Troop 301

April was intended to start with a trip to Gettysburg and the 100th anniversary of the start of the Civil War.

Unfortunately a call to the park told us that if the government shut down due to the lack of a budget agreement, we would be barred from entering the park.

We could not risk people drive 5-1/2 hours to be turned away to drive back and had to cancel .

Scouts did make it to the 5oth aniversary reunion at Gettysburg in 1913 however.

We instead regrouped and threw together a hike from Sunken Meadow State Park along the water.

The troop ended the month with an ORIENTEERING campout at Sears-Bellows Park in Flanders N.Y.

Friday night the adults helped refresh the younger scouts on map & compass skills.

The boy leaders were briefed on the orienteering course concept.

….and then there was FIRE.

The next morning the scouts got up early and prepared breakfast by patrol.

Mmmmm…..Food good!

While KP was being done….some warming by the fire.

Then leader scouts gathered the boys into their orienteering groups for the run of the course.

Before each group left, they were invited to walk off the 100-foot “pacing rope” so they knew how many steps they took to cover that distance.

Scouts were grouped with a mixture of younger and older scouts so the older boys could teach the younger ones.

Each group would walk to a letter marked check point and read from the instructions as to what the next action they needed to do or heading they needed to follow.

Groups were spaced 10 minutes apart so if groups ran into one another, somebody was off course for some reason.

Some check-points included a map that the boys needed to orient themselves on in order to set a heading to the next check-point.

Others required that the scouts collect some missing item the Scoutmaster in the story had forgotten to bring on the campout.

If the scouts picked the wrong heading, the item that they might be searching for would be a false one.

Some check-points lead the scouts to a fork in the trails and they had to pick the correct trail via use of the map & compass.

Then is was back to camp for foil pack lunch and a rest followed by a short “hike with a purpose” that had the patrols each find a part of a missing flag & stand. Then it was on to the evening fire, Dutch Oven cooking and games.

Nick’s fire could best be described as a blacksmith’s forge as scouts cooking needed to only stir for seconds before needing to run and cool down

Not sure why Alex is making this face but the food was GOOD!

Sloppy Joes in a Dutch Oven for the Black Ravens.

Last thing after the police line cleanup on Sunday morning was the “Thorns & Roses” followed by the closing with the retiring of the flag.

A special thanks to Mr. DeMarco for designing the course (with Mr. Herrmann). All seemed to have had fun…..and learned something!