giving a little back

My Dad once offered me something like $200 to get my Eagle Scout award. He was from Canada, where instead of calling it a an “Eagle” they called it the “Queen.” Something about being an English colony, I don’t know. Really, it has nothing to do with this story.

Well, the part about him wanting me to get my Eagle is germane. Today, of course, he would be offering me a couple thousand dollars, due to inflation and all that. And he’d get the same response. Something along the lines of “sure dad, whatever.” And then we’d never discuss it again. Because I’m not really what you’d call a “Scouter.”

But Ian had a really good scoutmaster who got him off on the right foot, and once he got to Life scout, well, what’s the point of stopping there? Especially with how valuable having your Eagle is on your resume.

Ian also has a mother who had invested too much time to let him stop just shy of the Eagle. There’s a reason they say you should give the mother the Eagle, not the kid. And almost never the dad.

What’s the point of all this? Saturday was Ian’s eagle project. He/we got about 40 people to show up to build/improve a section of a Draper City biking trail. I’ve been a mountain biker for about 20 years, and until a couple weeks ago, had never done a single hour of actual trail work. If nothing else, helping Ian finish his Eagle has gotten that enormous, King Kong sized monkey off my back.

Some pics of the day.

The crew gathers (that’s Ian in the white sweatshirt):

We got to use manly firefighter type tools:

The real Queen:

Before:

And, after:

You can see the trail we’re trying to reach coming up from the canyon bottom across the canyon, middle right of the picture above.

Doesn’t this look like good trail? Wouldn’t you like to ride this trail?

I’m tellin you, I’m hooked on trail building. Thanks Ian.