Trip Write-Ups

On the evening of February 7th a patrol of nine scouts from Troop 640 ascended into the snowy darkness of Golden Gate Canyon State Park for a weekend of good, cold fun at the annual Klondike Derby with over 500 other scouts and scouters from the Alpine, Frontier, and Valley Districts of the Greater Colorado…

As I re-read the 2024 Ice Climbing Recap, I debated just copying it and changing the dates. So much was similar to our now-annual Ice Climbing adventure – in the best sense! Once again, we had a phenomenal time on this trip, however the weather was quite a bit different, but that didn’t change the…

The annual trip to Granby Ranch went well this year with 14 scouts and 6 adults attending. The troop left the Nature School at 6:20 and arrived at the tubing hill about 2 hours later. The group tubed for about 90 minutes. Church of the Eternal Hills was gracious enough to let us spend the…

We had a successful project Tenderfoot weekend with our goals to help the new scouts learn to be self sufficient when on a troop campout and to allow the older scouts an opportunity to further develop their teaching and leadership skills. This was Troop 640’s first campout with its new sister all girl troop.  Friday…

The top ten things I learned on my final Klondike Derby as the Scoutmaster of Troop 640: <drumroll> It takes more than two days to properly cook a raspberry pie. An “Everything bagel” does not taste like octopus. If you train really hard, you can improve your fire-starting skills by a factor of 38 in…

This past weekend we branched out and attempted something the troop hasn’t done before – Ice Climbing at Camp Alexander! A great time was had by everyone who attended thanks to the amazing weather, challenging but fun Ice Climbing, relaxing ice fishing, physical ice hockey (in boots), and cooking! We departed the church around 6pm…

We had a wonderful time this past weekend on our annual Snow Sports Adventure to the Granby area. We departed the church at 5:58pm – two minutes ahead of schedule even though Mr. Bielkiewicz’s car needed a jump start. We headed to the tubing hill and spent over 2 hours zooming down the hill. This…

This weekend was Troop 640’s winter primer campout, which gives Scouts a chance to camp in the cold – some for perhaps the first time. It also gives everyone a chance to check out different techniques and new gear.  After a 90 minute drive from the church, the latter part filled with a plethora of…

Scouts: Dalton M., Cooper P., Nash W., Caleb N., Alexander R., Davis M., Nik F., Ben T., Andrew N., Eli S. Adults: Cynde, Allison, Keel, Chris, Corey Sorry for the delay in posting this, but we do have photos available from the Sand Dunes Campout. Photos are online https://www.bsatroop640.com/photos/ and if you need the password, email .

Scouts: Eli, Bjorn, Lex, Luke, Andrew, Vince, Aidan, Jackson D, Alexander and Cooper  Adults: Heather, Chris, Brett We overnighted Friday at the Koshare Indian Museum where we slept under a giant wooden Kiva.  This location is where the famed Koshare Indian Dancers (a boy scout staffed group) perform, unfortunately they were not performing at the…

(Please note this is not a traditional writeup as it is very detailed and likely more appealing to those who actually attended the trip. When I was a Scout, our Troop would always have a Scribe designated for each crew on any Summer Adventure trip who would write up a similar log of the adventure.…

12:20pm Friday: Mr. Bielkiewicz and Mr. Ross start discussions, due to the suddenly heavy local snowfall, around options for tonight and the possibility of postponing the start of the trip to Saturday is a surprisingly strong option. 1:23pm Friday: They decide that meeting at the church at 4:00pm might be our best course of action…

This past weekend we held our annual Mystery Trip. For the uninformed, this is an annual tradition where the adults fully plan an adventure for the Scouts and keep the details secret as long as possible. This year, we did an overnight at the Denver Aquarium followed by a short visit to the Denver Museum…

This week the Troop attended the Klondike Derby hosted by Alpine District at Reverend’s Ridge in Blackhawk, CO. Nash, Alexander, Damon, Luke, Eli, Cooper and Bjorn along with myself and Cooper’s dad Todd, had a great weekend of winter camping and wonderful weather. While it may have gotten below 20°F at night, it was almost…

We had a chilly, but fun weekend in the mountains! We departed the church right on time around 5pm and made it to the tubing hill in Fraser around 7pm. We started our 2 hour block at about 7:15pm and zipped up and down the mountain in single-digit temps until just after 9pm. We then…

What a pleasure it was to be the SMIC for yet another successful winter retreat. There wasn’t as much snow as we would have liked, however, an enormous amount of fun was had. The young men on this trip made the best of their time hiking to the ridge, sledding on the short paths they…

Several boys had a blast at our activity night at Slick City last Monday night! Great job to the boys who planned the outing and for our SPL, Nash for working out the details. Initial photos are located at https://www.bsatroop640.com/photos/ and if you need the password, email .

Everyone had fun. We did mountain biking, shooting sports, and had root beer. I got flung off my mountain bike 3 times. All of our meals were really quick, so we got done early and we hardly had any dishes. The closing campfire was pretty good and there was no invisible bench. Thanks to Aidan…

This years Mystery Trip ventured back to Colorado Springs for a little food, fun, and animals! The large contingent set out from the church and headed straight to the Airplane Restaurant near the Colorado Springs airport. For those that don’t know this is a restaurant built around an old Boeing KC-97 tanker plane (which has…

This past weekend, Mr. Strauss, Mr. Bielkiewicz, Mr. Hitchens, and Mr. Johnson led our annual Winter Retreat Campout. In attendance was Michael S. (SPL), Jacob B, Caleb N, Isaac M, Aidan S, Alexander R, and Liam H. We slept in cabins at Camp Tahosa, and while it was unfortunate that the lake was not frozen…

This past weekend, Mr. Martin and Mr. Naber led our annual Winter Primer Campout. This year we went to some private property near Ward (and Camp Tahosa) where the 7 Scouts endured some gusty (up to 50mph) wind pretty much the entire time, enjoyed a couple of fires when the wind permitted, chopped up a…

On Sunday, 9 Intrepid Scouts, 1 Webelos, and 3 Adults spent the morning raking up leaves at Genesis. We filled the dumpster with bags of leaves, and left an additional dozen or so bags nearby! We enjoyed doughnuts and juice and got several compliments from churchgoers who were very happy with our work. Thanks to…

This past weekend, Mr. Johnson led a small, but intrepid group on a backpacking weekend on the Goose Creek Trail. Thanks to Mr. Strauss for co-leading and Michael S, Isaac M, and Jacob B for attending. A great time was had by all and here are the photos to prove it! See them and more…

It was a wild Sunday afternoon as the Battle Hamsters attempted to live up to their names. After a couple meetings worth of planning, an adventure to K1 Speed Indoor Go-karts was settled on and much fun was had! After arriving and donning the appropriate gear, our small but intrepid group boarded their karts to…

SM Strauss led a ragtag group of Scouts thru the wilds of Littleton and unincorporated Jeffco on an orienteering course. The Scouts had to learn what their pace count was, how to use a compass and how to navigate using a GPS device. Rumor has it there was even some math involved (shudder). It was…