Category — Historian’s Report

While the forecast looked wet and dreary, the weather held off (at lease in NH) and the Troop enjoyed a great weekend kayaking along the CT River.

We departed bright and early Saturday morning and (after a quick stop at Dunkin’ Donuts to fuel the drivers) proceeded north to Woodsville, NH and the start of our 2-day trip.  We put in at the Dodge Falls Hydro dam north of Woodsville, loaded our gear and set off down the river.

The narrower channels in the upper portion of the river made for some fast flows and tricky currents, but the Scouts handled it in stride.  We camped overnight on Howard Island and enjoyed dinner under partly cloudy skies.  While the forecast promised rain, it was dry overnight (which made for an easier pack-out in the morning).

Sunday offered a couple of brief showers, but the rain held off and we cruised downriver under cloudy skies.  The river widened out south of Howard Island making for slower flows along a meandering section of the river.  Our final stop was the takeout at Bedell Bridge State Park with a last opportunity to deploy the squirt guns and bilge pumps to make sure no one got home with dry clothes!

Photos of the trip have been posted in the photo section of the website.

It was quite an adventure for both seasoned hikers and our newest Scouts when we hiked Mt. Manadnock this past weekend!

For a smaller group of Scouts working on the Backpacking Merit Badge, it was a 20-mile trek over 3 days.  We started at the base of Monadnock and hiked the Monadnock-Sunapee Greenway to the Spiltoir Shelter 4 miles to the north.  After a rainy overnight at the shelter, we hiked south to join the main group in at the base of Monadnock.

The entire group hiked 6 miles up and over Monadnock to the campground at the base of the mountain.  The hike took about 6 hours and included some pretty tough climbs through steep rocky sections of the trail.  The group was rewarded with lunch at the summit under partly cloudy skies.  The hike down proved equally challenging in places as parts of the trail were pretty slick after the rains the night before.  We made it into camp around 3:30 for a well deserved rest.

After a pretty tough day, it wasn’t hard to convince the Scouts to hit their tents for a good night’s sleep after a short campfire.

The following morning the main group hiked 2 miles out to the cars while the long-hikers treked another 5 miles to the base of Gap Mountain to the south.

I’m really proud of all the boys (and the dads!) for accomplishing a pretty tough hike!

Pictures have been posted in the Photos section of the website … hope you enjoy them as much as I did!

Well, I finally got the opportunity to upload some photos from our recent New Scout Overnight.

Although the gnats and mosquitoes were in full bloom, the weather cooperated and we had a great weekend over at Camp Acton with our newest Troop members.

Led by a few of our veteran Scouts, our greenhorns got a chance to swing an axe, whittle a bunch of sticks and build some fires – in other words cut stuff and burn stuff!

There was a lot more to it than that of course.  We focused on basic outdoor skills – knife and axe safety, firebuilding, knots, camp cooking, pitching a tent and some basic map & compass skills.  We got a bunch of requirements signed off and the new Scouts were able to earn their Totin’ Chip and Firem’n Chit.

The only thing we missed was how to stay dry in the rain … but I think everyone was happy to leave that skill for another day!

Check out the photos in our Photo section.