The End of an Era--Pinewood Derby

The last Pinewood Derby--Garrett's car is in the red lane

I have four sons that have gone through Cub Scouts.  Four sons means a whole lot of Pinewood Derby cars.  Tyler and Haydn I think both got to race two times, but Rhys and Garrett both got to race three times.  That means somewhere between ten and eleven cars over the years. 

As a Cub Scout Father, I've tried to make fast cars.  Tried and failed.  Sometimes our cars win heats, but we've never won or placed in the overall meet.  So we default to cool cars instead.  We tend to have the coolest car in the meet.

Garrett wasn't going to be able to have a third Pinewood Derby, except that my trip to Milwaukee last month meant they put off his Arrow of Light ceremony until this month so he was still able to compete.

I asked him to design a car, then we went over his design and made some refinements.  He initially wanted a car with a single central fin on it.  I had seen a small cliplight at the Dollar Store and thought, "Wouldn't it be cool to have a car with headlamps?"  I pitched the idea to Garrett and he said, "What about rocket boosters too?"

We went over to my office where I have some tools and some access to other tools and crafted the Pinewood Derby.  I allowed Garrett to use some of the tools, and when Rhys found out, he was a bit indignant because I had never allowed him to use the bigger tools.  I was very careful and taught him proper safety protocols before letting him use the tools.

Garrett at the bandsaw.  Note the safety glasses

Garrett shaping with the Dremel Tool.  Note the safety glasses

We got the car shaped and the ports ready for the headlamps and rocket boosters (which turned out to be cool beads) then we went home for the night.

Since Garrett was still in school and I had the week off in between semesters, I worked on the car during the day and had Garrett come and help me finish when he got home from school.

My office is about a hundred yards away from the US Post Office and periodically through the day I'd go and weigh the car.  We had a 5 ounce limit and no matter what I'd do, it seemed like the car was too heavy.  I'd cut and sand and drill until I came just under weight.  This was the first time in the history of the Benson boys and their Pinewood Derby's that we didn't have to add weight.  By the time we were done, we weighed in at 4.9 ounces, fully loaded.  That was enough.

When Garrett came to help me, the car was still too heavy and I drilled and chiseled a little more and he sanded.  Finally, when we knew we were under weight, we glued in all the pieces, added the wheels and painted the rig.

I cut the end off a clear plastic spoon and used the bowl part as a domed windshield.  It just looked cooler that way.  Here are a few pics of the finished car.

The Steampunk Pinewood Derby

With headlamps

The evolution of Garrett's Pinewood Derby's--The left was built for speed, the center was built for cool and the right was built for over the top!

As you can see, ours was the coolest car of the bunch

We have a man who is a Pinewood Derby enthusiast in the area and he has a really hi-tech track.  This one has sensors at the end that are hooked up to a computer and he can tell several things at the end of the race.  He can tell who won, he can tell how fast the cars were going (in scale).  His computer also ranks the cars and establishes heats based on speeds and times which makes each race more exciting rather than having one car outpace all the others, he groups them based on performance after the first heat.  It makes for a much more enjoyable night.  Each racer got to race eight times and each racer got to run twice on each track.  Just to make sure that the track wasn't corrupted I guess.

He runs Pinewood Derby events from Pocatello to Ashton.  He has quite an investment in equipment and he doesn't do it for free, but he is well worth whatever it is he charges.  This year he added sound effects.  He has the system down and it's well organized.  Pleasant time all around.  Makes me kind of sad that I won't have to be building anymore Pinewood Derby cars with my boys.

Garrett didn't win any heats and didn't place in the overall event, but his car did max out at 172 mph (in scale).  The record for that track was 194 mph, by the way.

When the race was over, the exhibition race began.  He put his loop the loops in the track and anyone with a car was allowed to run.  They call it the legends race.  Several of the boys brought some of their previous Pinewood Derby cars with them and ran them down the track.  We take the Pinewood Derby very seriously here in Idaho.

Giving instructions to the racers

I like this picture.  Garrett at the races

Heading to the finish line

"Gentlemen, start your engines"

The race begins--Lane yellow

The home stretch

Streaking to the finish line

Crash and burn at the exhibition race

After the races and awards were given, Pack Night became more serious and the scouting awards were given.  This was Garrett's last pack night and he was ushered into the Boy Scouts.  We have a ceremony called the Arrow of Light where the boy is given an arrow in blue and yellow, the Cub Scout colors and commits to living a clean and productive life.  We then exchange the neckerchief from the Weblos to the Boy Scouts.  I got to change the neckerchief.  It was a great honor for me.  Then the boy crosses over a symbolic bridge from Cub Scouts to the Boy Scouts.  At that time, the Scoutmaster then instructs the boy as to what is expected of him as a Boy Scout.

It's really a grand event.  I was really proud of my son.

I wasn't blogging when my other sons went through all this, and so I wish to dedicate this blog post to all my sons.  Know that I felt the same feelings for each of you when you advanced.

Garrett being presented with his last Cub Scout awards

The neckerchief ceremony

Crossing over the bridge

Being inducted into the Boy Scouts

This was a great night.  The passing of an era.  I'm kind of sad that I won't have anymore Pinewood Derby's to build.  I didn't think I would be, but I am.  I got a little choked up last night.

For me, I think I was looking backward but Garrett is looking forward.  I'm proud of him.

