Troop 28 Historian

10/10/2009 – 10/12/2009

On October 10th, at 6:30 in the morning, 10 scouts and 6 adults met at the Scout Locker to embark on another trip of high adventure. This time we were not going to nice warm Cape Cod; instead we were heading north, 170 miles north.

Our mighty group was setting out to climb three major peaks in the White Mountains, including Mt. Lafayette which is almost an entire mile above sea level. Greg was the leader of this trip, responsible for getting common gear packed everyone in their cars and on the road by 7:30 am.

When we got to the campsite in Franconia around 11am, it was cool and lightly raining.  We setup quickly set up our tents and ate lunch.   Our first excursion was to be a short hike.  In preparation, Greg passed out the “GORP” (good old raisins and peanuts) for an energy snack and we made our way up to Lonesome Lake which is just over a 3 mile hike down and back.

Returning to the campsite, we started a fire and began cooking dinner. Unlike most camping trip meals, this meal actually contained food other than pasta! The menu was hotdogs, corn on the cob, baked potatoes, and beans. The beans and hotdogs were extremely well cooked.  Our potatoes and corn were cooked in the fire pit wrapped in tin foil and depending on how close to the fire your corn or potato was, well let’s just say that some potatoes were as crunchy as a nice crisp apple.

That first night everyone fell asleep fairly early knowing that we had a long hike ahead of us in the morning.   Sunday morning, thanks to a watch alarm failure, we woke up an hour late.  Greg motivated everyone and we made breakfast and got our gear ready by 9:30 am.  Then we began the 3 mile hike to the top of Little Haystack (4,200 ft.).  We traveled along the Falling Waters trail and crossed over flowing water many times.  The first crossing was probably the hardest because the stream was about 15 feet wide and the rocks were very wet, which made them slippery.  As we neared the summit, the winds started to increase and fog rolled in.  However once we were on the top of Little Haystack the clouds blew away from us and we could literally see for miles.  We were all silent in absorbing the incredible view.  We took a short break at the summit for lunch, and when everyone had eaten, we continued on the 1.7 mile long Ridge Trail which took us across the summit of Mt. Lincoln (5,089 ft.)  and finally to the summit of Lafayette (5,260 ft.).

At the top of the mountain the winds were fierce. Mr. Hillman quickly took a picture of us with the Troop 28 flag.  Immediately afterward, we hurried down the trail to get to the tree line for some protection from the wind.  We followed the Greenleaf trail to an AMC hut and we waited there for any stragglers — who shall remain nameless — to catch up. There Mr. Hillman, Greg, Mr. Ackely, and Mr. Jackisch decided to send half of the group ahead while the other half stayed behind with Reagan who had injured ankle. The lead group managed to make it to our campsite 3 miles away just as it was getting dark.

Group 1 started building a fire to warm up and make preparations for dinner. The second group hiked for around an hour in the dark guided only by headlamps.  When they arrived at camp, we all breathed a sigh of relief and we quickly fired up the stoves to get the water boiling for the freeze dried food. Everyone ate fairly quickly and went to bed.  It had been a very long day.

The next morning, Monday, we all took our time breaking camp, folding tents and packing up bags.   After breakfast, we all piled into cars and drove to the Flume Gorge.  The Flume Gorge is a geological formation that was created in the Triassic period when cracks in the granite crust formed and lava started slowly rising up through them.  When the lava cooled off, it formed basalt rock.  The basalt rock eroded away much quicker than the granite, which is how the gorge was created. After we trekked through the gorge, we ate lunch, and headed for home and the best long hot shower this historian has had in some time.

Respectfully submitted,

Derek Benson, Historian

09/19/2009 – 09/20/2009

On a sunny Saturday September 19th, 18 kids and 6 adults arrived at The Scout Locker @ Deer Hill School at 7:00 in the morning.  Our mission was to load up cars full of gear and bikes and proceed to the Sweetwater campsite in Brewster to ride the Cape Cod Rail Trail.   The adults were Mr. Ackley, Mr. Thomae, Mr. Koropey, Mr. Marat, Mr. Clay, and Mr. O’Brien.   The scouts were Evan, Julien, Greg, Brodie, Derek, Luke, Andrew, Jack O., John C., John N., Adam K., Nick, Sam, Dylan, Alec, Robbie, Kevin, and Jack T.   Robbie had organized the trip so he took the lead in making sure everyone’s gear was placed into a car and that we had enough space for everything.

This bike trip is the first trip with our new patrol assignments.  The Stag patrol and the Python patrols are the older scouts and the Hiking Moose patrol contains the new scouts and is led by Jack O’Brien and Andrew Leighton as ‘trail leaders’.

On the first day without much trouble we biked the 17 miles to Marconi Beach and had lunch there.  Mr. Jackisch brought a Frisbee and a football.  When we were rolling down the sand dunes somebody complained so we had to stop so instead we played football. Robbie managed to get battered by all kinds of things including a pig pile started by Andrew.   After we finished up we started our trek home.  We made it back around 5:00 pm and the camp became a frenzy of tents being set up and food being cooked. The Staggypython patrol experienced a wonderful array of Sloppy Joes and burnt garlic bread.  The Hiking Moose patrol ate a fancy meal of pasta with meatballs and more burnt garlic bread.  After dinner there was a series of basketball games; there was also an abundance of our favorite Boy Scout dessert: smores, which are always eaten while sitting by the fire.  We all were in bed by about 9:30 pm.  Sadly Andrew didn’t feel well that night so his parents drove down to bring him home.

