Today I assisted in taking our boy scout troop on a 10 mile bike ride. It doesn’t sound like much, but the preparation for this trip was astronomical.
When I went to see the Tridge in Midland back in the spring, I had hung out with the scout leaders after the Eagle ceremony and discussed the possibility of helping my brothers and other scouts in the troop earn their cycling badges because there weren’t any adult volunteers able to do so. They needed to complete 100 miles of biking over six trips; two 10 mile rides, two 15 mile rides, and then two 25 mile rides. Being on the hunt for new ways of completing my Golden Year Project, I was game. Just need a bike and make time to meet up with some scouts. Right?
Wrong. To help out required that I first officially join the troop as an adult leader. I submitted my troop application to the council and purchased my bicycle gear in April. When the application was approved in May, I was sent a link to complete the online BSA Youth Protection Training, then had to wait to attend the Protecting God’s Children training session in June which is a requirement of the Archdiocese of Detroit.
Once completed I figured that the scouts and I would be working toward the 100 mile goal right away… Came to find out that scouts were out for the summer, and meetings wouldn’t start again until the last week of September. Yeah…
Keeping positive, my brothers and I went on some bike rides to get in shape for all the miles we were going to be putting in. Unfortunately, not long after this, I fell off my bike while jumping a curb at the end of June resulting in a slow healing wrist injury. 😦
When my brothers and I went to do a test run at the Metropark in July, the bike rack I had borrowed failed on the express way and we nearly lost our bikes! The metal base had bent and it was dangling the bicycles mere millimeters above the asphalt when I pulled off the road. Thankfully my mom was home and was able to transport them back home for us. A new bike rack was quickly procured to prevent a repeat occurance.
In mid-September my mom, brothers, and I had our official 6 mile test run which went pretty well. The most difficult part was loading and unloading the bikes on the new rack. We took extra precautions to make sure they were well secured.
Today we had seven scouts meet up for our event. Leadership had everyone carpool and the bikes were spread across several vehicles. Loading, unloading, checking their bicycles and coordinating all the scouts was quite a chore. Thankfully I didn’t have to do it alone!
It was sunny, however once we reached the park it was super cold and quite windy. I don’t know what I would’ve done without the gloves my mom gave me! The ride proved to be the longest ten miles ever, but at the end we were all smiling. 🙂
We came, we did, and we conquered!
In conclusion, things don’t always happen when or how we expect it to, and encountering numerous obstacles doesn’t necessarily means its time for you to give up. It may be an opportunity to overcome, and achieve more than you set out for. I know I have. 🙂
Thanks for reading!
-Anna San♥
Adult leader requirements
- Application with references
- Get added to the troop roster
- Child protection online class
- Protecting God’s Children Class (requirement of the diocese)
- BSA shirt
Cycling Gear Needed
- Bicycle with gears
- Water bottle holder
- Helmet
- Odometer
- Bike rack
- Bike lock
Scout Requirements
- Location
- Date and time
- Permission Slips
- Debriefing
- Safety checks on scout bicycles
- Helmets
- Carpooling/Bicycle transport
- First aid kit
- Water bottles
Golden Year Project: Complete!
Check out some of the nifty things I did down below!
Everything Anna 
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