Troop 28 Historian

06/19/2010 – 06/20/2010

June 19-20, 2010 was Father’s Day weekend and the scouts of Troop 28 travelled Caratunk, Maine for our annual whitewater rafting adventure.  The fathers who attended were Mr. Butler, Mr. Jackisch, Mr. Haber, Mr. Ackley and Mr. O’Brien.  We were excited to have Graham and Paul, our 2009 Eagle Scouts and Cohasset HS graduates as well as Tucker, our 2010 Eagle, help lead the scouts: Adam and Derek B., Reagan, Levente, John C., Dylan, Jack and Luke O, Sam G, Nick R, Morgan, Evan, and Brodie.

Our whitewater trip was put together by an organization named “Adventure Bound” way up in Caratunk, Maine, which is northwest of Skowhegan and not very far from the Canada border.  Our drivers left Cohasset around 6:30 am on Saturday and we arrived at Caratunk around 11:30am in time to check in, have lunch and get started with the planned activities.

As soon as we arrived, we started playing Frisbee, while the staff set out our lunch buffet.  After having lunch of sandwiches, potato chips and lemonade, we began an activity called “the ropes course” which is a challenging activity that ranges from high elements to low elements in terms of their difficulty and elevation.  (See pictures in the Photo Gallery).  You can’t believe how difficult it is to “walk the line” which is a skill you might need someday to cross a river or stream.

After the ropes course,  we were free to relax, so some us went swimming in a pool they have at the campsite and others went to the climbing wall.  We kept busy until we gathered for a pizza dinner.  The scouts all stayed in two tent bunk houses and the adults stayed in two other smaller house tents provided by Adventure Bound. We all brought our sleeping bags to put on the bunks.

Sunday morning, we rose early, put on our swimsuits, and ate breakfast so we could go rafting at 8:30 am.  Our whitewater rafting destination was the Kennebec River, which was about 45 minutes away. We then loaded onto the buses and drove to the dam which releases water before we go.  Each raft had a professional registered Maine guide who gave us a history of the river and helped with steering.

We started at Harris Station, where the Kennebec winds through 12 miles of remote, wilderness where logging took place many years ago.   Some of the rapids we went through were named: Rock Garden, Big Mama, Whitewasher, and Magic Falls.  Magic Falls was the most fun for me because of the 13 foot drop off.   But Big Mama and her three sisters, which is a series of four huge drops and waves that guarantee soaking everyone in the boat was pretty exciting as well.  Once we were on the lower river, we had water fights and some of us got out of the rafts (we all had lifejackets!) floated alongside the rafts down the river.  During the remainder of the trip down the river, we spotted a bald eagle which had a 6-foot wing span, and we played on duckies which are inflatable 2 person kayaks.

Because the weather was great, our lunch was a riverside cookout of teriyaki chicken, steak, salmon steak, or veggie burger that was served with homemade pasta salad and cookies, hot chocolate, and lemonade.  In past years we went back to the campsite to eat, but the riverside cookout is really the best!  After eating we got back into our rafts and went further down the river.  When we arrived at the end of our trip, we put all of the gear on a truck and we loaded ourselves back onto our bus to be brought back to the main campsite.

Back at the Main Lodge, we saw a slide show presentation of our adventure, relaxed, drank more lemonade, played chess, some of us even fell asleep! The rest of the trip was just a long car ride home with dinner along the way.  Most of us arrived home between 8 and 9 pm Sunday night.  Thanks to all of the fathers who shared their special day with Troop 28 scouts.

Respectfully submitted,

Adam Benson, Historian

05/29/2010

This trip, which was organized by Robbie, is becoming an annual spring event for our troop and is so popular that we needed to separate the troop into two groups, one going on Saturday and the other on Sunday.  Your historian attended the Sunday archery trip, which started with car pickups at around 10:00-10:30 am to drive to the facility in Dedham for an 11:30 am reservation.

Once we had all arrived, an instructor told the basics about how to knock your arrow and the safety instructions. “Knocking the arrow” means taking an arrow and attaching it to the bow so it is ready to be fired. Then we all received our equipment.  There were three commands for us in the process of shooting the targets. The first was “strattle the yellow line” which meant to walk up to the line and face down range holding your bow.  The second command was “begin” which meant we could take an arrow from the quiver knock it and fire. The “quiver” is a bag attached on your wasteband/beltloop that holds many arrows at a time. The third command was “clear to retrieve” which meant we could then walk down the range and retrieve our arrows.

