Rock Climbing Plans-Postponed due to weather

We had been talking about going rock climbing this Saturday (May 22) as a Teacher's Quorum.  We were going to Horse Thief Butte.  That is on the Washington side of the Columbia River near The Dalles, Oregon.

Unfortunately, the weather looks like it will be raining a few days before Saturday and on Saturday as well.  I would prefer to not have my climbing ropes out during the rain.  We will reschedule for a later date.

Hillsboro Planning Commission - March 24, 2010

The Varsity Team/Teacher's Quorum attended the March 24 Hillsboro Planning Commission meeting as part of our Communication Merit Badge.  The boys were well behaved and attentive, mostly.

We were able to observe the process for conducting a city government meeting.  There were citizens in attendance that offered independent testimonry on different topics.  The boys got to see first hand the power of participating in local government.

We will likely spend one more week working on this merit badge before it is completed.  Looking forward, as the weather gets better we will start looking for opportunities to start our rides for the Cycling Merit Badge.  We will need 2 ten mile rides, 2 fifteen mile rides, 2 twenty-five miles rides and then 1 fifty mile ride.  The ten and fifteen mile rides will likely be done during mutual.  The twenty-five and fifty mile rides will need to be done on a Saturday.

Plans for March 24th

We are working on the Communications Merit Badge.  Part of the requirements is to attend a public meeting.  We are going to attend the Hillsboro Planning Commission meeting March 24th at 6:30.  We will need to leave from the church very close to 6:10PM.  We are going to attend the meeting at:

   Hillsboro Civic Center Auditorium
   150 E. Main Street
   Hillsboro, OR 97123

Please have the boys at the church as close to 6:00PM as possible so that we can get to the meeting on time.

Questions? Garth Hadley

March 3, 2010 Court of Honor

There was a Court of Honor for the Quatama Ward.  The Teachers/Varsity Scouts had a few awards.

Carson (now a Priest) received his Life Rank.  He finished this a few months ago and was awarded the badge this evening.  He also received his Snow Sports merit badge for participating in the XC ski trip a couple of weeks ago.

Collin (now a Priest) received his Star Rank.  He also finished this a few months ago and was awarded the badge at the Court of Honor.  He received his Cycling merit badge.  He did all the riding part of the merit badge with his Father's scouts and the non-riding portion with us.

Jake received his Life Rank.  He is new to our ward and came with everything done for Life except one required merit badge.  We completed the Citizenship in the World merit badge and he earned his Life rank.  He also earned his Snow Sports merit badge for the XC Ski trip participation.

Joe received his Star Rank.  He came into the Teacher's quorum needing one more required merit badge.  He completed the Citizenship in the World merit badge, thereby completing his Star Rank.  He also earned his Snow Sports merit badge for participating in the XC ski trip.

Congratulations to these four boys and their rank advancements.

We also have a new scout join our group.  Please welcome Shane.  He seems excited to be involved and likes camping.  We look forward to his participation.

Cross Country Ski Trip Feb. 20, 2010 - White River on Mt. Hood

On Saturday, Feb. 20, 2010, we went Cross Country (XC) skiing on Mt. Hood at the White River Canyon.  This is very close to one of the Boy Scout Winter lodges.  We started out adventure at the Toyota Car Rental place where we left my little Scion xB and rented a brand new 2010 Toyota Rav 4 to haul the boys and skis.  The trip up to the mountain was spent with the boys trying every button and knob.  The Rav 4 had a sun roof, which was open most of the time up the mountain.  We determined that if all of the boys put their hands out the sun roof, it took the instant MPG from 25 to about 17.

We stopped in Sandy at Otto's XC Ski to rent our skis.  After surveying our group, we were told NO SKIING IN THE PARKING LOT.  I guess we looked pretty green concerned.  Otto's has been kind to us for years.

