Greg Barnette/Daily News

When you need a sheet bend fast, call James Pulliam of Troop 510, Boy Scouts of America, Bowling Green. A sheet bend is a basic knot that can be elaborated into several useful variations and Pulliam and his fellow scouts can demonstrate them all. Five members of Troop 510 lined up Saturday afternoon at Trail Waters Campground in Barren River State Resort Park next to a display board showing dozens of knots used by woodsmen. Pulliam, Chad Phelps, Nathaniel Richmond, John Costa and Ted Gray, all of Bowling Green, stood ready to perform rope tricks on other ropes, handy posts and themselves. Double that number of local scouts waited around their tent at the Barren River Lake Scout Celebration to show off rope-tying skills for judges, the scouts said. Their exhibit, dubbed To Be or Knot to Be, has taken prizes at the gathering for the last three years, Gray said. A steady stream of scouts and judges would flow by the tent, one stop on a procession through similar exhibits of skill set up by scout troops around the field. Instructors showed visitors how to do something such as light a fire with flint and steel and then let scouts try it for themselves. They competed for prizes of camping equipment in the afternoon display of Scouting skill, just one of many outdoor activities running Friday through Sunday. A performance of Native American dances and stories filled Friday night, and a flag ceremony started Saturday. The flag ceremony was done at a new flagpole, dedicated to Walter D. Jigger Aspley, a Glasgow resident who died in January. Aspley, a World War II veteran, was a local Boy Scout leader who had been active since joining Troop 214 in 1935. An award named for him was to be given Saturday night to the troop showing the most spirit. In addition to the skill competition, scouts built elaborate rival gateways for their campsites from natural materials. The event is open to the public, is sponsored by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Outreach program. We started this nine years ago, said Don Alexander, the Corps of Engineers park ranger who serves as the volunteer coordinator for Barren River Lake. Volunteer coordinating is not an easy job; Alexander spent all day and probably all weekend dashing around the large campsite to line up judges, inspect exhibits, straighten out disputes and even plunge clogged toilets. The campout is held to recognize scouts for all the work theyve done and continue to do at the park: building campsites, bird boxes and wildlife blinds, and building or maintaining trails, among dozens of other improvements that have taken thousands of hours of volunteer time, Alexander said..We started the celebration just as a thank-you campout, and it was just missing something, he said. Now it not only shows the Corps of Engineers gratitude, but gives the scouting troops some much-needed public exposure and recognition. About 400 scouts, scoutmasters and families attended this years event, Alexander said. Most campers are Boy Scouts and Cub Scouts, but a few Girl Scout and Brownie troops show up, he said. Troops came from all across Kentucky and Tennessee, and some surrounding states, for the event. This year, in commemoration of the 200th anniversary of Lewis and Clarks exploratory journey across America, the campouts theme is a new corps of discovery traveling a trail of exhibits and skill demonstrations around the campsite, he said. Its full of activities and competitions, Alexander said. Its just full of nonstop fun for the scouts. The American Mountain Men, a survivalist group dedicated to re-creating the American frontier lifestyle of 1800 through 1840, provided some of the judges for Saturdays competition and put on a few displays themselves. Mountain Man Dean Beard of Glasgow, dressed in buckskin leggings and a long homemade shirt, held a show-and-tell for scouts with dressed pelts of various fur-bearing animals. He followed up with a demonstration of how to pack a muzzle-loading antique gun with powder and shot. A few yards away, four Boy Scouts from Troop 848, Shepherdsville, worked in the sun to stake out the string boundaries for a rope-throwing display. Scout Philip McClure began to explain how the competition would work. Well, why dont you show it, then, Philip? David Meek broke in. Why dont you show it, David? Youre the big expert, McClure shot back. Cuz Im busy, Meek said as he tugged a marker string around a tent peg. But both of them took turns showing how to make a loose coil of rope and hurl one end for maximum distance. The troop was hastily assembling their project for the judging; theyd had to put it together at the last minute. At past campouts, Troop 848 has often built an elaborate rope bridge anchored to logs. But this year, they were suddenly in need of a new idea. Because we kind of forgot our logs, McClure admitted. We were kind of in a hurry to leave, Meek explained.