Troop 21

Great hike from Eaton Canyon to Henninger Flats.

Congratulations to Michael Mathews on becoming an Eagle Scout, something only 4 out of 100 scouts ever achieve. But you can clearly see that this scout had some amazing support along the way. Well done Michael!

       

T21 made its annual trip to the San Bernardino Mountains to one of our favorite spots–Shady Cove. Our campsite was on a ridge among excellent bouldering rocks. We made the trek up to Keller Peak (8,000 feet) and climbed the fire tower. On the way down we bushwhacked through thickets of manzanitas in a futile search for the remains of the B-26 bomber that crashed there in 1941. Maybe next year!

Nineteen Scouts hiked to Crystal Cove’s Deer Canyon for the first backpacking trip of the season. A great time was had by all including eight of the Scouts for whom this was their first backpacking trip.  After the hike out T21 enjoyed the beach and well-deserved hamburgers.

From July 28 to August 3, Scouts from Troop 21 attended summer camp at Camp Bighorn at Hubert Eaton Scout Reservation in the mountains near Lake Arrowhead. Here is a look at our amazing week by the numbers:

15: Total Scouts who attended Camp Bighorn; 10 from Troop 21B and 5 from Troop 21G.

12: Number of Scouts attending BSA summer camp for the first time.

67: Total merit badges earned by Troop 21 (40 by T21B; 27 by T21G).

3: Death-defying Scouts who completed the COPE high ropes course.

2: Camp “Oscars” earned by T21 for their Moviemaking Merit Badge project; Marina Symons-Galassi was voted Best Actress and the team comprising Marina, Emma Anderson, Annelise Errico, Lucas Errico, Joseph Sitzman and Theodore Sitzman won Best Picture for their epic film, Tingle’s Last Stand.

2: Scouts who earned the Mile Swim BSA Award (Emma Anderson and Timothy Boggs).

2: Honor Troop Awards, one for 21G and one for 21B.

1: Girl who earned the Rifle Shooting Merit Badge. Ginger Sheedy was both the only girl to earn the merit badge at camp all summer and the only girl to qualify for the Marksman Award.

1: Snake that made itself at home in one of our tents (don’t worry, it was just a harmless striped racer!).

1: Snake that needed to be corralled by the camp ranger (that’s one ginormous rattler!).

Great work by all our Scouts. We hope to see even more at camp next year.

Once again, Troop 21 participated in the annual flags planting ceremony at Los Angeles National Cemetery in observation of Memorial Day. The Troop placed flags in section 55 where service members who served during the Spanish-American War, WWI, and WWII are buried.

About eight families came out to camp this weekend at beautiful El Capitan State Park. Despite the bad forecast earlier in the week, the weather turned out perfect. We had a lot of fun!

We had 23 Scouts and a dozen adults join Troop 21’s traditional post-Easter sunset hike to Echo Mountain. The hike was 5.25 miles round trip and we gained 1,400 feet of elevation. The view was spectacular!

Today hundreds of people came down to the L.A. River in Los Feliz to help remove trash. Troop 21 participated for the fourth straight year and had its biggest turn out ever for the event, with 34 Scouts and family members attending. There were some crazy things we found, from shopping carts to rugs to a skateboard and even a jug of oil! Thank you to everyone who made our city more beautiful today.