Florida Sea Base - High Advandutre Trip

Sunrise on Big Munson Island, Florida Keys

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:

https://goo.gl/photos/QW13Ruj2vpT6KpJg7