The Scouts in T-361 are the Riki-Tiki-Tavi, run-&-find-out,
High Adventure types, & I spend most of my time trying to keep up
with them.  Lately they've been doing a project (also involving a
few T-36 guys & an Explorer Post) to build a rifle range nearby, &
we got better than 1/2 of it done last weekend.  They've been to
Philmont, prefer minimal-gear-in-grim-weather camping, did an
elegant winter ascent of a 4300m peak (small-scale *serious*
expedition experience), raft/kayak whitewater (nothing too severe
 ... yet!), accompanied a Troop visiting from England on all the
outdoor jaunts, & plan to vist the UK Troop in the summer of '96.
Most of the guys have participated in the Council's High Adventure
programs - COPE (the off-the-ground obstacle course in the trees),
Okpik (winter camping), & Eagle Quest (10-day omnibus mountaineer-
ing class).  Two of 'em are on COPE staff & pretty fair rock
climbers (one is simply phenomenal).
   The T-36 mob is less crazed.  Although their camping skills are
rather good as a group, they tend not to stray too far into the
backcountry, & carry more than minimum gear.  They did a 4380m peak
this summer, but used the easiest trail (still kinda gruelling: my
tender tootsies were trashed, & I tweaked a knee & had to have
surgery, so it was no picnic!).  They get involved in a huge number
of service projects (built a playground @ a local elementary school,
built waterfowl habitat, renovated a 1890's schoolhouse, hosted a
"haunted house" @ Halloween, built wheelchair-accessible paths in a
Nat. Forest campground, etc.), & most of them have more service hrs
than they know what to do with.  3 are on summer camp staff, & 2
staff the week-long Junior Leader training courses 3 times each
summer.  Different strokes ...  :-)
   Our Council has 2 camps.  1 is in the high Rockies, & is used as
a High Adventure base & training site.  It is called Camp Tahosa,
after the Arapaho Chieftan, & is 40 miles W of Denver.  The other
is Peaceful Valley Scout Ranch, 60 miles SE of Denver, & is where
summer resident camp happens.  It's about as modern & civilized as
a Scout camp can get, but there's a neat "outpost" & Hi Adventure
program, and it's a working cattle ranch, so guys can get down &
dirty when they want.
   One of my favorite & most memorable campsites is only about 10
miles from Camp Tahosa, & makes a great day-hike or over-nighter.
The railroad went over the Continental Divide at a place called
Rollins Pass until 1912, when the Moffat Tunnel was punched thru.
Snow gets sorta deep up there above timberline, so a bunch of
miles of the RR line were under snowshed & the ties were all teak
or mahogany.  Had to be a whole town at the 3980m summit - right on
the Divide - because the route was so long that trains had to stop
there to take on water & sand & wood.  Like the tracks, the entire
town was under a snowshed, because 20 ft of snow can really make it
hard to get from the telegraph office to the boarding house unless
there's a roof over everything.  After the Moffat Tunnel went thru,
the town (Corona) was abandoned, & although the weather is tough on
anything exposed up there, there's still some foundations left (the
last bit of snowshed collapsed in about 1965), & lots of old Gold
Rush & RR junk.  Trains can't climb steep grades, so the old RR bed
is a gentle walk - but it *does* go thru a cool mini-tunnel (Needle
Eye Tunnel) & over 2 rickety wooden bridges across awesome gorges!
Great day hike up & back.  For an over-nighter, you've *got* to get
back down to timberline, & there's a faint path that stays right on
top of the Divide ridgeline for about 2 miles before it dives into
a waaaay secluded valley.  Just at timberline down in that valley,
there's a small lake (with a jillion Rainbow Trout!), half a dozen
creeks running in & a pretty sizeable one heading further down: a
truly superior campsite at 3725m altitude.  Probably my favorite
place in all the world.
                    - continued *again*! -
 * OLX 2.2 TD * 
--- WILDMAIL!/WC v4.12 
---------------