Camp Sequoyah - Day 3

This picture directly below is my favorite of the whole trip.  Just a great group of boys, after a long 5 mile hike.  Eight of these boys were with me through all of cub scouts, and it is fun to see them at the very beginning of their boy scout journey...on one of their first higher level adventures together.  I was near the back of the line of hikers with Davis, Zander, and Riley and heard I think Riley talking about how dirty he was, then Zander said "yeah, I saw my face for the first time in 2 days in the mirror this afternoon". 

 

Also watched Riley with a hurt knee push his way along this 5 mile hike...limping with a super huge and heavy backpack. About 1 mile in, I could tell he was getting tired, and I wanted to reach out and help and grab his pack for him, but you just don't do that in boy scouts...they can handle it.  Then I heard Davis say "Hey Riley, I'll carry that for a while", and he did...for the remainder of the hike.  As soon as that load was off his shoulders, Riley held his hands up, smiled and said "So this is what you guys feel like out here hiking"...Proud moment for this dad and his helpful young man. 

 

And this was all at the end of a very long day of more classes.  Our Troop activity this afternoon was shooting skills.  The boys tried archery, 22 rifles, and then 20 gauge shotguns.  None of the younger boys would try shotguns, then Dave said "I'll do it".  Then within about 10 minutes, my son had shot a shotgun more times that I had in my life, and he managed to hit 1 out of 5 skeets.  Again, proud moment as he came off the shooting range hands shaking but proud of taking a chance and doing something new.  I knew I wouldn't ever do anything like that, but then Davis started talking to the other new scouts, and they started trying it too, then he said "Com'n Dad, you try it".  I was about as scared as he was, I hate guns.  Unseen forces. 

 

But then he went back in the range to be the guy to shoot the skeets when I yelled "Pull".  So I had to be honest with the 20 year old scout staffer and say "Treat me like a scout, I have never done this".  He helped me load the gun, and gave me the proper stance, and I hit 4 out of 5 skeets.  It was fun, but was still glad to hand the gun back...and nice to see Davis looking amazed at his Dad's skills.