After getting our gear, we did the traditional stop at Joe's donuts where the boys picked out their favorite pastry and we topped it off with a pint of milk.  I was concerned about my health, so I picked one with fruit, the heavenly apple fritter.  Joe picked a cream filled chocolat donut, Carson had a frosted cinnamon roll and Jake picked a traditional donut.  The last time I was there, the boys had pastries bigger than their heads.  This year, not quite as big, but everybit as delicious.

We arrived at White River canyon some 40 minutes later.  After getting our warm clothes on (it was a beautiful sunny, cold, windy day) we walked the required 40 feet from the parking lot to put on the skis.  It was the first time for the boys to go XC skiing.  They seemed to pick it up quickly.  I have some pictures of us up the trail a bit. 

This first picture is after about a quarter mile and the boys are starting to feel comfortable about the skis. Left to right: Carson, Joe & Jake.

Here is a close up of Joe with Mt. Hood in the back ground.

Here is a close up of Carson:

Here is a close up of Jake.  If you zoom in on his glasses, his left lense, you can see a reflection of me taking the picture.

These next several picture are them going up the trail at White River canyon.  The snow was very icy, so a bit slicker than desirable.

A picture looking up the canyon towards Mt. Hood.  Beautiful scenery.

These last few slides are Carson and Joe navigating a dip in the trail.  Can they make it without falling?

The boys said that they had an enjoyable time and would like to do it again some time.  Hopefully, we will get to do this next year as well.  We made it back, got the skis turned in without skiing on the parking lot, got the car turned in without wearing out the sunroof and got kids back in time for other family activities.  It was a pretty fun Saturday.

Mutual October 14 & 21.

Mutual on October 14th will be with the Priests.  We will meet at the Chapel for opening exercises.  We will then go to Reedville Park (the skate park just south of Brown Jr. High School).  You should probably wear enough clothes to stay warm and not too dressy.  May end up on the ground.

Mutual on October 21st will be one of two things.  There is a combined activity hosted by the Deacons.  The other choice is a Bicycle Maintenance Clinic at REI that will satisfy a portion of our Cycling merit badge.  We will decide which one we are doing October 18th in Quorum meeting.

We are considering October 24th or 31st for our 50 mile bike ride.  Keep those dates open on  your calendars.

Cycling Merit Badge - The 25 mile rides

Part of the cycling merit badge is to do two 25 mile bike rides.  We did those the last couple of Saturdays.  We still have a 50 mile ride to do.  That will be towards the end of the month due to scheduling conflicts.

September 26, 2009.  We did a route that equaled 26.2 miles.  The same length as a marathon run.  We did it in 1 hour 53 minutes ride time.  That equates to an average of 13.9 mile per hour.  Carson and Collin were troopers during the ride.  We did stop a couple of times for water and one time for a snack.  The weather was not too warm or windy.  Part of our route had us going south on Glenco Rd. about a mile south of North Plains until we hit Evergreen.  There is no bike lane on this section and it was pretty busy.  I think that we will go a different route for the next ride.  A map of our route is here:

October 3, 2009.  Our second "25" mile ride was done in weather that was a bit colder.  We left at 9:00AM both days.  The first couple of miles on this ride was pretty cool; our fingers were pretty cold.  The weather looked menacing with cloudy weather.  The forecast highlighted thunderstorms in the afternoon, so we needed to get done quickly.  Fortunately it did not rain on us.  Again, both Carson and Colling seemed to enjoy the ride.  Due to the heavy traffic on Glencoe Road last week, we went a different route home.  Collin goes to Liberty High School, so we went east on West Union out of North Plains and rode past his school.  This gave the boys a different ride back in the country on a less travelled road.   The route was 25.9 miles.  Ride time was 2 hours and 4 minutes.  That put this ride at a little better than 12.5 mph average speed.  The boys were enjoying the country ride scenery and not pedaling quite as fast.  The map of the ride is below:

Our next ride is the 50 mile ride.  The boys want to finish at Helvetia Tavern (they have a family section) for greasy hamburgers and fries.  This sounds pretty good, so we will see what we can do as far as a route and rides to make this happen.  More to come on that topic.

Mutual Oct. 7  We will be working on Duty to God requirements.