Troop 54 participated in Turkey Shoot for our first time since 2016. Our last trip to Treasure Valley was in March 2022. We camped on Upper Boonesville Plains. The Turkey Shoot drew a lot of participation, so all of the tent sites in camp were in use.
We had 7 youth and 3 adult participants on this trip. One youth participant left early due to illness.
Another troop arrived Saturday morning and camped on half of the same field. There was plenty of room for both units. They left Sunday morning while we were at the event.
We went on a couple of short hikes on Saturday. On one, we ran into Troop 7054; they were doing a GPS course and had one member participating in the Turkey Shoot with another troop.
We also spent some time on advancement on Saturday.
Temperatures started fairly warm (in the 50s) and got colder through the weekend, dropping to 21°F about when we got up on Sunday. There was frost on the inside and outside of one tent (and maybe others). At least we saw no precipitation. The temperature profile as measured outside Mr. Froimson's tent:
Our Turkey Shoot time slot was Sunday 8:00 AM to 11:30 AM, so our cooks got their first wake-up at 6:00 AM. Our Scouts made it to all of the stations: Archery, Tomahawks, Pellet Guns, Rifle, Shot Gun and Biathlon. Owing to the lack of snow,the biathlon's two events were running and shooting; owing to BSA rules, the guns were not carried during the running. THis is the only camp we have seen with a permanent pellet gun range.
When the Scouts finished the biathlon, we were starting to get cold, so figuring the event was over for us, we headed back to our camp site. We were pleasantly surprised when someone drove up to the site with a turkey that one of our Scouts had won for having the best score at one of the stations (our presenter had no idea which one).
This was our 179th consecutive month with at least one overnight camping trip.
Page updated 11/29/23
J. Froimson
