Orienteering - December 2017

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:

https://photos.app.goo.gl/wJcAdOYsESc5UfoC3

AT Backpacking Trip Leg 2

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.

Photo Album

Picture Backlog

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.

Lake Lewey in the ADK Mountains

Camp Read Brant Lake ADK Mountains

WEBELO Camp Out Hoyt Scout Reservation

A Walk Through American History

Spent the weekend exploring American Revolutionary War history in Boston. Hiked the Freedom Trail then visited Concord and the Old North Bridge where the first shots of the war were fired.



To see all of our pictures from the weekend check out our picture page here:

https://goo.gl/photos/kaRGoV3zjmqrvuG7A

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

Winter Picture Catch Up

I recently realized I have not kept up with pictures and descriptions of our outings since the Ski Trip.  In order to get caught up and ready for our Spring camping season I am rolling all updates into a single post.  Enjoy and get ready for spring camping.

Gettysburg Trail Medal Hike

20+ miles in two days covering the length of the battlefield.  Pictures:

https://goo.gl/photos/UoFqq879JisxfszT7

Cabin Camping at Ten Mile River

Camping and hiking during a very warm February weekend.  Pictures:

https://goo.gl/photos/sQvUwcvn8ifqczdR6

Troop Klondike Derby

Almost no snow this year, but we managed to pull it off last minute with the little snow mother nature gave us.  Pictures:

https://goo.gl/photos/D76gUiWb2UHN69cq8

Flaming Eagles Snow Tube Patrol Outing

Flaming Eagles went snow tubing and it looks like they had fun. Not sure how they found the snow.  Pictures:

https://goo.gl/photos/K8q3dpoDYpSz27Eq8

Spring (sort of) Hike

How did we know we were on our Spring hike?  Because it was cold, windy and snowing.  This was the third year in a row that our Spring hike was snowed on, and it is now a Troop 4 tradition.

Despite the conditions, or maybe because of them, we had a fantastic and memorable hike in Bear Mountain State Park.

We started in the Bear Mountain Inn parking lot and hiked along Hessian Lake until the trail took us up the mountain.  Up 1100 plus feet, across rocks, boulders, and unmelted snow.  

With most of our climb coming in just over a mile of hiking this stretch of the hike was by far the most difficult, but everyone managed and I was particularly impressed with our new scouts who went up the mountain close on the heels of our older scouts.

Once at the top we stopped for lunch, and the rest of the hike was an easy walk through the woods on nice wide trails with rock stairs carved into the mountain.  A much easier way down than trip up.

A total of almost five miles was covered in about three and half hours including rest breaks and our stop for lunch.

Our new scouts started to learn more advanced map reading skills and learned how to estimate hiking times using a map to count miles and elevation and turn that information into a rough estimate of the total trip time.

For the complete photo record of the hike check out our photo page at:

https://picasaweb.google.com/114081196567743974684/BearMountainHikeMarch2015

Now that it's finally Spring we are ready to launch into campout season.

Clear Lake Campout

If they made a movie about our weekend it would be titled Cold & Colder.  Friday was damp, cold, then downright wet.  Our promised good weather on Saturday turned into a windy cold day, and a very cold night.

All the scouts were terrific.  We ended up with a great 4 mile hike on Saturday along the ridge over looking the two lakes and had a chance to do some rank advancement for all the scouts not just the newest ones.  Our Star Scouts worked with our Tenderfoots and 2nd Class scouts on advancements, and Steve and I started the new Scouts on their Tenderfoot requirements Saturday morning.

The meals were all prepared on time and nobody seemed to go away hungry.  The foil burgers seemed to be a big hit and all the scouts worked hard at collecting enough firewood to cook over the open fire. They need to work on their definition of "clean" for KP duty, but they didn't do too badly for what was for many the first time being responsible for their camping kitchen.  I particularly pity the boys who took home the griddles to clean.

For the full story in photos please check out the Troop album.  The folder for the weekend's campout can be found here:

https://picasaweb.google.com/114081196567743974684/ClearLakeCampoutApril2014?noredirect=1

If you took pictures this weekend and want to add them to the album let me know and I will send you a note with a link you can use to upload.

Minnewaska Hike March 2014

Cold, windy, sunny, then snowing, windy again, and then sunny and warm, what a day for a Troop hike.  Add in the significant amount of snowfall still on the ground and we had a heck of a hike to introduce Troop 4 outings to our newest scouts.  We covered 6 miles over narrow trails, rocky outcroppings and snow covered carriage trails that tired me me out and I suspect did the same for the scouts.

Thanks to William for doing the planning, it was a fantastic day.

For all the picture from the day please check out the following link to the Minnewaska folder of our Troop 4 album.

https://picasaweb.google.com/114081196567743974684/MinnewaskaHike?noredirect=1