Annual Little Sahara Sand Dunes Campout

Oh boy, when you are a scout, where does the time go??? Last weekend we went on our annual scout campout in the sand dunes of Little Sahara. This has been a tradition of the Lehi 29th ward scouts since most of us have even been in the ward. It is always a great time. We met as a scout troop the week before and planned our menu. After much discussion (sometimes heated), the troop finally settled on hamburgers, little tiny hot dogs (I can't seem to think of what they are really called right now) marinated in Famous Daves BBQ sauce. Topped off by chips, grapes, lemonade and Stephens Hot Cocoa. For breakfast we had delicious instant pancakes, bacon and good'ol scout camping greace eggs. How can you go wrong with that?

A couple of the leaders slept in a really nice camp trailer. Rather than fellowship them as Pink Panther patrol leaders, they were called the "Pink Pansies!" The rest of us toughed it out by sleeping in tents. We all stayed up pretty late wondering around in the dunes until we found just the right spot to play midnight football on our hands and knees. You'd be amazed at how fast these boys can go on all fours! Despite the interruptions of other scout troops trying to distract us by spotlighting us, giving away where the ball was (the game is supposed to be played in the dark), we all had a great time. We spotlighted the interuptees back with our ten-million candle power rechargeable spotlight that we brought. We polished off the night by jumping off the steepest parts of dunes that we could find to see who could go the farthest. This was all done in pretty much the dark.

In the morning, we all had a good time cleaning up camp and jumping around in the sand. We also learned a new game called "1-2-3 Old Sal". You have one person in the middle of a circle with a walking stick. Then, you have 5 or 6 other people forming a circle, each with their own little hole about 6 inches around by about 3 or 4 inches deep. The person in the middle tries to get a smashed soda pop can (like a hockey puck) into the hole of one of the people making the circle. They also have walking sticks. The people in the circle can try to hit the can away, but they gotta be quick because the person in the middle can steal their hole if they get their stick back in before the other person. Then that person is in the middle. The person with the can goes around and if he can get the can into a hole and hold it there long enough to say "1-2-3 Old Sal" without it being hit away, then they get that spot. Make sense? If not, just ask anyone in the patrol, it was a ton of fun!

Other then that, we made a scenic loop to see Sand Mountain, and then we also stopped and take a pic of the sign that everyone looks for when they get to the sand dunes, just past the ranger fee station. We'll ad a pic of it here, hopefully before the end of the year. It states how many days it has been since the last serious accident! Fortunately, it said 5 when we left. Last year, we got there, and I think the sign said 5 or 6 when we got there, and when we left the next morning, it said 0. Good thing the scout troop doesn't have any atv's or dune buggies!

We all had a wonderful time.