2012 Day 8-Trail pics and Back Home

 

As many of you know by now, our trip was cut a little short by the storms that hit the East.  As we were driving through the State Park that was to be our last campsite, Wiley said in his understated way “looks like rain again tonight”.  No sooner had we gotten the trailer parked than the rest of the troop joined us, and as the adults disembarked, we were shown a radar image of the weather front and got reports from home of major storm damage and problems.  Clearly were about to get hit with the same thing, so the decision was made to not camp but to get some badly needed showers while we saw how the storm developed.

 

And develop it did!  We drove out of the rain in about 45 minutes, but given the late hour and threat of more rain, we pushed on home for an early arrival rather than take additional risks.  While not the best ending to a great summer trip, we can’t fight mother nature!

 

This summer the boys really were challenged, and they met that challenge with gusto.  The canoeing, kayaks, and duckies were fun but definitely required guts and grew their skills with boats and themselves.  The Gettysburg experience was a great historical lesson, followed by a couple tough hikes that cemented the knowledge that what our Civil War fighters went through required perseverance and bravery.  We were hardly loaded down compared to the soldiers of the day, and had far better clothing and equipment, yet covering only 1/3 of their daily mileage really opened our eyes to the hardships these men endured.  I give the most credit to our younger scouts never gave up, and kept up with the rest of the boys!

 

We also need to thank all the parents involved in planning and leading the trip.  We had a lot of new adults this year, and everyone chipped in to make sure the boys got to experience scouting to its fullest.  Many times, I heard a Dad say “how in the world are we going to top this next year?” 

 

Stay tuned, and see for yourself.

 

2012 Day 7-Appalachian Trail

 

Good day folks. Today we have John B. and Wiley as your reporters for today. In the early morning (around 4:30) we awoke to a humongous storm. Everyone rushed to secure their rain tarps due to the extreme heat of the hike from Gettysburg. When everyone secured their tents, we went back to bed (no surprise there). Almost everyone was up at 7 while I, Wiley, personally did not wake up until 7:30 (my excuse; I was tired from securing the rain tarp). When everyone was up, we had to attend the flag ceremony. After the ceremony, we had breakfast, which consisted of cereal and bananas (yummy). After breakfast, we took down our tents and packed our gear in a great big pile in front of the trailer.We then made our lunches and we had a choice of either turkey or ham sandwiches, some crackers, a bag of chips, and a Twix bar. After we packed our lunch, we then took the canopy down, and started to put the gear in the trailer. After that, we packed into the cars, and took off for the Appalachian Trail.

It took us about 15 minutes to find out where we were supposed to start. When we got there, we hopped off of the cars and walked to a sign. We took photos in front of the sign, and stayed there for a while. Mr.S had Will and I pick a number between 1 and 20 to see who would lead first. I picked unlucky 13 and Will picked 17, and well apparently 13 was a lucky number. The number was 17, so Will got to lead first. Will was to lead us through the first 2 miles of the trail, and with the map, he lead us into the trail. The trail we picked was to go uphill for the first half, and then downhill for the second half. So we hiked uphill for about 20 minutes before we had a break, which was at the top of a hill. We continued when everyone caught their breath. We followed Will for the rest of his 2 miles and then we had a “leadership change”. Matthew was next to lead us, so we followed him for the next 2 miles. After 2 miles, we did the same thing, only this time Luke was the leader. We followed Luke to our lunch spot and in order to get to our lunch spot, we had to cross a road. Mr.R stood on the other side waving to us saying that there was water. For us to cross the road, an adult stood in the middle of the road and we (the scouts and the other adults) crossed safely to the other side. When we had crossed to the other side of the road we sat down on the grass, and ate our lunch.

Hey, this is John B. here who is going to tell you the rest of the story. So after lunch we continued with Wiley as our leader. We hiked 2 miles in 45 minutes. After that John T. took charge. during his reign we took a break and climbed a big pile of rocks. We moved on and made very good time, so we took another break. Later Colin took the leadership role and we moved on. We were behind schedule, so we moved very fast and we finally finished our 10 mile hike! We were all exhausted with sore legs. Some of us earned our hiking merit badge,but some of us need more hikes in order to get the merit badge. This is John and Wiley signing off, and we hope to see you all very soon.

2012 Day 6-Gettysburg

Dear Troop 820 followers,
This is Luke and John giving the highlights of the day. It started with a flag ceremony at 8:00am followed by a trip to the Gettysburg Visitor Museum  and the cyclorama.  A Cyclorama is a 360 degree, 366 foot by 42 foot tall image of the battle of Gettysburg.  It was painted in 1868 by a French painter and it took a year for him to complete it.  It was originally housed in an original visitor center, but due to the lack of heating and cooling, a new visitor center was built and the painting restored in the 1960’s.  It Is currently housed in an even newer center that was opened in 2008.

Afterwards, we spent quite a while in the museum.  Some only watched the movies, but others looked at all the displays and relics.  We learned that Lee had a good chance of winning the war, and that Gettysburg was the turning point of the war.   It was also the bloodiest battle ever fought in the Western Hemisphere, with over 51,000 that were killed, wounded or captured.

