Historian

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

04/18/2009 – 04/19/2009
Camp Sayre

This was the trip that almost didn’t happen.  It was the first weekend of Spring Break.  Lots of scouts were away with their families.  It was nice having a small group for a change.   On Saturday, April 18, we met @ the Scout Locker at 8:30 am to pack up our gear.  Scouts attending were Derek, Adam, Andrew, Tucker, Morgan and Robbie.  Adult leaders were Mr. Oddleifson and Mr. Leighton.  We all fit comfortably into two cars and made our way to the campsite in about 40 minutes.  Once we were at Camp Sayre, we drove a full circuit of the campgrounds until we found a suitable campsite.  We set up our tents then put all the gear stuff in Mr. O’s car.  Then we got into Mr. Leighton’s car and went to the trail head. It was a beautiful day, a bit cool; just the right temperature for hiking.  We hiked on the Skyline trail to the police station where we had lunch at picnic tables and took a bathroom break.  Then we started back up Skyline trail to get to the lookout tower.  Robbie and Tucker had extra weight in their backpacks to train for Philmont this summer.  Robbie used bricks and Tucker had an extra tent and cranberries in his pack.  We stayed there for a bit then hiked back to the campsite arriving at around 4pm.  Adam got started cooking dinner.  Tucker helped connect the propane to the stoves for the spaghetti and meat sauce; the garlic bread was cooked on the grill.  We had a bit more food than we needed so Tucker “force fed” us second and third helpings.  We didn’t want to waste anything!    Everybody helped with cleanup.  After all this was done, somehow… we found room for the sugar cookies! After dinner, we played “manhunt” which some people refer to as flashlight tag.  Morgan was definitely the winner because he hid the best of everyone and he won most of the games.  Sadly then it was time to go to bed, so Tucker played “Taps”.  It rained during the night but if there was lightning and thunder, I didn’t hear it because I slept like a rock.  Reveille was at 7:30 am.  Our cook Adam provided bagels, cream cheese, oatmeal and fruit and orange juice.  After breakfast, Adam and I were picked up for our lacrosse games, leaving the others – still a little sleepy — to get ready, I thought, for another challenging hike.  As it turns out the remaining 6 campers broke camp, packed up and made their way home to Cohasset.

Respectfully Submitted,

Derek Benson, Historian