It felt like the Klondike with the temperature at 18 degrees, some windchill and snow. But the scouts were dressed for it and the sun was out. Plus we put handwarmers in our gloves. So we stayed comfortable as we went to the different stations including knots, building a shelter, orienteering, tomahawk throw, sled rescue, chasm crossing, and fire building. The scouts were prepared for each station, didn’t have any long waits and were able to complete all the stations by the lunch break.

The scouts did well at each station especially the fire building and lashings for the chasm crossing.

For lunch, we setup at the tables under the Tee Pee. The scouts used our backpacking gas stoves to cook grilled cheese with ham sandwiches. Then we stopped at the Trading Post for some hot chocolate and snacks.

We had a guided tour of the Mass Maritime Academy including their classrooms, dorms and engine rooms. An extra cool display had a lot of historic small model ships. We learned about the different programs for the students and some about student life. Usually there’s a ship docked at campus this time of year, but not this year because there’s a new ship under construction for them that will be delivered in a few months.

Then we went to the Air and Space Museum in Hyannis which had displays on the Coast Guard on Cape Cod and people from Massachusetts who have been a part of the flight and space programs. They also had a couple flight simulators that we got to try.

 

We arrived around 5pm Friday at the Stonewall campsite which was an especially nice campsite in a grove of tall pines and next to the ballfield. It was also the best location for getting to the Turkey Shoot events. We also had nice dry weather with temperatures in the 50s.

After setting up tents, we cooked rice and beef for our burrito dinner. We also made a good campfire. Then we went to the gun safety session at the camp pavilion.

On Saturday, we got up early and made a quick breakfast of bananas and toasted bagels. We got over to the shotguns right before opening at 8am and were the first troop to get to shoot. Then we went to archery. Next we got in line for rifles. There didn’t seem to be too many in line but the line moved very slowly. A little before lunch, the staff let us leave for lunch and held our spot for after lunch. A nice lunch was provided by the OA for $5 and included chicken soup, hot sandwich, pasta, chips and brownie. After lunch, we did get to do rifles without much more of a wait. Then we did tomahawk toss. We also had a basketball game of scouts vs dads with the dads surprisingly edging ahead on the scoring.

After some downtime including visiting the trading post, there was an awards ceremony with the top 5 finishers in each event getting a free turkey. Our troop won 4 turkeys with Xavier winning 1st place in rifles, Luca getting turkeys for both rifles and tomahawk, and Jake getting a turkey for tomahawk.

We went back to camp for spaghetti dinner with Texas toast and a good campfire. Then we went to the OA campfire program which had two bonfires and skits by the troops. All the scouts showed a good spirit of fun and respect for each other. After the campfire, the scouts played manhunt in the ballfield.

For Sunday morning, the scouts were up before dawn and restarted our fire. We made breakfast including bacon cooked on the fire and egg/cheese muffin sandwiches. Then we packed up and headed home.

 

We went on a camping out on Monomoy Island on Saturday. Our timing had to fit with the weather conditions. It was too windy Friday and early Saturday morning. We were able to go from the Barn Hill Town Landing at 11am on Saturday. The ranger and Stage Harbor Excursions ferried us over.  We hiked about half a mile from the beach landing to the lighthouse and setup our tents in an open area to the east of the lighthouse.

After a peanut butter and jelly sandwich lunch, we did service projects. We split up into 3 groups. One group pickup trash along the beach north of our campsite, another picked up trash to the south, and another worked on digging out a modern boat shipwreck on the beach. For the trash pickup, each scout carried a large garbage bag. We collected a fair bit of trash including bouys, rope, bottles, balloons and lightbulbs with thick glass.

It became increasingly windy in the late afternoon. The tents had to be extra secured, especially the larger tents. A couple scouts packed up their tents and joined tents of other scouts. Without trees or other shelters, the wind was strong on the tents and pushed them around.

We had a chance to climb to the top of the lighthouse for great 360-degree views.

For dinner, we setup our gas stoves on the deck of the lighthouse. We boiled water to make Mountain House meals, mac-n-cheese and some oatmeal. After dinner we visited a bit with the ranger and a couple staff members working on bird studies. The lighthouse had some posters on the history. We didn’t stay very long because we wanted to get back to camp to check on how the tents were holding up to the wind.

We hunkered down in our tents and went to bed fairly early because we couldn’t have a campfire and it was so cool and windy. Overnight it rained lightly.

We got up an hour before sunrise to pack up and then hiked out to the landing beach by 7am. There was a storm to the south and it was getting more windy with some whitecaps. So we wanted to head back as early as possible. Fortunately the rain stopped by sunrise. The boat ride was a bit spotty on the way home and not too rough.

Monomoy Island was quiet, beautiful and large. We saw several large flocks of birds and many seals.

We camped out at Wellfleet Hollow State Campground on Friday night and made spaghetti dinner. We had a campfire and made smores. The campground was less than half full and we had 6 campsites but the campmaster still hassled us about having 2 tents on a couple sites when the rule was 1 tent per site.

On Saturday morning, we made egg muffin breakfast sandwiches. Then a light rain started. We drove with our bikes up to the National Seashore Visitor Center at Province Lands. We biked clockwise around the Province Land bike trail loop. We took a side trip on the Hatches Harbor trail. It was a gravel and sand trail that we were able to ride on bikes on most of the time and walk our bikes when it got too sandy. We walked the last part of the trail out to the Race Point Lighthouse. Despite the light rain, we still had fun and made it back to the visitor center for a late lunch.

