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