This is the fifth day of our trip to BSA’s Summit Experience. We’ve combined with a contingent from a Boy Scout Troop in Yorktown, Virginia, which is just across the water from our home of Chesapeake. So far, we’ve had an amazing experience, meeting people from all over America and learning new skills. Today, we attended Low Gear, Ropes and Big Zip.

This morning’s breakfast was chicken and waffles, along with scrambled eggs. Afterward, the camp conducted a flag ceremony and we recited the Pledge of Allegiance, Scout Oath and Scout Law.

We hiked to Low Gear, a mountain Biking activity. We were issued helmets and bikes and then given instruction on how to ride on the trail. Everyone participated in a group ride of about three miles which included down and uphill including switchbacks, mud holes and jumps. After that, smaller groups negotiated various other trails. In all, SBR boasts 32 miles of dedicated mountain bike trails.

We ate a lunch onsite, consisting of cold cuts for sandwiches, sunflower seeds and cookies.

Every training site features water for the participants, often in the form of water buffalos.

The hike to our next event was very short. Ropes is SBR’s version of a COPE (Challenging Outdoor Personal Experience) Course where various elevated rope and cable obstacles must be surmounted in order to progress further in the course.

Built by Bonsai Design, it has a common entry point with several choices of obstacles to negotiate to get to the end. From above, it resembles a spiderweb. As you can see, it exists right in the trees, with very little was cut back to accommodate the course. The finale is an assisted rappel from a platform about 30 feet in the air.

The hike to our last event of the day, the Big Zip, takes about 45 minutes up a winding mountain trail. But the opportunity to go in excess of 50 mph down this 3,000 ft long zip line, makes it worthwhile.

Dinner was cheese tortellini or a sausage and chicken gumbo with green beans and garlic bread.

Tomorrow is The Trax and The Park.

This entry was posted on Friday, June 29th, 2018 at 00:05 and is filed under Scouting. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.