After the museum, we came back to camp for a lunch of cold cuts.  We then headed back to the visitor center for a walking tour of the Gettysburg and the battlefield.  We learned at Cemetery Hill that Lincolns speech was not actually given from the stage that is currently in place, nor at the monument.  Recent finds of old photos reveal that the speech was actually given from a part of the cemetery that is now for the townspeople.  Behind where he spoke there is a “witness tree” that was alive during both the battle of Gettysburg and for the Gettysburg Address.  This tree has been struck twice by lightning in the last 6 years, surviving both times.  Supposedly there are 11 other “witness trees” in the area.  There are many unknown graves in the cemetery – over 3000 bodies were never identified by state or name.  The cemetery is also the oldest in the country.  Abraham Lincoln was actually NOT the featured speaker.  Another prominent man spoke for over 2 hours before Abe took the stage.  Abe's speech at two minutes long was so short that the photographers didn’t have time to capture it.  Yet the first speaker later wrote to Abe to basically say “you said in two minutes what took me two hours to say, and not as well”

We then hiked over part of the battlefield with the guide and learned about the significance of the monuments.  The shape of the bases tells you if it is a Confederate (square base) or Union (round base) monument.  There are also sometimes smaller markers showing the left and right sides of the Regiment.  Once the guide was ready to turn back to the Visitor Center, the Scouts set of on enough of a hike to get in 10 miles.

First we headed towards the Pennsylvania monument which we could climb to the top of.  While we were there, we filed our water bottles, then headed towards Little Round Top.   Most of the hiking was on the road, but in several spots we were on trials.  From the top of Little Round Top, the battlefield looked much like it did 149 years ago when the battle was fought on July 1-3, 1863.  Scouts who had seen the movie Gettysburg also thought it looked just like the movie.   From the top, we could also see “Devils Den” and the “Slaughter Pen” where many Confederates died. 

We then headed to Big Round Top, which was much more wooded so our view was limited, but it was still a nice hike.  At that point we were a little past 5 miles, so we headed down the hill and hiked down to ‘Devil Den” and ran around the rocks a while.  For some reason the rocks are really smooth and not jagged.  From the Den we headed back toward the visitor center, stopping on the way for water. 

We headed back to the camp in time for flag ceremony, and had leftover night of burritos, pork, chili dogs, rice and chips.  It was very hot tonight and we were all very tired and sweaty from our hike, but there are no showers in our camp!

Tomorrow we will break camp early and head for the Appalachian Trail!

Editors Notes:  If you still can’t see previous days pictures, please clear your browser cache then try again.  I am told that fixes it from a couple of our followers at home.
Open note to President Obama:  Hey, I know you’ve had a few minutes to keep up on our blog while the Supremes deal with that whole pesky Health Care thing.  I just want you to know that these State parks are really, really great.  However, there are at least 10 taxpayers that fully authorize you to upgrade our Park System from 1 ply toilet tissue to 2 ply.  Thanks a lot.

Enjoy the pics:

2012 Day 5-To Gettysburg

Hello troop 820 followers,

This is Matt E. and Ben P. writing the blog for 6/27.  The day started by everyone getting up around seven thirty. Some people, like myself (Matt), had decided to pack all of their bag the night before so that when we woke up, we wouldn’t be struggling to get everything together.  While breakfast was being prepared, everyone began packing or was finishing packing.  After breakfast, everyone put their gear in the trailer and we headed off to the Flight 93 National Memorial. 

The Memorial was an emotional time on the trip for some of us.  Some people had not experienced the feeling of being at such an important memorial.  The memorial was neat and was still under construction.  After we walked through the memorial and everyone had taken all the pictures they wanted, we walked to the trailer and had a lunch consisting of sandwiches, apples, and cheese sticks. 

After the memorial, we headed off to Gettysburg.  It was between 2-3 hours between the memorial and Gettysburg.  Once we got there, we were met by the campground manager and she explained all the rules/restrictions to help us have an enjoyable time at Gettysburg.  After that, we unloaded the trailer and set up camp.  We then fixed dinner, which was spaghetti and bread, and sat around camp for awhile. 

At about 8 o'clock, we left to go on a ghost tour in Gettysburg.  Of course, when the tour guide asked us how scary he should make it, all the younger scouts said, “All the way!”  and then not halfway through the tour, they were scared and some were almost forced to go on.  The tour was neat and it taught us about some of the different hauntings in Gettysburg, such as the Jenny Wade house.  On our way back, Wiley had a little photo shoot with some random girls that wanted a picture with him.  He of course said ok when they asked and the rest of us just kept walking and laughing.  We then got back to camp, had a flag retirement ceremony, and went to bed.  By the way, Will gives a shout out to JZ!  Sorry that this blog post was late. This is Matt and Ben signing off, and have a good day!

 

2012 Day 4–More Climbing

Greeting readers!

Please keep those comments coming, we love them!  I went back and fixed the last few days pictures during our drive to the Flight 93 Memorial that we are just pulling into.  Please go back and see what you missed!

Here are a couple videos I could not get to post last night– if you noticed the posting time, it was pretty late before I finally gave up.  These were taken with Will's older brothers Go Pro cam that was strapped to Will's helmet.

