Greetings Troop 671 Families and Alumni!

First, an explanation - many of you receiving this are on our Alumni contact list. This list was created using membership archives dating back to when we first started using TroopMaster for managing our unit. I know I was unable to capture everyone, as many Scouts and adults had the same email address in that system. So, if you are an alumni, the parent of one, or you think someone else may be interested in receiving occasional emails like this from us, please encourage them to sign up for our e-mail newsletters via our website at https://www.troop671.com/newsletter

If you do not wish to receive emails from us, no worries! You can easily unsubscribe using the link in the bottom of this message and you shouldn't receive another message from us on this platform. Scout's Honor.

One more thing - because it's been so long since we've sent out a newsletter, there's a lot of stuff in here. GMail clients will cut off the message body somewhere around halfway through the message. I highly recommend you click the Read Newsletter Online link up on top so you can see the whole thing.

Ok, on to the newsletter.

December 2025: Camp Oh-Da-Ko-Ta Campout

Our Scouts camped at Camp Oh-Da-Ko-Ta near Burlington, WI just after Thanksgiving. This campout followed a heavy snowstorm, and the Scouts harvested snow from around the cabin perimeter to build a massive quinzee as tall as the cabin roof! Four Scouts (Devin, Jamo, Zack, and Seth) slept inside the quinzee while 6 additional inches of fresh snow fell overnight. The next morning they awoke and commented on how warm they were inside the quinzee and how dark and quiet it was! During the day on Saturday we also went into town for pizza and bowling.

📷 Photo Gallery: December 2025 Campout Photo Album

January 2026: Point Beach State Forest Campout

Scouts headed to Point Beach State Forest along Lake Michigan for winter exploration and outdoor trail activities. Since it was a long weekend, we also went into town and spent a few hours at an all you care to play vintage arcade!

📷 Photo Gallery: January 2026 Campout Photo Album

February 2026: Winter Cabin Campout at Ma-Ka-Ja-Wan Scout Reservation

Scouts spent the long holiday weekend staying in cabins at Ma-Ka-Ja-Wan Scout Reservation. Blessed with unusually warm weather for February and a snowy January into February, the Scouts went skiing at the nearby Kettlebowl Ski Area in shorts and light jackets! We also spent a lot of time hanging out at camp trying to ice fish, see the upgrades to camp performed by the Wilderness Engineering Society, and managed to catch the northern lights several nights!

📷 Photo Gallery: February 2026 Campout Photo Album

March 2026: Aviation Merit Badge Clinic at EAA

What was supposed to be cabin camping at Camp Rokilio with a day trip to the EAA Aviation Museum in Oshkosh, WI turned into just a day trip on Saturday. We all met in the parking lot Friday evening, looked at the updated forecast for the weekend and decided we would just go for Saturday. At one point, snow measured in FEET were predicted to be on the ground as we'd be headed home Sunday! We made the decision to play it safe.

We went up Saturday, all of our Scouts completed the updated requirements for Aviation Merit Badge, and I look forward to future trips to the museum!

📷 Photo Gallery: Aviation Merit Badge Clinic Photo Album

April 2026: Eagle Cave

Many of our current Scouts have actually never been to Eagle Cave before, so this was a quasi new event, at least in recent memory! What's not to love about camping in a 50 degree cave with 200 other people while trying to avoid drips from the ceiling, and the lights never go out?

📷 Photo Gallery: April 2026 Campout Photo Album

May 2026: Memorial Day Weekend in St. Louis

This was another long weekend road trip, this time down to St. Louis, MO. One of our Scouts submitted this as an outing idea.

We spent an awesome day at The City Museum and capped it off with a late afternoon ride to the top of the Arch. We also camped in a new location, and many of us got our first in person Lone Star tick sightings! During our "in camp" day we met some very curious fawns and the Scouts spent a fair amount of time rockhounding upstream of a little creek running along our campsite.

📷 Photo Gallery: May 2026 Campout Photo Album

June 2026: Summer Camp at Ma-Ka-Ja-Wan Scout Reservation

Troop 671 returned to our home away from home, East Camp, for another awesome week outdoor skills, aquatics, camp games, advancement, and merit badges, before ending the week with a rafting trip on the Wolf River.

This year saw some program changes at camp, and after some initial trepidation we were very happy with most of the results! The Scouts also really liked the program changes, and we are all looking forward to the next time we get to visit.

📷 Photo Gallery: Summer Camp 2026 Photo Album

July 2026: High Adventure Canoe Trip? Maybe?

