask for help.  The weekend started with a forecast of rain, rain, rain and possibly a blustery day.  This could have discouraged us from going, but then 2 of our Scouts wouldn’t have gotten a 3 mile mountain bike ride, 1 of our Scouts wouldn’t have gotten a 10 mile road ride, 1 of our Scouts wouldn’t have gotten a 15 mile road ride and 2 of our Scouts wouldn’t have gotten a 25 mile road ride!  When the trailer got stuck in the wet yard before even getting to WCA, we could have gotten discouraged.  But instead, we ask for help, got the trailer moving and went on our camping trip.  When one of the Scout tents had no rain fly, we could have gotten discouraged.  But, he ask for help and we had extra tents and everyone had a dry place to sleep.  When two of the Scouts couldn’t get their tent set-up correctly, we could have gotten discouraged.  After all, it was raining.  But they asked for help, got things corrected and made it through.  In the first mile of the road ride, when 1 Scouts tire and tube were badly cut and couldn’t be repaired, we could have been discouraged.  But we got help from Mike B (Troop 537) who brought an extra bike.  That Scout got to ride a bike that had toured Europe and crossed the continental US.

I hope I have made my point.  We had a great weekend even though it looked like it would be flooded out.  Was it wet? Yes.  Was it more difficult than usual? Yes.  Did we still have fun?  Yes.  Teaching this kind of lesson to young men who need to know that even when things are hard, you can still be successful is important.  There was plenty of good food: scrambled eggs, chicken pot pie, cherry cobbler, doughnuts (thank you Laurie), biscuits, strawberries and whip cream.  There was time to just hang out (literally, in hammocks), explore the lake and the spillway, throw rocks in the lake, and play card games.  On Saturday night, we went to an observatory just down the road from our campsite.  The observatory is run by Georgia State University, and even though the weather prevented us from looking at anything, we got to see the telescopes and learn from 2 astronomers from GSU.

Overall, it was another successful camping trip for Troop 7.  I hope everyone will get to go on the next adventure.

Thank you,

Robert P.

Scouts in Attendance: Stephen P, Atticus L, Joseph H, Jack B, Conar J, Drew C, Adam T, and Tanner W.  Special thanks to Tristan M, and Pierce S for their work as Patrol leaders.

Adults in Attendance: Tom W, Robert P, Dave M, Brett A, Laurie T and Mike B (Troop 537).  Thanks to all adults for their time, expertise and help.

Some stats from our cycling.  I kept forgetting to press start on my watch, but you can be sure we went the full 25 miles.  For someone who hasn’t bike since last October, I definitely feel it today.