At the very end we had some competitions with balloons on the bull’s eye and whoever hit their target got candy. The first person to hit would receive 3 candy bars and 5 dollars, the next 2 candy bars and 3 dollars, the next 1 candy bar and 2 dollars, and then there were no more prizes. We did three rounds of this competition. Not everyone hit their mark, but those who did enjoyed their candy and counting their winnings on the way home after a really fun archery trip.

Respectfully submitted,

Adam Benson

04/24/2010 – 04/25/2010

On Saturday, April 24, 2010 seventeen scouts had committed to participate in ‘Advancement Weekend’ at the Boy Scout campsite within Wheelwright Park.  The first order of business was to load up all of the camping gear including tents, stoves, and water containers and cooking utensils from The Locker at Deer Hill School.  Mr. Hill’s trailer and Mr. Hillman’s van were loaded by the scouts and brought over to the North Main Street entrance of Wheelwright.

This particular Saturday was also a work day for the Trustees of the Lightkeepers Cottage where Troop 28 holds Eagle and Court of Awards ceremonies.  Mr. Avery asked whether scouts were interested in earning services hours for advancement, so many of us delayed starting on the campout so that we could help spread mulch in the beautiful gardens around the Lightkeeper’s Cottage.  With so many scouts assisting, the job was completed quickly and we went on our way to Wheelwright.

The scouts participating in Advancement weekend were: Robbie, Brodie, Evan, Adam B., Andrew, Jake G., Wyatt, Jack O’B, Nick, Dylan, Quentin, Patrick, Connor, Ryan, David, with Derek as the scout in charge and Tucker assisting.

The main objective of the campout in Wheelwright Park was to get the newly crossed over scouts involved in skill building and learning the basics of camping.  We began with everyone meeting at the entrance to Wheelwright and hiking in with our backpacks to setup camp. The day continued on with scouts working in their patrol groups doing various activities from earning Toten chips to navigating throughout the woods using a compass.

A few interesting things happened during the campout. On a small hike led by Jack O`Brien to the rock formation known as ‘the Lemon Squeezer” which is a traditional first year Tiger Scout hike.  Some boys figured out that they can’t fit through the small openings in the rocks anymore.  Your Historian just happens to be one of the scouts who took the narrowest route, made it through but ripped his sweatshirt along the way!

Tucker assigned a five scouts with time on their hands a challenge of building a shelter capable of fitting all of them into it and sleeping in it. The structure was made of sticks, pine needles, and leaves to provide protection from the rain and wind. It worked but nobody slept in it and it was taken down shortly after.

A campout dinner is usually one of the most treasured times of the campout.  This held true for on the advancement campout with spaghetti and red sauce for dinner, and egg burritos/ bagels for breakfast.  For dinner Dylan, Nick, and Adam C. did a fantastic job of using the stove to boil water and make pasta, and warm the red sauce. Dinner was served in order of who was ready first, making an organized line to be served.  All went well and the food was good.

For cleanup, we did the traditional three bucket system. A bucket of cold water, soap warm water, and bleach water. It went by fast one a man on each station and one drying the utensils of fellow scouts.

A game of manhunt was organized and playing during the night hours after dinner and cleanup. Manhunt is a game with one seeker and many hiders continuously running from the seeker and he chases them down. Once tagged you help the seeker find people and tag them. The last person standing is the winner.   Lights out was around 11 pm

We woke up the next morning around 6am to go on the hike.  We started out by leaving the campsite, and walking to the North Main Street parking lot near the baseball fields.  Then we took a trail that ended up at an old cabin that girl scouts used many years ago. The cabin was full of old furniture – maybe they were antiques — and artifacts and is badly in need of a cleaning with all the dust and dirt in it.  I think this will be one of our projects over the next few months.  From the cabin, it was a short distance back to our campsite.  We packed our gear, cleaned up to leave no trace, and headed back to the parking lot for our rides home.  This was a very successful campout where many new scouts learned the joys of camping.

Respectfully submitted,

Adam Benson, Historian