Welcome back to Historian Joe’s catalog of Troop 123 events! Since my long break, I have garnered many new scouting experiences, including Treasure Valley Scout Camp, the 2017 Harvest Fair, and my Eagle Scout project. For today’s article, the topic is Troop 123’s recent outing at Jiminy Peak in Hancock over the Columbus Day weekend. I was unable to make this event, so I sat down with Nathan Keevan, a second year Scout who took on the event for the first time.

Going into the interview, what I remembered most prominently was the bleak forecast of the weekend on which the outing took place. However, according to Nate, the Troop dodged a bullet, as on Sunday, the main event day, there was hardly any rain. Monday poured, but that was simply a pack-up-and-leave day. The outing went from Saturday evening to Monday morning.

The campsite was worlds different from that of our summer camp home base, as it was primary an open field, which hardly left the Troop’s tents in any condition to stay dry overnight. Nate, however, told me that this was his only major complaint about the event, and that the main source of memorability, of course, came from the Jiminy Peak course itself.

On Sunday, main event day, once the passes were paid and accounted for, Nate set off for the obstacle course. Along the way he was harnessed for the zip lines, and moved onward. He started on the easier section, which was simple to complete with the exception of a segment involving wobbly boards which moved at sporadic rates. On the normal difficulty section, this section of the course was considerably more challenging, with the boards being smaller, less predictably moving, and occupying a much longer percentage of the course.

After this was lunch. Scouts brought their lunches in their bags. Some ate in the truck, some ate in the lot. Immediately upon finishing, Nate moved on to the zipline-focused course, which involved a rather complicated harness, with a locking system that inhibited his movement inconveniently throughout the course. The harness consisted of two locks, one of which had to be locked into the course at all times for safety, but this caused the harness to be overly cumbersome to work with, its mechanics especially noticeable during the tighter sections of the course against the trees.

Then came what was the hardest part of the courses for Nate: the trust fall. In this, he was to harness himself and gradually fall over a landscape, trusting the harness’ cords to stop his fall safely. The most challenging part for him was overcoming the feeling of weightlessness that accompanied the jump off into the fall. After conquering this attraction, snacks were served at the Food Shack. Nate ordered an oreo milkshake for his troubles.

After the food stop, the final attraction was a bouncy house, optimized with harnesses for maximum bounciness. The house was an excellent time, but soon it was time to return to camp. Nate pitched a tent with Second Class scout Bobby Hokanson, and the Troop played Nate’s game from summer camp, Shape Shifter, for a while and then slept until morning, awakening to the sound of the pouring rain. The rain prevented too much from being accomplished at the campsite, such as requirements for rank advancements, but thankfully the Jiminy Peak expedition was kept intact.

Nate’s favorite part of Jiminy Peak was the ziplining. Unlike the trust fall segment, the feeling of weightlessness here was relaxing and complemented the motion of the zipline nicely. His least favorite part was the locking of the harness through tight spaces, what with its over complications. If he were to change one part of the outing, it would have been camping at a campsite much more reminiscent of a Treasure Valley campsite, with tent platforms and a hard shelter. He was glad to have conquered his minor fear of heights, and says that his main takeaway from the event was that he knows he had a great time, while knowing how much more awaits him next time he visits, as there are even more difficult obstacle courses that he wasn’t able to take on due to age/height barriers, and he looks forward to the next time the Troop visits.

That’s all my interview with Nate had to report on the Jiminy Peak experience of Troop 123 this year. This was not Troop 123’s first visit to this location, and it certainly won’t be their last with descriptions like this one! Until then, this is Historian Joe signing off!