Klondike 2020: North To Alaska

Camp Manatoc January 18, 19, 20

Table of Contents 1) Introduction

a) Theme b) Who is invited c) How to Sign-Up d) Cost e) Check In/Check Out f) Weather g) Event Ribbons h) Sleds & Sled Judging

2) Skill Stations 3) What needs to be on your Sled 4) Scoring 5) Details regarding the “Auction” 6) Program Timing 7) Evening Feastival and Campfire 8) The Night Race 9) Contact Information

1) Introduction a) This year’s theme is North To Alaska and will focus on putting Scouting skills into action by a series of

events demonstrating what can go wrong if you were on a sled dog trail heading through the Alaskan backcountry.

b) Who is invited: i) Any Scouting BSA unit is invited to attend and compete in Klondike 2020. ii) Cub Scout units need to follow the Guide to Safe Scouting protocol for Winter activities and Winter

camping – the good thing is that we are at Manatoc and Cabins are there to rent, so you can participate in the Klondike and stay in the warm cabin overnight if so desired.

c) How to sign-up i) Event registration will be on-line, Scott Evans our DE will have this up and running in October, we

will email out the information when available. There will be a link on the gtcbsa.org website in the Chippewa page.

d) Cost i) The cost will be $12 per participant. ii) The cost for Adults is $4.

e) Check-In and Check-Out will be in the Training Lodge located just off the Main Parking lot for the Dining Hall. We will have the Training Lodge identified with a Flag so that you will be able to find it. i) Registration will start at 7PM at the Training Lodge, you may arrive earlier.

f) Weather – no idea what it will be like this year – the last two years we have had lots of snow, Farmers Almanac says we will have snow this winter and it will be cold, so be prepared. We will have the Klondike no matter what the weather turns out to be that weekend.

g) Event Ribbons i) Winners of each individual event will be recognized at the Campfire. There will be a 1st, 2nd and 3rd

place ribbon with the 1st place Patrol or Crew getting a tub of Cheeseballs in addition to the ribbon. ii) Overall event winners will be recognized at the Campfire with Bronze, Silver and Gold ribbons, and

the 1st place overall winner will carry home the Klondike Plaque for 2020. iii) Each Unit participating in the event will receive an Event Ribbon to put on their Troop flag.

h) Sleds are to be decorated with a Sled-Dog team theme – so get out those Siberian Husky stuffed animals that you won at the fair and get that sled decorated. i) Sleds are to have the capability to go off-road and have wheels as well as sled rails in the event of

whatever kind of weather we have, rain, mud or snow. ii) All the equipment listed in the event section needs to be on your sled. iii) Sled Judging – we will be assigning points based on the following:

(1) Does it match the Theme of the event. (2) Do you have your gear needed and is it organized.

2) Skill Stations

a) There are 10 Skill Stations. b) 9 stations are on the trail – the trail itself is one of these 9 events. c) 1 station will be off the trail and will give you a chance to get warm if needed.

d) Station 1: In Alaska you may encounter wild animals such as bear or moose. Are you prepared to deal

with an attack? i) Mauled by a moose and you must treat the injuries, be prepared to handle a first aid case and get

your sled to safety.

e) Station 2: On the trail in Alaska you may get caught outside in bad weather – what will you do for shelter? i) Using what is on your sled improvise a shelter in 10 minutes because a storm approaches.

f) Station 3: In Alaska you may have a dogsled accident and have to pull it out of a steep ravine, or you may encounter another sled that has fallen off the trail; how will you get it out? i) Send a rescue sled down the ravine with a two-person team and secure a rescue rope to the lost

sled and pull both sleds up and out using a pulley system of your choice. ii) Look in the Search and Rescue merit badge book for more information.

g) Station 4: Google Maps doesn’t work in the Alaskan wilderness and there are no good road maps – how will you find your way? i) Orienteering – Orienteering controls are along the trail. Each control has a punch; use the punch to

mark your score card to signify you captured that control. Turn the completed punch-card in at the end of the day.

h) Station 5: In Alaska you may have a catastrophic sled failure and need a way for your dog team to

carry on. How will you improvise something? i) Pioneering/Engineering – Lash a travois and pull a scout around on it without it falling apart –

practice beforehand is highly recommended.

