That is what the Scouts from Troop 285 in Plano sought to prove they were!!  During a campout over the weekend of Feb 20-22, under sunny skies they ran through a course that contained obstacles & various activities that included Scout skills designed to challenge them both physically & mentally.  A course they didn’t really know specifically what was involved until the morning before they ran…talk about Being Prepared!!

  Their overall goal was to see if their Patrol time average could beat their Scoutmaster & the ASMs.  In addition to an overall time, there were risk/rewards that would add or subtract from their course time depending on how well they succeeded.

  The course was setup with alternating obstacles & activities such as, agility weave (like the dog agility), tomahawk/knife throw, belly crawl, fire starting to burn a string (they picked their method with a “wheel of fortune”, hand over hand Tarzan ladder, compass course to find their rifle & shotgun ammo tokens for later, Atlatl throwing, high stepping (like stepping in tires), 3 knot tying, over/under (go over one beam, under the next), shotgun shooting (5 stationary clay targets at various distances), balance beam while balancing a ball in a plunger, rifle shooting off cross-sticks (5 clay targets) and lifting & securing a log on a rope with specific knots.

  We had two lanes setup so there also was a little head to head competition while they ran the course, total length was about ½ mile, but I guarantee it felt like twice as far (at least for the adults!!) and when everybody finished, there were big smiles all around and talk about how well they did & some wanting (and did) to run it again!!

  This turned out more fun & challenging than we ever imagined…some were already talking about doing it again next year & discussing different activities to include!!  And I have no doubt, the Scouts of T285 will be better prepared & ready to burn through whatever course we put together next time!!