Saturday, July 29, 2017

2017 BSA National Jamboree - Day 10 - July 26, 2017

Today was the last “full” day of the Jamboree, where the activity centers would be open all day, so we once again, encouraged all the boys to “get out there” and have some fun.

As for myself, one of the things I really wanted to do at the Jamboree was to try out the mountain biking trails. After breakfast, I headed out to the Summit Center. My plan was to ride the trails there first, and then head over to the “Low Gear” activity center to try out the trails over there.

After riding the three courses at the Summit Center, the introductory course, the green trail and then the blue trail, I set out for the Low Gear activity center. It was a fairly easy hike on mostly flat ground, unlike the hike to The Barrels on the previous day. When I arrived at Low Gear, there was a pretty long line, and I decided that I didn't want to wait in the line by myself.

At this point, I decided to just walk around and check out some of the other activity areas that I hadn't seen before. I walked from Low Gear to “The Rocks”, the center for rock climbing, bouldering and rappelling. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to see the walls, as they were beyond a curve in the road, and only participants were allowed to go beyond the curve.

From there, I walked back towards the Summit Center, with no particular plan in mind. On the way, I passed the kaying area. A staff member said to come down to the lake and do some kaying … there's no wait!!! I thought to myself … why not? I spent about an hour floating around in the kayak, talking with the kayaking “guide” assigned to the group I was with and an adult staff member who also had decided to take a little break floating on the lake. As we floated around, Scouts were “flying” over our heads, hooting and hollering, on the Big Zip towards the landing zone.

After leaving the kayak area, I decided to walk to base camp “D”. I was really hoping to trade one of my patch sets, and based on what I had learned about patch trading from some of the boys, it was best to take your patches to an area far from your own base camp, so that your patches would be in “greater demand”, and you could make better trades. I tried unsuccessfully to trade my patch set a couple of times, and then it was time to head back to my camp for dinner.

I had done a LOT of walking today, and I was really tired. After dinner, there was a stage show at our base camp. Some of the boys went over to check it out, while others once again, engaged in patch trading, frisbee, etc.

It had been a long day for me, so I just hung out and relaxed.


The weather forecast for tomorrow was calling for heavy rain throughout much of the day. The Closing Show was also scheduled for tomorrow night. It was shaping up to be an interesting day!

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