i) Station 6: In Alaska you and your dogs need to eat – a lot! Are you prepared to catch and cook a salmon? i) Cooking – Build a fire with 3 matches, catch and cook a fish (we provide the fish). Wash it down

with a Sour Toe Cocktail. While you build a fire, others try to figure out how to net, hook, or somehow retrieve a fish. Then they have to cook it – could be fried in a pan, baked in tin foil, or some other means – make sure you have this ready on your sled.

j) Station 7: In Alaska the snows are deep and sometimes you will need to use a rifle. Can you run in

snowshoes to evade a polar bear and fire a warning shot to scare him off? i) Put on snow shoes- run 20 yards to the BB gun range- hit the target, run back in snowshoes and

tag the next person who is in snowshoes; take your snowshoes off and help your teammate put them on and get them ready to go.

k) Station 8: Heading north in Alaska you may have to cross a glacier or snowfield. Do you know how to rope up and get everyone across?

a) Patrol/Crew/Team ties itself into a climbing rope 6’ apart using either an alpine butterfly, bowline on a bite, or Figure 8 on a bite and navigate the bouldering wall horizontally without falling off. The rope for this station will be provided, but practice the knots.

l) Station 9: In Alaska your cell phone won’t work and the batteries in your satellite phone are dead. How will you signal for assistance or send a message? i) You will send and receive a random message using semaphore flags; we will provide the

decoding sheets but you will need to study this topic to be successful. ii) This will require use of binoculars since it’s the year 20-20; these will be provided for the

event at the station.

m) Station 10 – Alaskan Heritage & Warming Station i) Knowledge of weather signs and details about your location in Alaska can be the difference

between life and death. Do you know the winter stars in the north and weather signs and what to do for hazardous weather?

ii) One of the following will be issued: (1) Astronomy Quiz – Identify Winter Constellations without an app

(2) Scouting Heritage/Alaska & Yukon Trivia Quiz

(3) Match up Alaska/Canada/Yukon/Arctic stories with their famous authors

(4) Weather quiz – identify clouds, hazardous weather cautions/procedures,

3) What needs to be on your sled

a) Lashing equipment – a minimum of 4 Staves, 6’ long, and enough rope or ropes to lash these together in some fashion.

a. Practice your clove hitch, square lashing, diagonal lashing, shear lashing. b. Practice knots that would be used to secure a rope to a disabled sled for retrieval from a valley

under harsh winter conditions where one or two of the Patrol/Crew/Team/Den would become a simulated casualty.

b) A rope long enough to tie your Patrol/Crew/Team/Den into at 4’ to 6’ intervals. a. Practice how you would do this; so an either person Patrol for example would need a 32’ rope

that each member could tie into at 4’ intervals, so a slip knot every 4’ with eight smaller ropes tied into each slip knot securing the person to the main rope. Or you can improvise with belts and carabiners to tie into the main rope.

b. Practice the alpine butterfly knot, bowline on a bight/bite. You-Tube has great instructional videos on knot-tying. You can also go to www.animatedknots.com and click on the Scout knots tab.

c) A compass a. Practice map reading skills, read up on the sport of Orienteering.

d) A cooking pan of some type, a tinder/kindling box with dry items ready to light an enormous cooking fire, a knife – scout approved, meaning a folding knife that is sharp, no bowie knives, machetes, or similar, a net or some type of device that would be able to hook a fish at distance and then retrieve it from 10’ away, and perhaps some butter or oil and seasoning.

a. Practice the creation of a device for hooking/netting/grabbing of the fish from a distance of 10’. e) Learn semaphores so that you can interpret and send a message from distance. f) Equipment necessary to create an improvised shelter that will withstand a winter storm – must

withstand a simulated massive snow blanket dumped on you during a blizzard. g) Your Patrol/Crew/Team/Den Flag h) A First Aid Kit. i) Note pad and pencil – this will be important for the Night Race j) Some amount of food and water – yes drink lots of water. Every Scout should have a water bottle and

a canteen cup or similar. Information on sled design can be obtained from the internet; use Google to search sled designs and there will be a number of different designs. Keep it simple though and remember to have the option of attaching a front and rear axle with wheels in case we don’t have a whole lot of snow. The example below shows a typical sled with just skis being used as the runners, you will also want that wheel option, and the sled needs to be big enough to carry your equipment. Your sled will also incorporate the theme for the event.

