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Health & Fitness

Opening Ceremony at Stadium - Day 2 – Tuesday July 16, 2013

Day 2 started with early morning wake-up call and breakfast ingredient pick-up from the commissary at 5:15 am.  The breakfast meal was a relatively easy and quick to prepare cornflake breakfast. The kitchen duty / meal preparation patrol packaged “lunch to go” for Scouts to take along in their day packs. The Scouts were fully loaded with the means to maintain adequate hydration.  The Scouts pushed out of camp by 8:30 am for their “estimated” 25-minute journey to the stadium.  The Scouts quickly learned the meaning of “pedestrian grid lock” at the brand new CONSOL Energy Bridge which is a cable suspension bridge over a gorge separating sub-camps A and B from the stadium arena.  As the mass of Scouts crossed the cable suspension bridge, the bridge decking swayed from side to side and bounced up and down in a manner that can only be described as an adventure equivalent to walking across the deck of a ship navigating the open ocean waters during a strong gale resulting in an inability to maintain footing while working yourself from stern to bow.. This was quite a novel adrenaline-filled experience, even for this leader.

 

The $15 million CONSOL Energy Bridge is also referred to as the “wing-tip bridge” for its unique eaglewing shape and features.  The pedestrian bridge has three separate walkways, two of which bend above and below the main span.  The total length of the bridge is 786 feet.  The main span is 578 feet, and the deck width is 15 feet. The bridge has 5,000 feet of railing, equal to almost one mile. The pylons are 50 feet tall. The deck is 110 feet above the deepest point of the valley and each of the four main cables weighs around 37,000 pounds. The construction of the abutment used 16 rock anchors to secure the bridge to bedrock which has a compression strength similar to mild steel. It took 1,500 cubic yards of concrete to build the abutments, which each measure 80 by 16 by 15 feet—equal to the square footage of a small house. The rock at the underside of the abutments was excavated to an elevation of 1,776 feet, which happens to correspond with the birthdate of the United States.

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Once the bridge was successfully traversed, the Scouts continued onto the pathway to the stadium and queued for their opportunity to be bake under the hot July sunshine seated in the clover-covered arena / amphitheater. The Summit Bechtel Family Reserve was dedicated by a number of Scouting and public official dignitaries including West Virginia Governor Earl Ray Thomblin.  The dedication ceremonies were accentuated by country and western sibling group “Taylor Made”.  Following the opening ceremonies, the 40, 000 Scouts and leaders were deposited within the Scott Summit Center Action Point where they were able to obtain a sampling of the high adventure elective activities that are offered throughout the reserve.  Even though the day was encumbered by an arena show in the morning, most members of the Troop were able to sample at least two elective activities and most hiked at least 5 to 10 miles. This sampling of activities was a perfect transition for Wednesday when Scouts will have an entire day to focus on their high adventure elective activities.  

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