ATHOL - Nothing says "Boy Scout" more than a boy in a skunk skin cap working alongside others to build fires, shoot BB guns, identify trees and engage in team-building exercises in the North Idaho wilderness.

"I like the one where there's a wire across with a toilet paper roll on it, and you would have to build a fire so it would burn up and burn the toilet paper roll off the wire," said Jared Smith, 10, of Coeur d'Alene.

Jared, a Webelo in Cub Scout Pack 209, rocked the skunk skin cap Saturday as he joined about 500 other Webelos and Boy Scouts for the 30th annual Klondike Derby, which took place in the Silverwood RV Park and Campground and surrounding wooded areas.

About 30 Boy Scout and Webelo troops from the Old Missions and David Thompson districts in the Northern Tier of the Inland Northwest Council split into teams to race the clock and compete for "gold" nuggets as they completed activities at 17 different stations. Activities ranged from demonstrating first aid or shelter-building skills to shooting targets with wrist rockets. Each station was located at a "town" named for Alaskan Klondike Gold Rush locations such as Nome, Juneau and Eureka. Each "town" had a "mayor," or adult to supervise and evaluate the teams' efforts, processes and morale.

Steve Burnett of Sandpoint was the "mayor" of Dawson, where lashing was the activity.

"They have to build a ladder," he said. "They have to perform the skill of square lashing to make a ladder that will support a Scout. They climb this ladder and then they have to do some more lashing and put two poles together, extend the poles and climb up the ladder and touch that (target) up there, so the whole patrol is working together."

Troop 111 Scout Anthony Walker, 17, of Sandpoint, enjoyed his final Klondike Derby as a participant. He is working on his Eagle Scout project and said he might come back to be an adult volunteer with the derby once he has returned from college. He said he will miss bonding with other Scouts on the course, and he remembers his first Klondike as a Webelo seven years ago.

"I slept at the end of the warming tent in the opposite corner of the stove and the stove goes out in the middle of the night," he said. "Very cold."

He said through his Scout experience and participation in the Klondike, he has learned strong leadership skills.

"I can definitely tell like, in school, kids that don't do anything except for school, no sports or anything like that, they definitely don't like to take the initiative," he said. "Where like, I'm fine with talking in front of class and telling people my opinion and leading a group of kids."

Scouts began gathering in the Silverwood campground Friday afternoon to set up their green tents for a chilly overnight stay. They hit the trail early Saturday with troop cheers ready, friendly competitions wagered and flags proudly flying from the handmade sleds they crafted to carry along their supplies. At the end of the day, awards were given to teams for a variety of accomplishments.

"It's always different," said Badger Pass "mayor" Mark Whitt of Athol. "You see some boys who excel and other boys who struggle."

Whitt, a member of the Old Missions District Committee, added that the Klondike requires Scouts to demonstrate their skills with their own two hands, rather than taking a paper test to simply show their understanding of the process.

"Here, the difference is you have to learn that skill, and you may be called upon to use it in an emergency situation," he said. "Fire building, for example, like these boys today who were struggling, I go, 'If someone had fallen into a river or a lake and you pulled them out and you rescued them, they can die of hypothermia if you can't make a fire really quick, so it's really important that you're able to utilize this scouting skill when called upon. In fact somebody may call upon you to make the fire because you're the Boy Scout.' You can't be looking in your book, you need to know how to do this."