Our first Pack-level trip to the Doylestown Rock Gym was a definite success. Whether your kid was a high-flying daredevil or kept their feet firmly on the floor, the common ground was their smiles. There were nearly 30 kids in attendance, plus plenty of active parents belaying or bouldering. It was one of those events that represents the sheer joy of Scouting. Nobody was pressured to do more than they could handle and many of the kids surprised themselves. Maybe not the same educational value as our typical museum trips, but it was a chance to just goof around in a giant sleepover. Added benefit, the floors we slept on were padded so not as hard as your typical hallway camp-in.
We had a private room in the back where the kids could practice bouldering (climbing without rope supports) and crawl through tunnels while the parent volunteers were trained to belay (offset the weight and man the safety rope) for higher climbs to come. Then we went in the front area with higher ceilings to see who was top of the mountain. Not that this was a competition between anyone but themselves and their fears. The younger guys had a blast just running through a cave-like area behind the main walls. The majority of kids got up on the ropes and many made it to the top at least once. Some kids really challenged themselves with inverted (upside down) climbs, slanted walls, or navigating out of chasms and around corners.
We had a very late snack and didn't really get to bed until nearly 11 and luckily there were only a few who pressed their luck and stayed up after lights out. Our idle threats of not letting them sleep in the tunnel didn't seem to work, but luckily everyone else was so tuckered out that they didn't seem to be keeping up other kids. I consider that a win as we used to have older kids getting into much worse trouble in the museums by refusing to sleep and sneaking off once their parents were snoring. There was none of that. And in the morning we got to grab a quick breakfast and climb all over again.
Many kids hands and forearms were worn out though, so our host broke out a slack line to let them use as a balance beam / tightrope 1.5 feet above the heavy mat. It was a great time and will certainly be discussed in future years. No real reason to save this fun for the troop ages anymore, it has proven to be cub friendly for Lions through Webelos.
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