December, 2022 Hiking:
Our troop went camping in Green Ridge state forest. We set up camp to find everything covered with snow. On Saturday, we hiked the long pond trail which was about 10 miles. This hike was interesting because there were no switchbacks on the trail and a substantial amount of elevation changes. With the snow on the ground, we often found ourselves sliding up and down hills on the trail. Additionally, we encountered many stream crossings, in the beginning, they were relatively easy to cross but they got incrementally more difficult. We thought of some elaborate ways to cross the streams. We did troop cooking on this campout meaning we cooked as a troop to feed everyone. For breakfast on Saturday, we had oatmeal and for dinner, we cooked chilly. We ate peach cobbler for dessert from a dutch oven. For breakfast Sunday morning we made omelets in a plastic bag. Since this was our December campout, we sang Christmas carols at campfire Saturday night. We drank lots of hot chocolate over the entire trip. This was another great campout. See pictures below:
March, 2022 Scouting for Food
Scouting for food is a food drive where we scouts give out tags to neighborhoods in our area, on the decided day, people set bags of food outside their homes to donate. We divided into groups of scouts to collect this food. This year we collected 1,000 pounds of food to donate to Carroll Food Sunday. That’s a lot of food!
November, 2021 Mountain Biking
Our troop set off for our monthly campout, this month was our biking campout. We met at the Scout Hut and made sure everyone was equipped and prepared for the campout. We then traveled to McDonald’s for a late dinner and made our way to Camp Sinoquipe where we spent the night. When we woke up early the next morning we divided into our patrols and each patrol made their scouts breakfast. We then went to a nearby State Park to bike. We had two options for our Scouts: one trail that was 11 miles round trip and a longer one that was 25 miles. We spent all day biking. Once everyone was back, we packed everything up and went back to our campsite. After the patrols cooked their dinner, we started a fire and had our Troop’s Campfire Ceremony which takes place at every campout. After the ceremony, everyone went to their tent to go to bed. The next morning we broke down camp, had breakfast, took a tour of Camp Sinoquipe, and rode back to the Scout Hut hitting McDonald’s on the way back. See pictures below:
October, 2021 Climbing:
This climbing campout started just like any other campout, at McDonald’s. After we ate dinner at McDonald’s, we hiked with our climbing gear to Tumbling Run Shelter. When we arrived, we set up tents and got some rest. In the morning, we hiked to Shaefer Rocks where we climbed and rappelled for most of the day. We set up two climbing ropes and one for rappelling. After rappelling awhile, it started to rain. We took down our ropes and hiked back to camp. On Saturday night, we had our usual campfire when we shared our favorite experiences from the campout. We also acted out skits and ended the campfire by singing Scout Vespers. On Sunday, we went on a 6-mile hike. Halfway through the hike, we stopped at Deer Lick Shelter where we had a Scouts Own service. Every scout found a quiet place to reflect on what we were thankful for. After we had thought for a while, we got together and shared what we thought about. After Scouts Own, we continued our hike until we reached the vehicles. After the campout, we drove to McDonald’s to have lunch and went back to the Scout Hut to put away gear. Overall, this climbing trip was an awesome campout! See pictures below:
Troop 735 