2009 EVENTS
Whiteoak Canyon Trip (Shenandoah National Park) - August 7-9, 2009
The troop tackles a hiking trip through Whiteoak Canyon in the Shenandoah National Park. Eight of us meet up at the church
at 6:30 Friday night to begin our trek. After the battle with the Friday evening traffic we make it to our campsite. A quick setup and a small cracker barrel are all that we do for the rest of the evening turning in to rest for our hike the following day.
We wake bright and early to deer wandering through the campsite and get the day started with a massive helping of pancakes. We are then quickly on our way to the trail head ready to set out on our nearly eight and a half mile trip down and back up Whiteoak Canyon. The circuit trip was described as a very strenuous hike with multiple waterfalls and
cascades. We spend the morning hiking down the Cedar Run trail to the bottom of the canyon. We stop and take breaks along the way at each of the waterfalls. At the bottom, we break for our trail lunch before we start our way back up out of the canyon along the Whiteoak Canyon trail. We were sure to take in the three Whiteoak Falls, the largest of which was 86 feet high. After a long day's hike we make
it back to the cars and head back to the campsite for dinner.
The evening was especially lazy as we'd done a good job of wearing everyone out. We enjoyed a barbeque chicken and corn on the cob dinner. Some of us sat around the campfire while others called it a day and retired for the night. After breakfast and clean-up, we broke camp and made the roadtrip back home. All in all a great trip, fantastic views and a good stretch of the legs.
Whitewater Canoe Trip (Antietam Creek) - June 8, 2009
We’ve just finished the wettest May in recorded Maryland history, so it’s no surprise that the planned whitewater trip to Harpers Ferry on the Shenandoah (6.5 feet) and Potomac (12 feet) is going to skip right to plan B, Antietam Creek. We left the church at 0730 and drove to camp through Sandy Hook to get a look at the Potomac (who knows, the river gauges might be wrong?!). There were no rocks visible in the Potomac, just muddy waves and holes. We continued to camp Manadokin and dump our camping gear.
Then we left a car at the takeout where Antietam creek flows into the Potomac and drove to the put-in, just down stream from Devil’s Backbone. Antietam Creek was good and juicey but not pushy. There were no strainers. The experience from last summer’s Allagash trip showed and nobody had any problems. We had a standard river lunch of string cheese, summer sausage , bananas, and juice boxes. After lunch, Blender-Finger Chris and Andrew surfed the v-shaped wave formed by the weir just down stream from the Burnside Bridge. Then they tried to exit the wave by leaning back (that doesn’t work; the wave wants the buoyancy of the bow. To get out you need to lean forward.) So they tried a peel-out instead….Wipeout! The takeout at Antietam Creek Aqueduct was steep and muddy. We used a throw line to get the boats up.
The scouts dined on meatball subs. The adults went for steak and corn on the cob. Dessert was cantaloupe and canary melon for both. Later that evening we used a laptop and blackberry to look at river gauges. Unfortunately, even the Violetts Lock loop on the Potomac and C&O Canal was too high. Breakfast was oat meal and mountain man.
West Point Invitational Camporee
- May 1-3, 2009
The troop once again was fortunate enough to receive an invitation to attend the West Point Camporee at the United State Military Academy. Every year the Cadet Scoutmasters' Council hosts a camporee at Lake Frederick for approximately 3,000 scouts from over 120 different Boy and Girl Scout troops.
The troop started its trek Friday morning to the
great disappointment of the attending scouts... they had to miss a day of school. Upon arrival at Lake Frederick, the scouts and adults (all but Larry and Will) packed roughly three and a half miles to the campsite. The infamous "Bull Hill" didn't stop anyone, despite its seemingly near vertical incline.
The weather cooperated better than expected. The forecast was for rain all weekend; however, we were spared through most of the hike in. Our one rain fly served us well and thanks to the drivers we had a dry welcome. The rest of the evening was damp, but come morning we had dry skies and the sun even came out warming and drying things up.
Saturday was action packed starting dark and early (well really just early by the boys standards) with reveille and PT (physical training) with our sponsoring cadet. The troop then split into two teams for the main events to ensure they covered all the scored events counting toward the Best Overall Troop competition. The scouts felt confident throughout the day getting motivating
encouragement in the form of placing high in individual events. Even placing third overall in one of the events out of over 120 troops and showing mastery in Knot Tying, Drill, Fire Building and Land Navigation. The day culminated in a concert, campfire and skits.