4) Scoring Scores are given on a 1 – 10 point scale with bonus points given for Scout Spirit, demonstration of Leadership skills, Professionalism, and team work. Each station will provide a score based on the above for each sled that goes through that station; they will be entered into a spreadsheet and the sled with the most points at the end of the Klondike will earn 1st place, second best score gets 2nd place and so on. The scoring might look something similar to this:

• 1 – 3 points = participated but did not understand or prepare for the station.

• 4 – 6 points = showed some understanding but had to be coached by Station Leader, got part way through the station before being called off due to time.

• 7 – 9 points = met the overall intent of the station with no coaching but points off due to technique or skill set not being up to par.

• 10 points = complete mastery of the station, all objectives completed in a timely manner. Bonus points: Scout spirit = a Patrol Cheer, introducing the Patrol to the Station Leader, good team work with all members participating and no one standing around. We will recognize 1st through 3rd for each station as well as the overall winners.

5) The Auction Each Unit is being asked to bring 3 (three) items to contribute to the Auction. This will take place after the closing campfire and will be located at the Training Lodge. Only 2 representatives from each sled are being asked to attend. Each item will be auctioned off and the sled reps can use their total points from the event to bid and “win” an item in whatever manner they elect. Items for the auction can be turned in during registration. Each item must be Scout appropriate, can be something that a patrol or unit or crew can use for camping, can be a food item, etc.

6) Program Timing

o Friday o 5PM – 8PM Check-in o 9:30PM Senior Patrol Leader meeting o 11PM – Taps and all in bed

o Saturday

o 9AM Flag Raising at the Training Lodge Shelter o 9:30AM – Trail Opens o 12 Noon – Lunch o 1:00 PM – Exhibition of Sleds at the Flagpole Parade Field o 1:30PM Trail Opens o Notice to Scoutmasters/Unit Leaders – 4PM to 4:30PM bring your covered

dish/dutch oven to share for the evening meal to the Training Lodge. o 4:30PM Trail Closes o 5:30PM to 7PM Evening Meal o 7:30PM Night Race starting at the Training Lodge shelter and ending at the Main

Council Campfire Ring. o 8PM – all sleds (Patrols/Crews/Teams/Dens) to be at the Main Council Campfire Ring

for the Awards Ceremony and crowning of the 2020 Klondike Champion. o 9PM – Patrols dismissed and return to Campsites. o 9:30PM – 10:00PM – Auction; no more than 2 (two) Scouts per Sled to attend. o 11PM – Taps and all in bed

o Sunday

o Check out by 11AM and see you next year!

7) Evening Feastival Each Unit is being asked to provide a Dutch Oven dish or Crock-Pot dish for the evening meal. Please bring your dish up to the Training Lodge from 4PM to 4:30PM so that the team can get it coordinated into the meal line-up. You will need to bring your mess kit and a cup. The District is providing the following:

1. Fresh Salad with your choice of two dressings. 2. Locally produced fruit in a variety of tempting sizes. 3. Awesome tasting Rolls with Hand Churned Butter. 4. Several trays of what we will call “Dessert Surprise”. 5. Drinks.

8) The Night Race Sleds will assemble at the Training Lodge shelter no later than 7:15PM. Once a sled arrives at the shelter they will be given a map indicating the location of the orienteering controls that are to be found. Several of the controls will have a sign with a word on it. Sleds should try to capture all of the controls in order to secure all of the words. Once all the words are obtained they are to be assembled into a sentence and that sentence is to be written down and given to the Scorekeeper when the sled arrives at the entrance to the campfire. Once the sled leader is given the map, they will have several minutes to figure out what path they will take to get to all of the controls. Scoring of this event is whoever arrives at the campfire first with the words assembled into the correct sentence wins 1st place, then 2nd and so on. The controls will have glow sticks attached to them to aid the sleds in finding them. Once all sleds have assembled at the Campfire we will begin the award ceremony.

9) Map and Contact Information

Camp Manatoc 1065 Truxell Road, Peninsula, Ohio 44264

• Paul Turner, pturner@gdpgroup.com, 330-958-7376

• John Naizer, naizerscoutingfamily@gmail.com, 330-815-8838

• Scott Evans, Chippewa District Executive, email, 925-786-5898

• Sherri Buck, Chippewa District Chair, sbuck01@msn.com, 330-635-1200

Check in/Registration is at the Training Lodge – see yellow arrow on map above for approximate

location, please try to use the main gate for entering camp.