How I Spent My Summer--Travelogue: Part III

Trip #3--Union Falls

My son Haydn went on a trip with the Varsity Scouts this summer, called High Adventure.  They camped near the Bechler area of Yellowstone, just outside the park and made day hikes into the park.  Since we have been obsessed with Yellowstone's waterfalls for the last three or four years I thought it would be fun to take the hike with him to Union Falls.

Union Falls is the second highest waterfall in Yellowstone National Park, and is so named because two rivers meet at the falls and their waters mingle on the way down.  It is very spectacular and only a small percentage of park visitors ever see it.  The trail takes hikers deep into the backcountry of Yellowstone and many people camp along the trail.  It is possible to do the hike as a day trip though, but it is a long one.  The hike is 7 miles one way, but at the end there is a side hike of another half mile to a swimming hole that is a must if you make the hike to Union Falls.  With the side hike, it became a sixteen miler.

We drove from Ashton, Idaho along the Grassy Lake Road and parked on the far end of the dam.  Grassy Lake sits just outside of Yellowstone.  The trail we took is called, Mountain Ash Trail.  There is only about a 300 foot elevation shift, but you lose it and gain it several times during the hike.  The trail is through a beautiful forest of white pine, lodgepole pine and douglas fir.  The undergrowth is lush and green.  It was a very pleasant hike.  Most of it was shaded.  We had one major river crossing where we had to get wet, but the rest of them had fallen logs that we could cross.



Haydn at the river crossing

Leaders and a scout crossing a stream

A view from the trail

The last half mile was the toughest because it's all uphill and sandy so it's quite a slog to get there.  After hiking the face of Table Rock, though I wasn't complaining.  Once we got to the falls, though the view was breathtaking.  The vantage point the next photo was taken from was about 150 yards away and still the mist from the falls was everywhere.  That was very refreshing after hiking through the hot sun the last mile or so.



Union Falls

Haydn and I in front of Union Falls

After that, we ate lunch and then made the pilgrimage to the swimming hole.  The neat thing about the swimming hole is there was another waterfall.



At Scout Pool

This was a great day.

How I Spent My Summer--Travelogue: Part II

Trip #2--Table Rock

My son turned 12 in the middle of scout camp this year.  On his twelfth birthday the scouts were scheduled to climb Table Rock.  I decided to climb it with him.

Table Rock is a very popular hike in the Teton Range.  It doesn't require any technical climbing, just hiking.  There are two major trails to the summit of Table Rock, the Huckleberry Trail and the Face Trail.  The Huckleberry Trail is a switchback trail, about 7 miles from the trailhead to the summit and the face trail is about 4 miles without many switchbacks.  The elevation gain on both hikes is 4000 feet.  That makes the Face Trail brutal.

Table Rock is a large sedimentary rock about 10 yards wide by about a hundred yards long.  It's elevation is 11,106 feet above sea level.  Approximately the elevation of base camp on Everest.  From Table Rock you get the best view of the west face of the Grand Teton.  Once you summit and see that mountain, all thoughts of, "was this really worth it?" melt away.

I climbed Table Rock twice when I was a scout and attended Treasure Mountain Boy Scout Camp.  Both times I climbed it, though we took the Huckleberry Trail.  This year, however there was more snow than usual in the Tetons and the spring runoff had washed out four bridges and the streams were impassable on Huckleberry.  In addition, the switchbacks for the last two miles were covered with ice.  The part of the trail that was iced over has sheer cliffs dropping off over 3000 feet.  Huckleberry wasn't an option this year.  We climbed the face.

I was a little concerned for my twelve year old, wondering if he could make this climb.  That was one of the reasons I decided to go.  I also wanted to celebrate his birthday with him on Table Rock.  I thought that would be cool.

We started out on the trail at about 7 AM and it didn't take very long for me to realize that my son did not need my help.  Within the first mile the faster hikers outpaced us and I didn't see any of them again until we reached the summit.  Rhys, my son was in that first group.  Out of 17 people that climbed, my son was the fifth person to summit.  I was the last.

About a mile up the trail, two of the scouts told the scoutmaster that it was too hard and they didn't want to do it.  They tried to convince us to go back down the trail.  He and I had to pep talk those two boys to get them to finish the hike.  We took as long as we needed to and rested alot, but they finally decided that this mountain was not going to beat them.  I was proud of them.  The last mile and a half, they pushed ahead and summitted well ahead of the scoutmaster and me.

The Face Trail is very steep, and there is a sign at the trailhead that says it is not recommended.  I have bad knees from an injuy I sustained in grad school, so the going was a little rougher for me than some of the others.  The scenery was magnificent though.  We set goals for how far we would go before we rested and made it up the mountain that way.  Most of the elevation gain was in the first two and a half miles.  The last mile and a half, the elevation gain was steady but very manageable.  The problem with climbing a mountain, though is that every time you cross a ridge, it seems there's another ridge in front of you that needs to be crested.

Just before the summit, there is a field of fractured boulders that was very interesting to me.  It was all sedimentary rock and fossil bearing.  The neatest fossils were the worm burrows.  I don't know the age of the fossils, but there are worm tracks all through some of the boulders.  Among the other fossils I saw were rain impressions.  Those were very cool as well. 

After the boulder field were large patches of snow and at this point of the climb I knelt down several times for several minutes at a time to ice my knees.  I don't know if I'd have made it up the summit if it hadn't been for the snow.  When I finally got to the summit, Rhys came down to guide me up to the top.  That was very cool.  No one told him to do it, he came down for me.  I appreciated that.  When I got to the summit, all 16 of us sang "Happy Birthday" to my son on Table Rock.  It was a great day.



Rhys and I on Table Rock