Troop 28 Historian

06/20/2009

The last day of school was Friday, June 19, so we were all really excited to be starting our summer vacation.  Our canoe trip was the perfect start to the summer!

We met outside of Deer Hill School by the Scout Locker at 8 am.  Scouts who participated:  Nick Rosen, Andrew Leighton, Derek Benson, Adam Benson, Jack O’Brien, Luke O’Brien, Evan Ackley, Sam Greenip, Robbie Hillman, Reagan Butler, Jacob Gainey, Ethan Avotins, Hugh Murphy, Tucker Oddleifson, Dylan Marat, John Clay, Wyatt Dominguez

Mr. Murphy and Mr. Thomae reviewed the different parts of the canoe.  They talked about how to pick up a canoe, how to carry it, what materials it can be made from.  They then led a discussion about some of the things you NEVER do in a canoe, like standing up.  Then we had a demonstration of various paddling strokes, like the J-stroke. We divided up into teams, mixing up the new scouts from Pack 38 that had recently crossed over to scouting and the senior scouts.   We then loaded the canoes onto a boat trailer and we all headed off to Stanton Road in Cohasset.

Mr. Murphy and Mr. Thomae had organized the trip.  Other adults on the trip were: Kim Ackley, Kevin Butler, Tim O’Brien, and Rob Hillman.  Some of the houses on Stanton Road, which is off of South Main Street on the way to Scituate — Mr. Thomae took the scenic route!  Some of the homes back up to the Gulf River, which is nice and quiet and no strong current.  One of the home owners was a friend of Mr. Murphy and he gave the troop permission to cross his property with the canoes and launch off of his really nice dock.

We took the canoes off the trailer and walked them the distance through back yards down to water. When all the canoes were in the water, we handed out water bottles, put on bug spray and sunscreen and set off up stream.  After we got comfortable paddling around, we had a little race but when one of the canoes flipped, we stopped racing.  After that, we practiced maneuvering on a little course set up by Mr. Thomae.  The course consisted of two buoys and you had to maneuver your canoe around the buoys faster than the other canoe. Once we were finished with practicing maneuvering the canoes we headed back.  It was a warm and sunny day and we were paddling for about two hours.  It took us a bit of time to get our canoes up on the dock because we could only do one at a time.  Eventually we all carried the canoes up to the cars and trailer then drove back home in time to have lunch.

Respectfully submitted,

Derek Benson

06/13/2009 – 06/14/2009

The 2009 Whitewater Rafting trip was a great success.  It is traditionally scheduled for our last weekend before school is out for the summer.  So on June 13th drivers came at around 6:00am to pick up the scouts at their homes.  Mr. Ackley, Mr. Fogarty, Evan, Thomas, Robbie, Hugh, Andrew, Mrs. Jackisch, Mr. Berube, Brodie, Adam, Alec, Derek, Julien, Greg, and Jack T. all attended this trip.

When we arrived at the Adventure Bound camp, which is located in Caratunk, Maine, we decided that it would be nice to go to Moxy Falls.  So we drove to the parking lot and hiked for about 30 minutes into the woods. At the end of the hike we were able to walk on a wooden boardwalk that was on the edge of the river. The water was a weird brown color but it was still cool watching stuff go over the falls.

After the hike we went back to the camp for lunch and then our assigned guide took us out to the ropes course in the woods behind the cabins.  Adventure Bound has many different activities, some designed specifically for scouts and venturing groups.  We specifically chose the Ropes Course because we knew we would have lots of fun jumping for a trapeze and walking on a log 30 feet in the air. Afterwards we played in the pool or arcade until it was time for dinner.

Dinner was hotdogs and hamburgers and we were all really hungry.  After dinner the guides gather everyone around the climbing wall to explain how to climb safely.  We climbed on the wall for maybe an hour then everyone went back to the arcade or played basketball until it was bedtime.

