CANFIELD – When asked what it felt like to use a wide, two-person crosscut saw to slice off a piece of a thick log, Vincent Desanto cut to the heart of the matter.

“It was an exercise in connecting us all together,” explained Vincent, 17, a member of Ellsworth-based Boy Scout Troop 9071, who stressed the importance of teamwork and others’ support in completing the laborious task.

Vincent, who has been in Scouting about five years, was on one end of the saw with teeth arranged in an alternating pattern, and fellow Troop 9071 member P.J. Beres was on the other. P.J., 15, has spent about four years as a Scout, he said.

Both teens were cutting the log perpendicular to the wood grain while taking part in the annual Stambaugh District Klondike Derby on Saturday at Camp Stambaugh, 3712 Leffingwell Road in Canfield.

The all-day gathering, which had been rescheduled from January because of the pandemic, featured about 200 Scouts in 21 troops, including two of girls, from Mahoning, Trumbull and Portage counties, noted Dennis Vargo, the Great Trail Council, Boy Scouts of America’s field director.

The Scouts rotated between seven stations set up to test their abilities in building fires, providing first aid, tying various types of knots and other activities. For their performances in completing the challenges, Scout patrols of four to eight members earned gold nuggets they were able to use in an auction to bid for donated outdoor equipment.

The derby also was based loosely on the struggles, difficult challenges and treacherous conditions more than 100,000 prospecting migrants faced while searching for gold during the three-year Klondike Gold Rush after it had been discovered in 1896 in the Canadian Yukon Territory and present-day Alaska. The Scouts were given an opportunity to “relive” similar challenges and be rewarded for their efforts, organizers said.

Saturday’s temperatures in the mid-20s, with a biting wind and intermittent snow flurries, provided a befitting backdrop for the Scouts and their leaders.

“We had to work together to lash poles together and attach guidelines. The goal was to cross a ‘river’ without touching the ground, but the bigger object was teamwork,” explained Emily Heino, 15, who is part of Canfield-based Troop 8025.

Emily, along with fellow Troop 8025 members Lily Rich, Grace Henry and Arianna Burkey, used thin wooden poles bound with rope to make an A-frame as part of an activity called lashing. The girls were challenged to work cooperatively to build a structure durable and strong enough to support a person’s weight, said Suzanne Heino, Troop 8025’s Scoutmaster who also is Emily’s mother.

Suzanne Heino, whose son, John, earned his Eagle Scout badge, added she’s pleased that girls have made further inroads in Scouting in recent years.

“They have always been on the sidelines watching their brothers, and now they can do it and get credit for it,” she continued.

The wintry weather also provided ideal conditions for a series of sled races, which, like the other events, relied heavily on cooperation and teamwork, two of the most valued priorities of Scouting, noted Shannon Andre, whose 11-year-old daughter, Kaitlyn, is in Troop 8115 of Canfield.

Shannon Andre helped to oversee the races, in which each patrol made and designed its own sled. The half-mile loop-routed races challenged the Scouts to work together to figure out the best ways to achieve the best finish time, she explained.

All of the Klondike events followed key Scouting priorities of building leadership skills in young people and demonstrating the power of learning from their mistakes, Suzanne Heino said.

“That’s the best part,” she added.

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