301 Scouts Find
Treasure In the Desert!

In late February, Boy Troop 301 scouts went camping in Agua Caliente, located in the Anza Borrego Desert, near Plaster City, California. We did activities such as cooking and geocaching. Geocaching is the high-tech treasure hunting game, using a GPS and an adventurous mind. The Scouts hiked to find hidden containers called geocaches using coordinates they found online, signed the log inside, and returned them for future geocachers to find and have as much fun as we did. After spending a very soggy evening in their tents, the Troop hid their own geocache when they got up in the morning, tagging an item inside to track where it ends up! It’s up to you to find it and find out what we put inside! After all of this, we all hopped into the geothermal heated hot springs—and it felt great!
Troop 301’s Cooking Merit Badge Scouts cooked dinner using other Scouts to help them. The only problem was, IT WAS RAINING! We still managed to cook under a rain fly and all shared dinner, and the food was very delicious. Thank you to Mr. Zimmer and Mr. Stachwick (and also Mrs. DeRego and Mrs. Klug!) for teaching the merit badge and planning such a great campout!
There is a new merit badge called Geocaching and the requirements will be out later this year. We’re in luck and ready! We know that Troop 301’s Scouts can’t wait to get this new merit badge! This is one of the special 100th Anniversary of Scouting Merit Badges. In the meantime, many of us finished up Citizenship in the World Merit Badge at our Troop meeting by bringing in an item to present that represented a country. Items ranged from hockey sticks and pucks, representing Canada, to Vikings from Denmark, and coins from all over the world.

Adam Trubitt
Troop 301 Scribe