Fishing the Esopus Creek

That's fishing not catching.  Except for William who briefly hooked a trout before executing a classic Long Distance Release (LDR), no one even saw a fish.  It was like aliens arrived and took all the Trout home before we arrived.

Still fishing and not catching is better than not fishing at all.

Most of the Scouts took the opportunity to get lessons in fly fishing and hopefully we sparked a future interest in the sport for some of them.

The campsite was great and the river beautiful.  I can't wait to go back.

For all the photos please visit our photo page at:

https://goo.gl/photos/QMmMLsVtJ6YdZ24X7

Nuclear Lake Hike

Saturday's  hike to Nuclear Lake in Pawling was picture perfect.   The hike was just under 5 miles and looped around a really attractive little Lake.   The lake once had a nuclear research facility on it and is famous for a minor accident.   Who knew we had something like this in our backyard?

The hike follows the Appalachian Trail (AT) around the west side of the lake before it loops back down a separate trail on the east side.   Because we were on the AT,  tradition dictated each hiker needed an AT nickname.   From left to right in the picture above our Scouts became Hangry, Duracell, Snickers, Birchbark Bob, Bassmaster, Marouse, Black Panther,  and Golden Duck while on the AT now and in any future hikes involving the AT.

For a complete view of our terrific day check out the hike's photo album at:

https://goo.gl/photos/UNzAY1Rso9zQznoA8

Clear Lake Campout

A perfect Saturday bracketed by rain on the hike in and hike out.  What's a Troop 4 Outing without a little bit of rain?

Many things to cover, but I want to start with our visitors Saturday afternoon.  North Salem Pack 1 hiked up to see the Troop Saturday and get a feel for what a Scout Camp is like.  The Troop 4 Scouts were great hosts, you should be proud of your going men.  They played silly field games with the Cubs, then each Scout adopted a Cub as a little brother and showed them their tents, backpacks, gear, and cooking areas.  Once again our Scouts did their best on upholding the "friendly" portion of the Scout Law.  I want to thank Cubmaster Peter Dibart for hiking the Pack up and back so we could get a chance to meet the Cubs and their families.

The rest of the day was consumed with canoeing, fishing, rank advancement, and relaxing.

I challenged the Patrols to plan menus that mostly fit the MyFoodPlate guidelines and would require little to no refrigeration.   Both the Flaming Eagles and OnComing Storm hit the mark.  One of the Patrols managed to put together a zero refrideration meal plan the other had only a tiny cooler bag. 

The Batmen had their own ideas (older teens usually do) and went full cooler.  I will say their meals were delicious (especially the Chili) and they didn't seem to mind hiking with the extra baggage.

Our two newest Scouts dropped right into the mix and imediately added value to their Patrols carrying their share of equiplment, cooking and cleaning.

Looking forward to the rest of our Scouting year.

For all of the pictures in the weekend's photo album please go to our picture page:

https://goo.gl/photos/mjosxwwLH5ama97G9