We had been planning this trip since fall 2025. We were going to reattempt the route our Scouts and adult leaders tried to take on 2020's trip to Lac La Croix.

Unfortunately, Mother Nature had other plans, and a series of dry lightning strikes in early July ended up becoming so large and unpredictable that the Forest Service actually closed the wilderness for 2 weeks! Northern Tier, located at the end of Moose Lake Road, was forced to evacuate and ran Mississippi River trips starting on Lake Itasca for the rest of the summer.

So, in less than a week, we went from a fully equipped trip with a BWCA outfitter to being entirely self sufficient and outfitting ourselves to paddle 70 miles down the wild waters of the Namekagon River and into the St. Croix.

📷 Photo Gallery: Namekagon River 2026 Photo Album

August 2026: Warren Dunes State Park Campout

Another new location, this time as a suggestion from Crew 671. We went on a fun beachy campout at Warren Dunes State Park in Michigan, exploring the giant sand dunes along Lake Michigan. These dunes are a lot bigger than at Indiana Dunes!

📷 Photo Gallery: August 2026 Campout Photo Album

September 2026: Greenbush Ice Age Trail & Fondy Aqua Park

Another new location recommended by one of our families, and another long weekend campout for the Troop.

Saturday we went to the Fondy Aqua Park in Fond Du Lac for aquatic play structure fun. On Sunday we hiked the Ice Age trail for several miles.

📷 Photo Gallery: September 2026 Campout Photo Album

October 2026: Boo Camp

NEIC Boo Camp has become a perennial outing for our unit. For the last couple years we have been constructing our rope bridge in a campsite near the Jadel Center. This year, the weather was beautiful and Boo Camp was busy! Our campsite hosted Leave No Trace and a paracord bracelet making station, in addition to the rope bridge and Jacob's ladder which we added in 2025. We also were frying apple cider donut holes all day to the delight of Cub Scouts, their parents, and anyone else who wandered into our site.

📷 Photo Gallery: October 2026 Campout Photo Album

We have also continued to support our Charter partner, the Wildwood Park District, when they have their Easter Egg Hunt, Harvest Fest, Eagle Scout Service Projects, and other cooperative activities. Our Troop also continues to maintain Gages Lake Road between Almond Rd & Hunt Club Rd via the Adopt-a-Highway Program.

As I reflect back on the past 12 months, I really couldn't be more proud of the growth, resilience, and leadership our Scouts have shown! From braving winter temperatures to sleep in a quinzee at Camp Oh-Da-Ko-Ta, or sitting on a 16" tall block of ice cut fresh from Lake Killian, taking the newly updated Aviation Merit Badge clinic experience at EAA Oshkosh, venturing to St. Louis over Memorial Day, or pivoting from a fully outfitted Boundary Waters Trip to self outfitting ourselves to canoe the Namekagon River instead, our youth continue to step up and demonstrate true leadership! Additionally, we sent 5 Scouts to attend National Youth Leadership Training this year as we continue to invest in our youth leaders. We also had multiple Scouts and adults elected to the Order of the Arrow, complete their Ordeals, or seal their membership with Brotherhood this year.

In case you haven't looked us up lately, in late summer we also transitioned most of our Internet presence to a new domain name - troop671.com, from troop671bsa.org. With our unit committee's decision earlier this year to become a Family Troop, and the national organization renamed to Scouting America, I felt it was in our best interest to transition to this new domain name in an attempt to be more inclusive in our branding. Of course, the old domain automatically redirects, and a Google search for Troop 671 will probably have us in one of the top results. As of this newsletter, our Eagle's Nest has 124 Scouts and may add as many as 3 more before the year is out.

As we head into the end of 2026, I am looking forward to a brand new event that I convinced the PLC to put on the calendar last year - University of Scouting at Purdue University in Indiana! 2025 saw over 10,000 participants in the event with over 200 merit badges offered as well as training and activities for youth and adults. There's even adventures for Cub Scouts! I also look forward to seeing which activities our Scouts want to plan for next year. I'm especially excited for our 2027 High Adventure Trek to Sea Base St. Thomas, where we have a group of 24 going on an epic sailing adventure! I'd like to take a moment to recognize and give thanks to my wife, Beth, for volunteering to plan this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for us, and for all of your fundraising efforts to help lower the cost!

I also want to thank our charter partner, the Wildwood Park District, all of our volunteer leaders, committee members, and parents who dedicate their time to help provide opportunities for our Scouts.

Until next time!

Yours in Scouting,

Mr. Short