We drove to the Race Point beach to check it out but didn’t stay long since it was windy and wet. Then we drove back to camp. We had planned to camp Saturday night but we decided to pack up and head home since the camp staff was unfriendly and the weather forecast had heavier rain coming.

We had a beautiful day for our hike out to the campsite. We stopped for lunch on the beach along the way and setup our tents in the early afternoon. Then we explored the end of Sandy Neck by hiking down the beach until we could see the lighthouse. We had a bit of an adventure following a new trail on the way back to camp. Then scouts had time for games like pine cone baseball.

Dinner was spaghetti and zucchini which was a hit with some scouts having thirds. Then we had a campfire on the beach with smores and stories. We also retired some US flags.

On Sunday morning, we hiked back along the marsh trail. When we got back to the parking lot, we got snacks and lunch from the park cafe.

After finishing installing the benches in Riverbay, we arrived at the Shawme-Crowell State Forest at 1pm. We setup our tents at group site 2 and then spent the rest of the day exploring camp, playing ball and manhunt. A few scouts brought bikes and rode around the campground. Other scouts walked over to the scout store. The weather was terrific which was extra enjoyable.

We could hear distant traffic noise from Route 6 during the evening especially. Also there were a few families in the group site next to us who played a radio, had barking dogs and did loud shouting games that kept some of us awake well past the quiet hour. The campground was less than half full, so it was unfortunate to be next to the one noisy area.

The campground had nice, clean “comfort stations” with running water. The playground was also nice and new. There’s a one mile path to go to the Heritage Museum but we didn’t have time for that. Besides these, the campground doesn’t have many other activities.

The scouts cooked hot dogs, burgers, beans and popcorn for dinner. For the breakfast, the scouts made eggs, sausage, bagels and hot cocoa. Our campsite had a fire ring with a grate which we used for cooking. We were able to find plenty of wood from around our campsite.

This trip combined our troop with some cub scouts. We drove up to New England Base Camp (NEBC) at 10am and then setup our tents at the Loon campsite. The camp provided large wheelbarrows to move our gear over. We made hot lunch on mac-n-cheese with ham and carrots with hummus.

After lunch we hiked to the top of Great Blue Hill which has a stone tower with views of Boston and the South Shore. Scouts practiced using map and compass to navigate the many different trails in our route on the 6 mile hike.

When we got back to camp, we went over to the NEBC activity area and did archery, BB guns and tomahawk throwing. They also had a long rope bridge that was fun to cross.

Back at camp, scouts made dinner of beef burritos with rice and lots of toppings. We had a campfire and smores. Scouts played manhunt. It was cloudy all day with slight occasional rain.

Overnight it rained fairly heavily but fortunately the rain tapered off by morning. Scouts made breakfast of bacon and oatmeal with toppings. We packed up camp and headed out before 10am.

We visited the Kennedy Presidential Library. After watching the film about John Kennedy, we toured the exhibits. Besides the learning about Kennedy, it was a good chance to dry off and warm up.

Then we drove over to Fenway and got into the ballpark with time to find our seats and get lunch before the game. Our seats were in center field and there were many other scouts around since it was Scout Day. The weather was drizzly like being inside a cloud and this kept the crowd away with the ballpark about half full. It was a close game with the Red Sox scoring late and winning 7-1 against Cleveland. After we got back to our cars, heavy rain started as we drove home.

A winter storm was moving through on Saturday morning. So we delayed our start to 8:30. South of Boston, the storm was rain, and then it turned to all snow at the NH border. The NH snowplows were on top of it and had the roads cleared as soon as the snow slowed down. We stopped for lunch at the Hooksett rest area. By the time that we got to Sandwich, NH, the snow was light. Even the side roads were well plowed and we arrived at the trailhead about 1pm. There was over one foot of fresh snow on top of a few feet of snow from storms earlier that week.

To hike to the camp, we used snowshoes and a sled to carry extra gear. Once we got to camp, we dug out a path to the cabin door and then used shovels to build our snow trenches.

When it started getting dark, we moved into the cabin and started a fire in the stove. The stove warmed up the cabin and dried our wet clothes. We also boiled water for our Mountain House dinners. It took a surprising long time for the water to boil. For an extra nice treat, Mr. Baker brought beef jerky which we heated up on the stove.

After dinner, the scouts played cards until 10pm and then settled into their snow caves. Overnight, the wind was calm and there was a light snow and the temperature wasn’t too cold, in the upper 20s. Everyone made it through the night in the snow caves.

In the morning, we packed up and hiked out. We stopped for breakfast at Dunkin and drove home.

For this trip, we rented a Ford Expedition from Hertz in Orleans so that we could all travel in one car which worked out very well. It was just enough room to fit 5 scouts, 2 adults and our gear.

We went to Squanto for Klondike Derby. It was cold enough for snow but we didn’t have any snow on the ground. The scouts pushed the sled around to the different event stations including log pull, raise sled, and BB guns. The wait at the BB guns took a very long time. Then we didn’t have time to do the fire building station. The camp served lunch of hot dogs, chicken soup and cookies. Between events, we toured the scout museum. After we were done with the stations, we played a football game on the big parade field with the scouts vs adults. It was a game until the 1st touchdown which was super quick because the scouts had the 1st play and completed a long pass for a touchdown.