Boy Scouts embark across Minnesota lakes to learn wilderness skills

Boy scouts from Troop 312 learned and tested their skills at the Northern Tier High Adventure Camp in Minnesota and the Lost Pines Scout Camp in Bastrop over the summer.

Troop 312 of Columbus includes 12 scouts and is currently organized under one troop, the Cheese Ball Grenades. Chartered since 1945 by the Lions Club, Troop 312 meets regularly between September and May, breaking over the summer except for the camps. The scouts in the troop gain leadership skills by rotating through the Senior Patrol Leader and Assistant Patrol Leader positions.

Northern Tier High Adventure Camp Scout Master Scott Matus and committee member Cody Koy escorted six Life Scouts through the lakes of Minnesota: Senior Patrol Leader Nate Muir, Assistant Senior Patrol Leader Deacon Barten, Benjamin Hayner, Nathaniel Hayner, Jacob Koy and Daniel Findeisen. The trip lasted 11 days, from June 27 to July 7. Muir previously traveled the area on a short family vacation but said he learned about bear bags on this trip.

“I learned how to tie up a bear bag, because when I had gone before we had a bear barrel. You just stick stuff in there and leave it on the ground because it couldn’t get in there,” Muir said. “We had to learn how to hoist [a bear bag] up, what a good tree was [and] how you’re supposed to through the rope specifically.”

A typical day for the scouts included waking up around 7 a.m. to deconstruct the campsite, canoeing for hours with a break for lunch and locating and setting up a campsite for the night. The scouts also packed and prepared their meals for the trip, though many enjoyed wild juneberries they found along the way. Barten described the environment as grounding.

“I really enjoyed the serenity and peacefulness of the landscape,” Barten said. “…For me personally, it was more about like knowing what true peace is. When I came back from camp, I did a self-reflection with myself, and I was noticing that I was a lot more peaceful, and I seem to be less angry or anxious about things because I had experienced so much beauty for the past week…I definitely learned on the camp [about] the small things to look for to truly find inner peace with yourself.”

Barten said that the hardest part of the trip was the mental challenge to keep canoeing. He said that the boys would sing songs to pass the time. The troop canoed 57.5 miles across 24 different lakes and carried their canoes around 4 miles on land to reach campsites or to travel between bodies of water. Matus said he witnessed big growth in the scouts from the beginning to end of the trip.

“Whether or they know it as this point or not, [the scouts] do learn a lot, because from the day one of them going in there to the day seven of them coming out, they do change quite a bit,” Matus said. “… [The patrol leaders] do learn a lot about leadership and decision making.”

The scouts earned their 50 Mile Patch, signifying the completion of 50 or more miles of hiking or canoeing.

Lost Pines Scout Camp

Unit Commissioner George Bergfeld Sr. and troop committee member Cody Koy supervised five scouts as they worked on ranking requirements, merit badges and other activities. The camp ran June 15–21.

Senior Patrol Leader Mathias Walla and Assistant Senior Patrol Leader Caden Koy worked towards merit badges including leatherwork, metalwork, fishing, environmental science and astronomy. First-year scouts Elijah Wall, Henry Jones and George Bergfeld progressed in the “Eagle Quest” program towards the requirements to increase their rank and worked on the swimming and first aid merit badges.

The scouts also engaged in flag ceremonies, serving meals and sunrise and afternoon hikes. Matus wrote that the troop performed “very well” and received numerous awards at the camp’s closing campfire.

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