Boardman River Nature Center

I brought my son to the Boardman River Nature Center in Traverse City yesterday so he could work on his Boy Scout Tracking Merit Badge.  Before all you former Boy Scouts chime in that there is no such thing... I have to tell you it is a merit badge only offered in 2010 in honor of the 100th Birthday of the Boy Scouts.  There are about 5 or 6 decommissioned merit badges that were brought back this year.  If the scout does not finish the work this year he will be out of luck.

So anyway, my son needs to find tracks of wild animals and take photos of various types of animals for this merit badge.

Usually around my house I am always seeing animals.  Deers jump out in front of my car, wild turkey roam the nearby fields, there is grouse around and I even saw a black bear last month while down in Interlochen.

As soon as he starts this merit badge it is like all the animals disappear from around my house.  When we want to see them they go into hiding.

Eventually I decided to bring him to the Boardman River Nature Center in the hopes to see some animal tracks.

We were not disappointed.  We hiked down the trails along the Boardman River and also the Sabin Pond.  We found all types of animal tracks.  Of course everytime we see a huge track he says "I think that is a bear, lets see if we can track it."  I am like, "Ummm... no I don't think so."  I am pretty sure what he saw was the tracks of a large dog.  It was in a boggy area so it was very distorted and unfortunately we could not get a good photo of it.

The Boardman River Nature Center has great trails with some fantastic views.  If you are looking to connect to nature I would highly suggest a visit.  Also, during the summer and spring break they host various nature classes for the kids.

For more information on the Boardman Nature Center go to:  www.gtcd.org/nature-center/

Fun at Camp Greilick, Boy Scout Camp

This weekend my son attended the Camp Greilick WEBELOS Adventure Camp.  WEBELOS are Cub Scouts but they are the upper ranks of Cub Scouts and will soon pass over to Boy Scouts.  Because they are older boys they are allowed to do activities that are not age appropriate for the younger cub scouts.

Therefore my son was able to do fun activities like work in a blacksmith shop where they heated up metal and pounded them into functioning spoons.  My son was also able to climb the the rock tower.

There were all kinds of fun activities to include Geo-Caching, art classes, first aid courses, swimming, geology classes, outdoorsman classes, just to name a few. 

We were supposed to have heavy rain that weekend, but we experienced fairly good weather.

The scouts have all types of great opportunities for boys.  The council that covers the Traverse City area is the Scenic Trails Council.  If you have a son interested in joining the scouts you can find more information at the local council website:  http://www.stcbsa.org/main/portal.php 

Boy Scout Horsemanship Merit Badge Weekend

A couple weeks ago my scouts went to a wonderful horse farm in Interlochen to learn how to ride and care for horses in order to earn their Horsemanship Merit Badge. The scouts had a wonderful time. At the end of the weekend each scout was able to maneuver his horse and even back up a horse. They also learned how to care for a horse from grooming their hooves to mucking the stables. I was very impressed.