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A group of scouts and adults were on a 50-mile hike in the
summer of 2005 in the Jefferson Wilderness Area. During one evening
while in camp, the adults challenged the scouts to come up with a troop yell
and if they did so, the adults would cook that evening's dinner and clean all
the dishes. The scouts came up with this yell in camp while waiting for
dinner to be cooked.
Because the yell was entirely made by the scouts and they
love it, the yell has been kept over the years, even though only 2 of the
original 50-mile hikers are still in the troop. They have aged out and
are now adults or they are adults who are no longer with us.
During the hike there were a few lakes and one of the
scouts would often comment on how he wanted to go swimming in the
lakes. Since skinny dipping is NOT permitted in scouts, he would joke
about going skinny dipping. The scouts decided to start the yell with
that scout's joke.
The yell embodies all that is right and fun with being young,
away from home, on a long hike; Sleeping outside without a tent, joking
and singing while hiking on the trail, pulling light jokes on the adults and
your buddies, having hard cheese and salami for lunch, getting blisters,
jumping into wilderness lakes, being carefree and trail-hardened. It
symbolizes the scouts of Troop 240 at their scouting-best.
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