The next morning we got up, had breakfast, and listened to an instructor talk about how to safely white water raft. After the talk we put on our wetsuits and helmets and boarded the bus. As soon as we got to the river, we grabbed our rafts and carried them down to the water. Our guide pushed us off and we were off down the river. We hit some great rapids; Magic Falls and Big Momma were the biggest ones. On the lower half of the river we were allowed to go swimming and paddling in small inflatable rafts. Finally, we reached the end of our rafting and loaded all the rafts onto a truck and went back to the camp. There we had a big lunch which was a choice of steak, chicken, fish, or a vegetarian dish. After lunch we could barely move, but he had to bring our gear down to the cars so we could start our long drive home.

05/16/2009 – 05/17/2009

On May 16-17, 2009 over 20 scouts made their way into the exciting woods in Cohasset’s backyard — Wheelwright Park.  “Advancement Weekend” was the first opportunity for camping and skill building for the webelos of Pack 38 who had just moved up to Boy Scouts in April.  These new scouts represented approximately half of the participants this weekend.

At 9 a.m. we met at the Scout Locker @ Deer Hill School to gather tents, cooking equipment, outdoor gear for training, food and water.   Merle Brown’s truck was loaded up so that we didn’t have to carry the heavier gear into the Boy Scout campsite.  At around 11 a.m. we started our hike into Wheelwright from the North Main Street entrance.  Mr. Hillman and Mr. Ackley were adult leaders and boy, did they have their hands full — and not just with gear!

We made it to the camp site with no problems and we began to set up the tents. The kitchen set was harder to set up because of the chance of rain, so we had to tie a tarp up above the whole kitchen area so that the equipment wouldn’t get wet, which needless to say this took a while.

Next, we had a bit of organizing to do.  Tucker and Morgan, who are both Assistant Senior Patrol Leaders, and Robbie, a patrol leader, got all the scouts together and divided them into 3 groups.  One group led by Morgan worked on the Totin’ Chip, which is the badge that allows you to carry a knife, axe, or saw. The group led by Robbie practiced knots and lashings.  For one lucky group, the knots and lashings were used to build a bridge!  The bridge was a success, however Julien just barely got up Big Tippling using the bridge before it finally let go.  Tucker’s group did an orienteering course, where at every turn in the trail one of the newer scouts had to orient a map and choose the right direction.

After all the scout groups had rotated through the 3 training stations, we started cooking dinner.  This is when Andrew’s team discovered that they were short on pasta for their group.  Luckily Evan and Julien had some extra and everyone got plenty of food…. There were even some leftovers.  After we finished eating, Robbie led us in a campfire ceremony for his Communications merit badge.  Julien, Jack O., and some others helped him.

Post campfire ceremony, everyone got together for a game of flashlight tag.  Robbie, Nick and I (your troop historian) won most of the games.  Once we had finished playing flashlight tag, in Boy Scout tradition, it was scary story time!  Andrew and others told some pretty creepy tales about dead clowns and murderous dolls, but we were all so tired that after taps, everyone fell asleep.

During the night it rained pretty heavily and we woke up the next morning grateful that we had rainflys on our tents.  The cooks got the water boiling as soon as they could and Mr. Hillman and Mr. Ackley supervised taking down their tents and packing up the gear.

When everyone had taken their tents down, we ate breakfast.  Andrew’s group had bagels, while Evan’s group had egg burritos.  After breakfast, we cleaned up the campsite, did a final sweep and then packed up our gear.  Because of the rain, it was decided to shorten the program and we all went home.  This trip was one of the most successful I’ve been considering how much work we got done and how many new scouts made progress towards the next rank.  NOW JUST FOR FUN — Here is a short quiz. Who said –

• “you should consult an adult before calling out of camp on a cellphone.”
• “great job!”
•  “tighten that lashing”
• “I’m watching you…”
• “get down from there!”
• “kamikaze!!!!!!!!!!”

Respectfully Submitted,

Derek Benson, Historian