Camping at Little Bennet State Park

It's a perfect fall day at Little Bennet. Four scouts and four adult leaders started the outing with a 4-5 mile hike through the park.

We just finished a great Fiesta Chicken Dinner that Chris Dohler baked in the Dutch oven, followed by an awesome peach Cobbler.  Yum. Not a scrap left over.

We're expecting light rains tonight, and plan to get on the road tomorrow before any heavy weather from hurricane Sandy.

Hiking the (AT) part 2

Three scouts and three leaders started the  50 mile hike along the Appalachian Trail (AT) in the Shenandoah National Forest on July 3rd, setting out from the Loft Mountain wayside parking area in the early evening.  

The first evening's hike was a good warm-up for what was ahead.  The first half-mile was a steep climb from 2,800 feet at the parking area to the AT at the peak of the 3,300 feet Rocky Top Mountain.  

Troop 466 hikers atop Rocky Top Mountain, July 3rd, 2012

The first day's hike was rugged, with several climbs and descents.  But due to the late start, the total distance hiked the first day was relatively short, a little over five miles.  Despite the short distance, there was plenty of bear scat on the trail.

There was also some human refuse at a construction site at the Ivy Creek parking area.  The picture below shows the scouts pitching in to clean up the refuse from the construction site.  

Troop 466 leaving no trace at Ivy Creek Overlook construction site.

The first night camp was at Pinefield shelter, shown below.  Three other hikers -  hiking from Tennessee - joined the troop at the shelter soon after the troop's arrival.   These Tennessee hikers had seen a  black bear on the trail just before reaching the shelter. The scouts were surprised, and a little relieved, that they had not seen the bear.  They could not have been far from it.

"Did you see that bear?"

Pinefield Shelter

This hike can be viewed on Google Maps via this link

Hiking The AT (Part 1)

Forest fires visible before the hike

This past summer a severe derecho storm wiped out Goshen Scout Reservation's power and water, as well as Troop 466's long-planned trip to Goshen's Camp Bowman.  Some of our leaders and Scouts organized a backup plan: a 50-mile hike along the Appalachian Trail in the Shenandoah National Park.  The next few blog posts will highlight this trip.

beginning of the 50 mile hike

Oct. 8th Meeting

Oct. 8th Meeting

Next meeting, October 8th, will be pioneering. First, we will have a skills instruction on square, diagonal, round, and shear lashings. Then, we will have the patrols begin building catapults.

Oct. 15th Meeting

The following meeting, October 15th, scouts will continue building their catapults. Once they finish we will have a mini war-like contest (maybe with water balloons.) Supplies:
 - printout instructions on how to build catapults for each patrol
 - staves (I think about 4 footers)
 - lots of rope and twine