Lake Lila Fishing Venture

This year's venturing trip was a canoe fishing trip to Lake Lila in the Adirondacks.  5 Scouts, all Second Class and above, took part and fished hard over 4 days.

Lake Lila is a remote lake buried deep within the William C. Whitney Wilderness Area of the Adirondack Mountains.  Accessible only by driving down 10 miles of semi-maintained county roads, then 5 miles on a two lane dirt road, follow by a single lane dirt road for 6 miles to the trail head and finally a 1/3 mile portage of all equipment down a trail to the access point, the lake is the largest body of water in New York State that the shoreline is 100% owned by the State.  While this might not be quite as remote as last year's venture it was close.

With a large storm moving in Thursday night we hastily found a campsite on the lake and made camp. By 9pm we were all buttoned up and in our tents as the rains started.  A hard steady rain lasted until early the next morning but all tents and equipment stayed dry.

Morning brought sunshine and the start of three perfect days of weather for the rest of the trip.

Mornings and evenings were filled with fishing and our downtime was during the afternoons between sessions on the water when we cooked our big meals and rested around the campsite.

The scouts got lessons in filleting fish and practiced on their catch, then cooked everything up for very tasty evening snacks before bedtime.

Back home and rested its time to start thinking about next years venturing trip.

For the full photo record of the trip please check out our Troop photo album at:

https://picasaweb.google.com/114081196567743974684/LakeLilaFishingTrek?authkey=Gv1sRgCNe-qpbspsm2MQ

Camp Read Wrap-Up

What a splendid week.  Thirty-six merit badges started, twenty-five completed with several more partials from last year completed during free time. 

On top of the merit badge activities we managed to go caving, climbing on the rock tower, swim, and participate in many of the camp wide activities.  Troop 4 also managed to fit in some time for a Read service project helping to keep the beach clean at the waterfront.

We managed an archery competition during siesta against Troop 1 Mount Kisco, competed in the Quadrathlon (rock climbing, archery, running, and swimming), and the Staph hunt.

It's amazing the Scouts found time to keep the campsite up and cook all their meals but they did.  Not only were they terrific cooks but for the first time ever at Read they managed to cook and clean all their meals quickly and efficiently and had tons of extra time because of it.  

Almost every morning the Troop was fed and cleaned up with an hour to go before the start of the day.  The decreased levels of stress for the adults associated with not having to push or rush the scouts so they didn't miss the start of the day or evening activities can't be overstated.

For the complete photo record of our time at Camp Read please check out out photo album at:

https://picasaweb.google.com/114081196567743974684/CampRead2015?authkey=Gv1sRgCMD9gL7u2ZPtYw

2015 West Point Invitational Camporee

6,600 plus Scouters, 200 plus Cadets, West Point's Lake Frederick Training ground, and again great weather made for a fantastic weekend.  Our campsite (Jump Zone) was one of five different sites spread out around Lake Frederick.  Each with its own water truck and sanitary facilities.

The Cadets start organizing for the Camporee in September and manage to pull this enormous event off each year on their own.  It's hard to believe that these young men and women are only 3-5 years older than our oldest scouts.  And a group of nicer people you will never meet.  After working long hard days entertaining the Scouts they were pleasant and cheerful and friendly to the end.  They all still had their end of term papers to complete and finals to study for but they gave 110% to make the Camporee memorable for all who attended. Most are former Scouts themselves so I guess that isn't too surprising.

Our two Cadet hosts for the weekend were Bill Pogue (L) and Sumner Ogrydziak (R).  Bill and Sumner spent time with the Troop when they weren't busy running one of the stations during the day.  Bill and Sumner arrived out our Camsite at 6:15am Saturday morning to get our Scouts "in the mood" for the day ahead by leading us In 30 minutes of vigours physical training.

After breakfast it was off to the parade field for a demonstration by the West Point Jump team.

After the opening and the jump demonstration we hit the trail. Most of the activities were centered around things that required teamwork, physical challenges, leadership reaction, scouting skills and military themed challenges.

Cole was a good sport during the camo painting challenge. 

Teamwork was a theme running throughout the day's events.  Most challenges were presented to the Scouts in a way that made them work together. 

Prôbably the most fun was had in the mud.  The Scouts had to "rescue" a comrade by crawling through a pit of mud.   To make sure each scout who participated was muddy enough the cadets continued to add water throughout the day.

The final results were magnificent.

After a long day on Saturday the Cadets hosted a bonfire and DJ to entertain everyone.

Most of our scouts were in their tents and out before the end of the party, including our SPL and Quartermaster who we had to get out of bed to go attend the Scout's final leadership briefing.

The next morning it was time to start breaking down the campsite and cleaning up.

Then Sumner and Bill arrived to take our Troop to the parade field and prepare them for the presentation of the Troops to the Commandant of West Point in a parade of all the Scouts.

Finally, it was time to hike back out and end the weekend.  Through a mix up on Friday one of the trucks was parked at Lake Frederick and we were able to load all our gear and drive it out saving us a lot of time and effort packing it out.  The morning was hot, and the climb out was steep.

For the complete photo record of the weekend please check out our Troop photo album on the web at:

https://picasaweb.google.com/114081196567743974684/WestPointCamporeeMay2015