“Three, two, one – go!” shouts the patrol leader trying to reach us through our panting and fatigue. The chilly air nipped at me, but I was too excited to feel it. Through the shouts of scouts, fun activities, and bitter cold, my first Klondike Derby was underway.
The Klondike Derby is a scouting challenge where you pull a 50-pound sledge loaded with necessary equipment to complete your tasks. A fully loaded sledge weighs 75 pounds. As a team, you pull the sledge to different “towns” where you have to complete different activities using your scouting skills while working as a team, and it finally ends with the empty great sledge race – in other words, it was the biggest day of my life.
The Derby kicks off by us checking into the station where they ensure that we have managed the most important lesson you learn in scouts – dressing for the elements. I myself wore extra layers and packed an extra pair of pants, an extra shirt, and an extra pair of socks. You learn quickly that you never want to wear damp socks, so you always bring an extra pair. We also all had hand warmers and toe warmers to ensure that we could manage the bitter air engulfing us. You are constantly moving so the brisk winter air doesn’t seem to bother you as much as when you lose a coveted gold nugget because you didn’t complete a task correctly or in enough time.
Each “town” you visit during your derby has a mayor and judges who explain your challenge to you and how many gold nuggets you can earn. The team or unit with the most gold nuggets at the end of the day wins the Derby. It can be a bit confusing, but by the end of the day, it becomes second nature.
The day was chockfull with scenarios or tasks that challenged me mentally, physically, and socially. I would love to walk you through the Klondike with my favorite stations. First, I went to the town entitled “Dead Horse,” which is First Aid, and we earned 13 out of 12 gold nuggets. How did we get an extra gold nugget? Well, we impressed them so much they gave us an extra gold nugget! We were given the fake scenario that a scout was complaining that his feet hurt and he couldn’t walk during the middle of winter. We brought the “injured” scout into a tent and took off his shoe and found out that he had frostbite. We had to wrap it and tie it securely with a square knot. During the tying, we told the judges various other knots we could use and why we chose the square knot, which is why we were awarded an extra nugget!
“Sourdough” was our next town where we had to tie knots. We got a perfect score because I knew how to do a clove hitch, which my other team members hadn’t learned yet. It felt so great to be able to help them out by knowing a new knot, which saved us since none of us knew how to do a half hitch so we didn’t lose any gold nuggets! I found out after that the half hitch is super easy, so maybe next year we can earn an extra gold nugget like we did at the first aid station!
Next, we went to “Fort Youkan,” which is BB gun shooting and, ironically enough, it was at the archery range. During this challenge, our unit had to take five shots each and we were scored on our accuracy. We got three out of four, which is really good for a group of Cub Scouts participating at a Boy Scout event!
Then we went to “Chill Koot Pass,” which was compass and pace counting. At this station, we needed to look at the paper they gave us with the degrees and the number of feet we had to travel. Using our pace counters, which are these really cool paper dials that tell us how many of our footsteps total one foot, we traveled as a unit following the directions. I wish I could tell you what the tree we were assigned to travel to had on it, but we struggled in this station and we didn’t find our tree. It was a bit disappointing to have not completed the task, but it was still fun to try.
After, we went to “Valley Forge” where we had to cook our lunches over coals. The older scouts are graded on their creativity in their meal prep and clean up, but us younger scouts (I’m a Webelos 2 about to cross over into Boy Scouts) only have to prepare an edible meal over coals using our mess kit and serve it to someone for our nuggets. I made cheese dogs and another scout on my unit made baked beans while another scout perfected a grilled cheese. Our mess kits serve as both a skillet and a plate, which makes for much easier clean up. One Boy Scout team burned a hole in the tarp they had to cook on! I definitely laughed when I saw it.
The rest of the afternoon was quicker than the morning’s activities. We went to towns where we had to work as a team strapped to planks of wood to mimic snowshoes, but all four of us were tied to it! It took a lot of communication and team work to work together to walk around a flagpole back to the starting line within 10 minutes. We didn’t finish within 10 minutes, but we did earn a gold nugget because we didn’t drop a giant plastic egg when we all fell … a million times.
The great race at the end takes place in a large field where everyone runs and pulls their 50-pound sledge as a team. We sadly came in last place in that great race, which was a huge disappointment for me because we tried so hard, but I’m sure next year we’ll win the race!
The Klondike Derby
By Blake Gagne