On Sunday morning everyone packed up their tents and prepared breakfast.  Breakfast was a mixture of egg burritos and bagels with cream cheese. Then we got most of the gear in the cars and biked down to the other end of the trail 7.5 miles away. At the end of the trail Mr. Jackish gave a bunch of kids with Mountain Bikes a little lesson on how to hop a log and then we were off again. We stopped at the general store about 2 miles from camp and the troop purchased everyone ice creams.  Shortly after this we were in our cars driving away from Sweetwater campsite with a sense of accomplishment because we had just biked with, more than 20 people, 50 miles in 2 days and no one was seriously injured (not that we expected them to be!)

Respectfully submitted,

Derek A. Benson

07/26/2009 – 08/01/2009

On Sunday July 26, 2009 scouts from many local southeastern Massachusetts troops arrived at Camp Squanto. All of the newer scouts – now fondly referred to as the “Hiking Moose” patrol, arrived early but we were all pretty much on time.  One of the traditions of Squanto is that the entire troop marches in to our ‘Delaware’ campsite together.  The day before, Saturday, all the scouts came with their lockers and duffle bags to Deer Hill School.  Mr. Brown met us there so we could load up our gear into his truck. He then kindly drove our gear down to Squanto and all the way in to “Delaware” campsite which is the farthest away from the entrance of all of the campsites.

This year was our largest attendance at Camp Squanto.  We had 21 scouts including, Adam B., Derek B., Greg B., Julien G., Kevin M., Jack O’B., Luke O’B., Nick R., John N., Reagan B., Alec H., John C., Sam G., Thomas F., Brodie J., Dylan M., Evan A., Robbie H., Sasha N., Hugh G-M, and Andrew L.  The adult leaders included Mr. Hillman, Mr. Ackley, Mr. O’Brien, Mr. Brown, and Mr. Lehr.

Another tradition at Squanto is taking the swimming test in the lake after all the scouts arrive the first day.  Troop 28 was way ahead of the curve, because we all had our swim test at the town pool a few weeks before.  Greg’s sister is a certified swim instructor and works as a lifeguard at the pool.  We were very organized and had fun swimming the laps required for the BSA-Squanto swim test.

So because we didn’t need to take swim tests on Sunday afternoon, we had time to relax and set up our campsite.   We all went to dinner at 6pm and then at 8:00 we went to the ‘opening camp fire’ where they have skits, songs, and welcome us to camp. The next day we started our merit badges ate some “camp food” and did some more merit badges. Tuesday was pretty much the same thing as Monday.  Wednesday night is reserved for ‘Apache Relay’ where the various troops race against the clock to compete in several skill areas, including swimming, canoeing, burning rope, archery and running.  Your historian is proud to announce that Troop 28 finished a very close 2nd!  All the scouts enjoyed the competition and were happy with our performance.  Mrs. Fogarty and Mrs. Benson drove down to Squanto with coolers full of drinks and snacks for all the scouts.  Mr. Hillman and Mr. Ackley made us all take showers after the relay and we sure slept well on Wednesday night!

Thursday was theme night and the theme was ‘Men In Black’.  The camp staff dressed up as aliens and special agents.  Our job was to decode the alien messages and find the mother ship. On that same night, ‘Order of the Arrow’ elections were held and every single boy who was at least First Class rank who ran for election, got in.

On Friday we finished up our merit badge classes.  Then at 7:00 pm when we would usually have open areas, (when a scout can go to the rifle or archery range or other area skill area without being scheduled) Troop 28 went to the waterfront for a game of ‘War Canoes’.   In this game, you need to sink the other scouts’ boat by throwing water at the same time they try to sink yours but you cannot bail your own boat. After a brutal game of War Canoes, we had the traditional Friday night ‘Closing Campfire’.  At the campfire, all present and past members of the armed services – Mr. Ackley represented Troop 28 — place unfolded American flags into the campfire, blue star field first, then folded the rest into the flames.  For all who watch,  it is a solemn event.  We all sang some more songs, and then went to bed.

Saturday, our last day in camp, we got up bright and early around 6:00am.  We loaded all of our gear on to Mr. Fogarty’s truck – Thanks, Mr. Fogarty for getting up even earlier than the scouts so you could be at Squanto at 6 am! – we did a last check for trash around the campsite and made sure everything looked neat.  After final cleanup, we had ‘colors’ which is the morning flag ceremony, and then we ate breakfast for the last time.  At the closing ceremony, Alec donated the traditional troop plaque, which lists the name of each scout attending camp from our troop.  The plaque goes on permanent display in the dining hall.  After the ceremony, we were all happy to pile into the waiting vehicles and go home to Cohasset!

Respectfully submitted,

Derek Benson, Historian