Please bring your bike and bulk of your weekend gear to the church Thursday night at 7pm.  We will put the gear into the troop trailer and lock it up.  The bikes will be loaded on another trailer and locked inside Mr. Durrett's garage overnight. This will help us to leave on time Friday (be at the church no later than 3:30 pm). You will need to being money for the following meals: Friday dinner, Sat lunch and Sunday lunch. See the previous post for the entire weekend schedule.

Bring the attached permission slip and your initial $20.00 per participant to the Troop meeting this week. This should be the most exiting and memorable biking trip to date for Troop 173.  We didn't do this on purpose but we will be biking the same weekend as the Trail Days festival in Damascas.  Damascas (pop. 981) will be packed with about 20,000 people.  Check out the festival website to see everything going on for Saturday.  The troop will be camping at Hungry Mother State Park Friday and Saturday night.  We will be in a field across from Camp Burson which has a very nice bathhouse with separate shower rooms, laundry facilities and outside sink area. The park is over 2400 acres with over a 100 acre lake and more than 12 miles of trails.  The highest point on the trails is at Molly's Knob which is 1000 feet above the campsite which would satisfy Camping merit badge requirement 9.b.1 if you hiked it.  If you don't want to do the Creeper Trail but still want to go, you can spend Saturday at the park hiking, biking and exploring.  Then on Sunday everyone will have a chance to bike, hike and explore the trails around the park.  The Creeper Trail is fun but the park trails are even better.  We will meet back at camp at noon and then head to the Pizza Hut in town for a buffet lunch.  If you need to rent a bike, you need to call ASAP to see if there are any left in Damascas or rent one here and take it with you. Tuesday May 1st is the last day available to sign up for this outing.

Tuesday of last week Mr. Van Jaynes started teaching the Architecture Merit Badge to Troop 173. And on Sunday, May 6 we will meet in downtown Concord for a walking tour to look at and discuss the architecture of Concord. Class A Uniforms (without sash) are reqquired for this tour. We will meet at the Cabarrus Creamery (21 Union Street) at 2:00 PM. You must be ready to start walking promptly at 2:00. From there we will walk a long Union Street and visit some locations and sites. BRING YOUR WATER BOTTLE. Then we will be back at the Cabarrus Creamery at 4:00 PM. Here is a link for additional information to some of the sites.
http://www.concorddowntown.com/about-us/history/concord-historic-walking-tour.html?start=1 Click on "Read More" to view all the information.
 

Zach Marlowe is collecting new and slightly used shoes for Samaritan's Feet. Please donate if you are able to do so.  The desired shoe type is an Athletic / Tennis shoe -something that can be worn on most any day by people in need of shoes. The shoe drive ends on May 8th. Bring your new or slightly used shoes to the Troop meeting.

For the Troop meeting on 4/17/12, every scout participating in the Uwharrie backpack outing needs to bring to the meeting a sheet of notebook paper listing three things. List the following:

At our Troop Meeting on Tuesday April 17, 2012, everyone will need to bring their Uwharrie Backpacking Permission Slip and their backpack loaded with 100% of their backpacking gear and backpacking supplies needed for the weekend. If you are not sure what to bring on Tuesday, then please review the Camping and Backpacking sections in your BSA Handbook. One should not wait to gather their gear and supplies or try to pack their backpack at the last minute prior to the meeting on Tuesday.