Events from December 2010

Our first event of December 2010 was a trip to northwestern New Jersey and Camp NO-BE-BO-SCO (NOrth BErgen BOy SCOuts).

Camp NO-BE-BO-SCO is also “sort of” famous for being “Camp Crystal Lake” in the 1980 slasher horror film Friday the 13th. (http://www.movie-locations.com/movies/f/FridayThe13th.html) and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friday_the_13th_(movie)

JASON never visited the 2-year old cabins we stayed in and it has been 30 years since the movie was shot with lots of camp changes since then. Some of the buildings used in the film remain but this was not the highlight of our visit.

We left St. James at about 10 minutes to seven in the morning on December 4th and arrived to snowflakes (and 31 degrees) just after 9:00 am. (Zach is catching flakes on his tongue).

We split the troop and the adults between the two identical cabins that are built adjacent to the big overhead power lines. The cabins are heated but have no water or bathrooms. Water could be gotten to the right of the building shown below:

This picture is important as it shows the power lines running up the ridge toward CATFISH MOUNTAIN FIRE TOWER. Our hike (or climb) was to circle the northeast side of Sand Pond and back to the power lines on the far side.

The scouts and most of the adults then climbed the rocks and boulders up the almost 500 feet to the high tension tower on the top of the ridge.

It was a challenging climb with some of us stopping often to enjoy the views .

When the boys reached the top, they found an American flag with a POW flag hung below it that had been partially blown off its staff and ripped out of the rocks. With the help of a roll of medical tape and reinforcing rocks a couple of the older scouts had the flag flying proudly atop the ridge before the final adults reached the top.

We all ate lunch at the top and enjoyed the panoramic views.

Looking back across Sand Pond and along the fire break we could see our cabins in the distance.

After lunch, we said good bye to the rescued flag with a group photo and then continued northeast along the Appalachian Trail for a little less then a mile. This part of the hike was easy and the boys did it at a brisk pace.

We followed the white (AT) trail until it intersected the red trail where we started our decent.

The climb down was almost as steep as the blue trail up but this time the trail was loose rocks and soft dirt (due to the morning snow) and many did a “butt slide” at one point or another. The troop worked together to help each other through the tougher areas of the decent and nobody ended up with more than sore feet and a dirty seat.

Back at the cabins the boys relaxed for a while before a quick compass points game and attempting to cook dinner on the porches outside the cabins. It was quickly getting cold and the propane regulators were freezing up on the troop stoves (Note to troop – use liquid fuel stoves in cold weather).

After dinner, the evening was spent playing the “President” card game and doing SOCK SLIDING on the smooth cabin floors. Even Mr. McClafferty got involved in that but didn’t “stick the landing” .

We started early on Sunday morning and most everyone was home by around 10:30 am with memories to share.

December 11th we were “HELPFUL” to our charter organization by working as a team to clean up the leaves on the church grounds. While we did not LEAVE NO TRACE, we did collect, grind up and bag about 150 large bags worth and placed them at the curb for town pickup.

Special thanks to the following Scouts and Adult leaders who contributed to a job well done.