Orienteering competition at the Westmoreland Sanctuary last Saturday. The objective is to use a map to find the fastest way between control points. The control points act as course markers and have to be hit in the correct order. Miss a control point or go out of order and you get a Did Not Finish (DNF). All the teams that get their control points punched correctly in the right order are then ranked by time to determine the winner.
The Troop split up into teams to tackle the course and after some trial and error scored rather high beating all other competitors on the White course. Next time we will step it up and will try the Yellow or Orange courses.
Thanks to Kevin Smith and Scott Jeffery for making this event possible with their attendance and driving. Special thanks to Kevin for photographing the day.
For all the pictures from the event check out the Troop photo album here:
Segment 2 of our quest to hike the entire length of the Appalachian Trail contained in New York State is completed. There is almost 90 miles of trail in NYS and we have covered about 13. AT this rate we should get the entire route covered in about 5 years. Our Route this time took us from RT 55 in Pawling south to RT 84.
Our Shelter for the night was the Morgan Stewart Memorial Shelter. We met two other hikers who shared the site with Monarch and Hiking Hippo. Monarch is segment hiking the AT and was completing the NY segment she started this summer. I wish I got a picture of Hiking Hippos pack, he had a 120 Liter backpack that seemed like a magicians hat. He seemed to have 1 of everything in it. A very different philosophy that our packs which ran in size from 38 Liters to 75 Liters.
The sky was dark and the leaves mostly dropped but the forest we hiked through had a stark beauty that contrasted with our summer outings. An appropriate finish to our 2017 camp outs.
For a complete photo record of our trip please check out the album.
Apologies everyone. I went to post pictures for our last camp out and realized I had a huge backlog of un-posted photos. To make up for it this post will be a single catch up of all the activities with photos since last May and our last backpacking trip will follow as a separate post.
Great weekend hiking the Appalachian Trail. We started on Rt 55 in Pawling and hiked north along Nuclear Lake toward our final destination on Sunday the AT Metro North platform on Rt 22.
Saturday was a little drizzly but we managed to stay dry. Early in the afternoon we made it to our evening destination the Telephone Pioneer Shelter.
Sunrise as seen from the Shelter on Sunday morning was spectacular.
After a good breakfast and a clean up of the camp area we made time for a group photo.
And we are off on the final leg of our first AT Trail segment hike.
If you are interested in the full photo record of our trip check out our AT Hike Album at:
Troop 4 pulled off its first High Adventure trip with an outing to the BSA Florida Sea Base. The scouts chose the out island adventure and we spent a week on Big Munson Island living on "island time", fishing, snorkaling, kayaking, and exploring our island.
High adventure trips are designed for High School age scouts who are at least 1st Class in rank and prepared to live a wilderness high adventure experience with minimal assistance and oversight. Our trip was 1.5 years in the planning and both adults and scouts agreed the single best scouting adventure any of us ever had. As a Troop we will look to try and pull one of these adventures off every 3 years.
Day 1
Arrive at the Brinton Environmental Center on Summerland Key 25 miles north of Key West which was the staging area for our adventure.
Day 2
Pack our dry bags with gear, hit the commissary for our our food and we are off in the war canoes for a 5.5 mile paddle through the Atlantic Ocean to our island paradise and home for the remainder of the week. In true Troop 4 tradition of making all our hikes up hill both ways the trip out and back were both into the wind and against the tide.
To protect the boats we moored them offshore and trekked through the water for the last leg of the trip with our gear for the week.
Day 3
Our campsite
On our third day we explored Big Munson and got a lesson in the ecology of the Florida Keys from our Mate Charles who was our Sea Base guide for the week.
Charles
After our exploration it was on to kayaking the mangrove swamps and finding our way through the maze.
After a very full day we still had one more post dinner activity, the Troop went shark fishing in the bay that fronted our camp site. While we caught no sharks we did catch a rather large Barracuda.
Day 4
Fishing day. A boat arrived at the island to pick us up and as we headed out the rain and wind kicked up into a fierce storm. Yet our scouts persisted without complaint. Check out the video below to get a sense for the intensity of the wind and rain. Even with raincoats the rain felt like pins.
Persistence pays off. Not only did we catch fish in this weather but after lunch we were rewarded with a spectacular afternoon and the fishing got even better.
Back at the camp we cooked up the fish we kept and had a spectacular seafood feast.
Day 5
Our final full day was spent on the dive boat snorkeling a coral reef. The water and the reef were spectacular. The photos do not do justice to the vivid and amazing colors and creatures living in the reef. At one point a 6 foot shark decided to take a swim underneath the Troop between us at the surface and the coral reef below.
After dinner we had a final campfire and went to bed to prepare for the 5.5 mile journey back through the ocean the next day.
Day 6
After breaking camp and heading back to the base camp (into the wind and against the tide) we cleaned up, put our gear away and prepared for the final Luau and team building games with the rest of the scouts back at the base camp.
A great farewell and parting dinner for the Troop. Our last meal was prepared for us and after a week of Island cooking the Luau was great.
Day 7
Packed up and said farewell to our Mate Charles and we headed north back to Ft Lauderdale for our plane ride home.
For a view of our trip album please check out this link on our Troop picture page:
