Troop 28 Historian

09/27/2008

The goal of the Whitney Woods hike was to prepare scouts who had not yet hiked with a full camping gear pack for that type of experience. Unfortunately, there had been bad weather all week and especially that weekend, since we got about 3” of rain on Saturday and Sunday. Anyway, a brave and mighty band of 11 scouts and parents, led by Robbie Hillman and Tucker Oddleifson met at the Scout Locker at noon.

Robbie, Tucker, Mr. Hillman, Jack Thomae, Mr. Thomae, Evan A., Mr. Ackley, Brodie Jackisch, Alex Kent, Sasha Nakashima and Andrew Leighton

They started hiking at 1 PM at the Whitney Woods entrance off of Rte 3A. The scouts developed into two hiking groups, and each group was in charge of their own food, tents and anything else they would need to survive for the night. The rain was really intense, so the hikers did not go into Wompatuck State Forest. Instead, they decided to hike up Turkey Hill, where they took shelter under a structure that I later learned was built by Mr. Avery’s son for his Eagle project. At this location, the groups assessed their options and the decision (wisely) was made to not spend the night because of the heavy rain.  Then, it seemed like a good time to eat, so the hikers lit their lightweight stoves and cooked the dinners that had been packed. Tucker O. said that he learned two very important things — “bring more food to eat, and freeze dried Beef Stroganoff with noodles is delicious!” Thankfully, all hikers had remembered the scout motto “be prepared.”  Everyone had rain gear and waterproof covers for the backpacks.  The leaders and senior scouts felt that the trip was a success since hikers need to be able to deal with the challenging and constantly changing New England weather when they are trying to survive in the wilderness.

Respectfully submitted,

Derek A. Benson, Troop 28 Historian

09/20/2008 – 09/21/2008

By 1:30pm we had reached Marconi beach, where we stopped for lunch.  This was about halfway on our Day One ride.  Altogether we biked 35 miles on Saturday. Back at the campsite, Julien, Brodie, and Robbie were our cooks and they made Sloppy Joes for dinner.  We were able to have a campfire, so we made “smores” for dessert.

The next day our cooks made excellent egg burritos for breakfast.  We had packed up the campsite before breakfast, so after eating we were off on our bikes by 10am. We made record time to the end of trail, however we experienced a series of problems on the way back.  Some of our difficulties including Andrew’s gear problems, Hugh’s flying potato chips and Mr. McCarthy’s exciting stopping method.

We were back in the campsite by 12pm and so all we had to do was eat lunch and get the bicycles on the trailer. We arrived at the Scout Locker at 2pm on Sunday and everyone was back home and safe by 2:30pm. Everyone agreed that the bike trip was a lot of fun because we biked a total of 50 miles, had great weather and plenty of food.

Respectfully submitted,

Derek A. Benson, Troop 28 Historian

11/18/2006 – 11/19/2006

This year was our third year climbing Mount Monadnock. We kept up the tradition of going in mid-November so that we could get a cold weather camping experience and an invigorating hike all rolled into one trip. This year it was warmer than it had been the past two years, as it did not enter the twenties or below during the night. The troop met at the Scout Locker at seven o’clock on Saturday morning, and left by quarter of eight. We had a large group this year, with lots of kids and perhaps more gear than we really needed, so it took five cars of varying size to carry everything. The drive was over two hours long, one car arrived first close to ten minutes before the next one, with all the others arriving in short intervals after that. The first car checked in and went to the two sites next to each other that we had been assigned, to find one of them underwater. Upon returning to the entrance and talking to the rangers, the troop was allowed to swap for two other, water-free sites. Once all the cars had arrived and driven up to the campsite, everyone gathered what they needed to hike, and after a brief talk on map orienteering and hiking safety, we headed up the mountain. The troop was faced, as in the past two years, with two trail options for the side of the mountain we were starting on: the White Cross Trail, and the White Dot Trail. We chose, as we had on our previous ventures, the White Cross Trail for our ascent, being the harder of the two, and the White Dot Trail for the trip down. We hiked together, stopping fairly regularly, and made it to the top in a little over two hours. We had lunch up there, and after a quick photo opportunity we started our descent, breaking up into groups based upon climbing speed.

It took close to an hour and a half for the first group to reach the bottom. As they arrived, scouts went about setting up camp, pitching tents and taking troop gear needed for cooking out of the cars. We started dinner once everyone had made it down, eating in patrols. One patrol had beef stew with peach cobbler for dessert, while the other had chili and had forgotten to bring dessert. Luckily, there was enough peach cobbler to go around. Tired, the younger scouts started to go to bed at nine o’clock. Some of the older scouts stayed up for a bit longer before heading off as well with the adults. In the morning, the Senior Patrol and Patrol Leaders woke the scouts shortly after seven. Even though the young scouts had received the best sleep, they were still unwilling to get out of bed. Many of the adults were already up, and everyone took down their tents immediately. Both patrols had oatmeal for breakfast. After we had all packed up and inspected the campsite, we loaded into the cars and began the trip back to Cohasset. At the Locker, the cars were unloaded of all troop gear, scouts and adults were given their personal equipment, and everyone departed for their homes.