A 'SCOUT ODYSSEY'

Boy Scouts didn't complain about a lack of snow as they drove dog sleds around Cherokee Park on Saturday. They didn't have dogs for the sleds either.

About 150 scouts and adult leaders participated in Klondike Days, typically a winter weekend campout that tests individual and group scouting skills.

The event was first planned as an all-weekend campout at Black Forest, event organizer Jerry Siemers said. But an early thaw made the camping area too wet, so Klondike Days became a one-day event at Cherokee Park.

Scout troops organized into groups of six to 10 boys to pull their dogless dog sleds around the park through a series of 10 stations where they demonstrated various skills.

Shooting BB guns at targets, setting up canvas tents, and constructing a catapult to shoot golf balls were some of the scouts' tasks.

Sixteen-year-old Doug Cotton of Scott City, Mo., enjoyed the mini-Iditarod sled race the most. The quarter-mile race sent scouts all over the hilly park.

"This is like basic training for Boy Scouts," said Cotton, who plans to join the Army.

Everything the scouts needed for the day had to be packed onto their sleds, said Harry Bertrand, a scout leader from Jackson, Mo. This included four gallons of water, a copy of the scout handbook and firewood for cooking hot-dogs at lunch.

Bertrand boys are generally good cooks, he said, although they had some trouble negotiating a tree after lunch.

"That's my boys over there," said Bertrand, pointing out a group that had taken its two rope lines from their sled along opposite sides of a tree.

The outing blended outer space ideas into activities, since this Klondike Days had a theme of "2001: A Scout Odyssey." The rope obstacle course, which scouts went through as a team wearing blindfolds, was referred to as "lost in space."

Some scout patrols from the Shawnee Council District did not come to Klondike. They likely weren't bothered by Saturday's unexpected cold, said Bob Francis, the district's vice chairman. Knowing their love for camping, they probably decided it would be better to go to a forest and spend the entire weekend outdoors than only have a day in the park, he said.

"You can't stop some of these troops from camping once they've set their minds to it," Francis said. "All they need is a sleeping bag, and they're off."