Historian

12/17/2009

Cohasset Troop 28 held the 2009 winter Court of Awards on December 17th at the Lightkeeper’s Cottage.   This Court of Awards saw a large number of rank advancements and merit badges along with a change in the running of the meeting.

The ceremony began with the traditional Colors procession and the Pledge of Allegiance.  The next part of the opening ceremony is the lighting of 13 candles which represent the 13 parts of the scout law.  Alec and Derek lit each candle reciting — a scout is trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean, and reverent – at each candle.

Senior Patrol Leader Christian presided over the night’s ceremony.    After the candle lighting, various scouts were called up to talk about the many trips the troop went on since the June 2009 Court of Awards.

In another change from tradition, the advancement awards were delivered by SPL Christian, not the scoutmaster or the advancement assistant scoutmaster.  There were a large number of scouts advancing, 15 in all – one Life, two Star, three First Class, seven Second Class and two Tenderfoot.  Scouts from the Moose and Hawk patrols earned the ranks of 2nd Class and Tenderfoot. These two ranks are earned by mastering outdoor skills such as knots and camping. Hopefully by next summer these scouts will be well on their way to achieving the rank of first class. Scouts from the Stags and Viper patrols earned the ranks of Life, Star, and 1st Class. Life and Star require a scout to serve in a position of leadership; all require increasing hours of community service. For every rank a scout advances they must pass a Board of Review and Scoutmaster Conference.  As the ranks get higher the Boards of Review become more difficult.  Everyone did a fantastic job with their Boards of Review and even though some scouts didn’t earn the rank they had been working on, everyone learns from the process of discussing their progress in learning scout skills.

The next phase of the ceremony was the awarding of Merit Badges earned.  Most scouts earned 2-3 of these merit badges but some hard workers completed the requirements for as many as 6 merit badges. Two scouts received the award for completing the mile swim at Camp Squanto and the four Philmont participants – Christian, Robbie, Tucker and Morgan received the special 50 Miler Award patch.  The Philmont guys also briefly discussed some of the cool things they saw and did at Philmont in July.

After the ceremonies were completed and the flags properly placed in the back of the room, it was time to eat some of Mrs. Hillman’s delicious treats baked just for the occasion. This time she made Peanut Butter Bars and cupcakes along with chocolate dipped pretzels. Scouts left this Court of Awards with a full stomach and new goals for the coming year.

Respectfully submitted,

Derek A. Benson, Historian

11/14/2009 – 11/15/2009

All week we were watching the weather reports leading up to the Mt.Monadnock trip.   We all knew in advance that the weather was not going to be our friend.  So with this in mind, we set about preparing for our trek to Jaffrey NH, not far over the Massachusetts border.  Mt. Monadnock is 3,165 feet above sea level and is 1,000 feet higher than any other peak within 30 miles.  Unfortunately our first year scouts would not be able to enjoy Monadnock’s vistas.

This year’s trip leaders were Jack T. and Jack O. (or as we called them, “The Jacks”) with Tucker O. acting as a senior advisor.  At our special pre-activity Thursday night meeting for all Monadnock hikers, tents and gear were readied and plans for meals and patrols were made.  We all agreed to meet on Saturday morning at The Locker at Deer Hill @ 6:45 a.m.  Together with our scout leaders, we had Nick, Levente, Dylan, Luke, Thomas, Adam B., Evan, and John C.  The adult leaders were Messrs. Butler, Fogarty, O’Brien, Clay, Marat, and Mr. Oddleifson.

We departed the locker at around 7:30 am after carefully packing lots of gear into Mr. Fogarty’s truck and stowing away all of the great food we planned to cook that night.  The first cars arrived at Mt.Monadnock at around 10:30 a.m.  Scouts went into the trading post where we waited for everyone else to arrive.  Once we all were present and accounted for, “The Jacks” decided on what they were going to do because of the weather.  It was typical November weather in New Hampshire – cool, in the mid 40s and raining, sometimes heavily.  We decided not to pitch our tents and make camp, leaving all our gear locked in the cars.  The leaders checked in with the Monadnock Ranger (a requirement before hiking up a mountain).  We were told that because of the wind, rain and falling temperatures, the peak was closed to hikers.  So we continued with Plan B.  Numbers were assigned to each scout to keep track of everyone.  Then some of the adult leaders drove their cars to the pond parking lot.  The plan was to hike the pond trail then drive back to the campsite.  So the group hiked for three hours to the pond and then were driven back to the parking lot.

Once everyone had returned from the pond, Mr. Fogarty took the cooking supplies out of the truck so our cooks, Evan and Adam B. could start to cook dinner.   Even though each cooks prepared meals for their individual patrol, everyone ended up sharing and taste-testing. The meals were grilled chicken, stuffing, potatoes & corn or beef stew.  Even though we didn’t hike to the peak, we were all really hungry, so we broke into the breakfast bagels and the cake for dessert.

While dinner was being prepared, the leaders knew it was time for the troop to either pitch their tents or to make other arrangements. Because of the adverse conditions, Mr. Oddleifson led the troop in a communication exercise called ‘roses and thorns’.  After this, the consensus among the scouts and adults was that the group should pack up and head home to Cohasset.  So with full stomachs, we headed for the cars and everyone was home ready for a hot shower before 9:00pm.

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