08/24/2012
The Chisholm Trail Adventure at the BSA,s Sid Richardson Scout Ranch was one of the best Scout trips we have ever been on. The adventure takes place on Lake Bridgeview about 70 miles northwest of Dallas,Texas. Crew sizes are 8, 12 or 16. You are issued a pontoon boat where you load all your gear and then sail each day to a different outpost along 20 miles of coastline. Our crew was 12 and we were issued a 24 foot boat which was our day home for the week. Prior to your arriving at the marina get to pick 7 camps out of a possible 12. We chose the following: Area 51, Texas Rangers, Covert Operations, Civil War Renachment, Vikings Encampment, Windsurfing and Kayaking.
The outpost were period, in nature. Most of the staff were reinactors at a professional level. The food was even period grub cook over a wood fire. Did you know the Vikings ate gruel and turnips along with good old ham. Thank Odon for ham.
The Lake Bridgview was much bigger and a little more treacherous than we anticipated. Sometimes it would take us two hours to reach our next destination. On day two we were motoring around Wind Point to reach the Calvary outpost when waves started coming over the bow and spraying us with water which was fun. Suddenly the bow of the boat plowed into a wave that put the noes down 4 feet into the lake. We blew out the sheet teal on the front seagate and immediately stopped the engine until the boat righted itself. With all our gear on board we figured we were at the boat's capacity of 2300 pounds. We limped along hugging the shoreline from that point on to reach our destination. Hey whats a trip without a little calamity.
Anyway we learned in rough water to get everyone to the back of the boat to keep the nose up when we encountered waves. Thank god for duct tape. That is what we used to repair the missing sheet metal for the front seagate. The camp did not charge for the damage.
After the camp we were able to go to the Mesquite Rodeo, a Texas Rangers baseball game, visit the sight of the Kennedy Assasination, vist the National Scout Museum and BSA's Headquaters and go to the original Six Flaggs Over Texas amusement park. All this in 13 days. The Scouts were a little bit sad to come home after this fun filled Summer Camp.
Scoutmaster, Bill Finkler
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