Sunday morning we prepared for departure, but before we left the scouts marched in a Pass and Review Parade and Awards Ceremony. The rain held off until we were on the road, which was good for closing events but miserable for the drivers heading home. Despite a slight detour by Larry, the trip home was uneventful and the troop was looking forward to building on successes next year.
Williamsburg Trip - March 31, 2009
We left the church hall at 6:30 PM for the drive to Williamsburg. The drive was pretty good except for a little delay on I-95 where the HOV lanes rejoin. We stayed at a campsite at the Naval Recreational Facility, Cheatam Annex, part of the Naval Weapons Station Yorktown. After varying degrees of difficulty with insurance cards at the gate, we set up camp on a very wet night. The York river-front campsite included a pavilion, a tee-pee (with it’s own flow-through creek), and clean bathrooms with heat and showers (at least a 9 on the scale).
After a quick breakfast we drove 3 miles to Colonial Williamsburg, badged up, toured the Governor’s
Mansion, broke into groups and wandered through the historical area (wheelwright and cabinet maker). The weather was grey, windy, with a few drops, but generally dry. Everybody grabbed buses back to the parking lot for lunch. After lunch we met up with a guide, bused back into the historical area. While we were waiting to tour the Capitol Building, the guide told that while there were modern oyster shells used as paving all over Williamsburg, long ago, the whole area had been under water. He showed a large fossil scallop shell and said that there was a layer of them 30’ down under all of Williamsburg. The one he had came from a very deep, dangerous (and therefore secret) ravine, and no, he wouldn’t tell the scouts where it was. (More on that later.) So we toured the goal, the Capitol Building, the silversmith, and the blacksmith. (The riflemaker’s shop ain’t what it used to be and was closed anyhow.) We agreed upon a 4 PM rendezvous and left in groups to see stuff. My group visited the Public Hospital (Insane Asylum) which has a great collection of early American furniture and other artifacts. We then hopped a bus for the rendezvous in the parking lot. Some of the scouts h
ad skipped the bus and just walked back. They’d apparently found the ravine; they had hands full of fossil scallop shells. We repaired back to camp for dinner.
Dinner was grilled hamburgers for the older patrol, dutch oven roast Cornish hens and vegetables for the young scouts, and grilled steak, sauteed vegetables, and cous cous for the adults. Strategic surplus by the adults resulted, after some barter, in a KP free meal for the adults. (Thanks to the “Vulture”.)
Breakfast on Sunday was more leisurely with eggs in a bag and French toast (pain perdu) by the scouts and corned beef hash with over-easy eggs for the adults. After breakfast, cleanup, and
packup, we drove the other direction down colonial parkway to Yorktown. There, we walked around the site and layout of the colonial siege of Yorktown led by George Washington and one of the high points in French behavior by Rochambeau and deGrasse that ended the British occupation of the United States, freedom by action, freedom in fact.
We mounted up for the ride home. The vote was against Scottish food, so we eventually executed 2 u-turns to get into a little US-301 strip mall with the smallest Sub-way in the eastern US, exercised the sanitary facilities (about a 7) unduly, ate lunch in the parking lot and repaired home.
Gettysburg - April 28, 2009
We left the church hall at 7:30 Saturday Morning and drove to Gettysburg via I-70 and US-15 in light traffic. We took a quick look through the visitor center and bought detailed maps and visitor guides. The able then took off on their bikes to tour the battlefield while the less willing took a look around town and the battlefield in the sag wagon. The troop basically toured the Union positions on the east ridge before we ran into them near the peach orchard. They were having fun with bikes on the rolling terrain. The morning was clear and in the seventies.
We met at Devil’s Den for lunch, bouldering, chimneying, and team pictures. The cyclists were low on water so we filled them up from the pickup and sent them on their way up the confederate side to a rendevous at the Virginia Monument which is approximately the starting point for Picketts’s charge. At about 2PM, we loaded them up and took them back to the visitor’s center, then left with all the vehicles for camp.
Camp Conewago is a small Boy Scout Camp about 15 minutes east of Gettysburg (GPS recommended). The camp is surrounded on 3 sides by 2 branches of Conewago Creek. Our accommodations for the night were two Rothrock shelters that sleep eight each. The shelters had seen better days, but were ok for our purposes. The boys made dutch-oven Mexican Lagsana for supper while the adults dined on grilled steak and vegetables. The evening’s entertainment was a bicycle skidding contest, won by Colin.
Sunday morning the adults breakfasted on bacon, eggs, and leftover Italian bread while the younger and wiser feasted on pop-tarts and bananas. After this repast, Charlie and Tim set up a compass course for the younger scouts, who made it around the course, but need more work.
We returned to the church hall by way of Westminster.