Enjoy!

2012 Day 4-Climbing

Hello all! This is Colin and Michael bringing you the story of our Tuesday rock climbing adventure. It started out with us waking up to a delicious pancake breakfast prepared by our five star chefs. Then, after cleanup, we packed into our climbing apparel and we headed down to the outfitters once again. We then gathered and received our harnesses and helmets and we spent about 2 and a half hours learning the proper knots and safety rules to use when climbing. After our learning session, we were, once again, prepared sandwiches and cookies with iced tea and water.

Following lunch, we packed in the vans and headed on out to parking area. From there we had to travel through a wooded path which took about ten minutes to hike. Once there we waited for the guides to set up our climbs and rappels on three large boulders. There were three different climbs for us to choose from: One that was fairly short but was incredibly difficult for some to start, another that was easy to start but was even more difficult to finish due to the lack of grip areas, and another that had a giant split down the middle that made it very easy to climb but could be a little tricky to rappel back down. Aside from that, there was a rappel station that was a lot of fun, especially the beginning where it was a straight drop right around a tree. The requirements for the merit badge were to climb three climbs, belay three climbs, rappel three times, and belay three rappels. We spent about five hours total meeting all these requirements.

When all was said and done, we packed up everything we had brought and packed (literally “packed”) in the van they provided and in Big Blue. We drove back to the outfitters and we bought some snacks, returned our used equipment, and the five guides that helped us all day talked to us about what we had accomplished and that we should all be very proud of ourselves for giving our best efforts. After that, we jumped started the Mr. K’s car, which died, and we made our way back to camp, where an excellent pork and rice dinner was prepared by our very own “chef Cummings and crew.” All in all, it was a great day out at the rocks. All the boys and adults tried really hard to get their badge and either have completed it all or will be very close to completing what’s left when they return home.

It is time for campfire and skits now, so we will fill you in on that part tomorrow!

Postscripts:
Parker asks please pray for my dad, if he doesn’t pass his kidney stones by tomorrow, he will go into surgery around 3:00 p.m.

Please re-check the Day 2 pics – many of you got a black box, they are back on line now.

We want to thank our guides from the last 3 days – Wilderness Voyageurs (http://wilderness-voyageurs.com/).  Our three main guides were absolutely fantastic – fun professional, safe, and really, really good with the boys.  Specifically we want to thank Garrett, Keith, and Krash.  We also really enjoyed Grizz, Keith #2, Ashley, and Lisa!  Great guides all, and really fun people who clearly enjoy their jobs and teaching people.  They really inspired our boys to succeed and continue in these sports.

2012 Day 3-Whitewater with Kayaks and Duckies

Hello troop 820 followers! First of all, Will sends a double shout-out to J.Z.(Jake). Today Parker and Patrick are your news anchors for the thrilling events that you will eventually be told. First off, the day started off with a little rain around five o’clock. Then, a huge downpour of rain was enough to get the boy sleeping in the hammock out of bed and under the tent shelter (who would have guessed, no not Will—Parker). Slowly the campers arose from their never-ending slumber. Around eight o’clock, we started to prepare the food—cereal, poptarts, crumb cakes(mmmm so good), and muffins. After that, we headed to the whitewater place around 9 o’clock, letting us arrive at 9:15. Most of us hit the can and then the adults checked in. We ran to get our life jackets, helmets, and splash jackets(to keep the cold water out) and they divided us into groups. Eleven of us started on the kayaks and the other half went to get their duckies. I personally(Parker) went to do duckies first and let me tell, they were a blast! We went down six class III (moderate difficulty) rapids. They were a blast! Literally. After that, we paddled down to the whitewater place to eat sandwiches (which the canoe instructor calls samiches).

After lunch the eleven of us were split into groups of two to carry kayaks. First of all we got used to the paddle strokes. Then we got taught how to recover from a wipeout or “Wet Exit”: lean your head forward, tap the side of the boat three times with both hands, pull the lever that releases the water skirt (yes we looked very manly), and then do a front flip to get to the surface. Next we paddled around for a few minutes to get used to the maneuverability of the kayak. Once we mastered these skills, we paddled upstream to our first rapid, regrouped, then shot the rapids in our kayaks! 

Kayak Wet Exit

When we were done, we met back at the whitewater place. We were finally finished with the whitewater merit badge!!!! After that, we headed back to home base. Half of us went fishing and the other half stayed put. The half that didn’t go fishing started to: build a fire; chop, saw, and split wood; and just sit back and relax. When the other half returned, we prepared the food for the almighty BURRITO PIG-OUT!!!!!! Now, everyone is sitting around, some of us cleaning up, preparing for drum roll please……. ALL-OUT SKIT NIGHT!! I hope you have a wonderful night and get ready for another Blog post tomorrow!!
P.S. Hope you get better Dad, thanks for planning all of the meals and portions. We appreciate all of your work and wish you were here!

Parker and Patrick signing off,
GOOD NIGHT!  

[Parents Note:]  This was really much more challenging than we anticipated.  The pictures really can’t convey how scary some of these maneuvers and rapids were.  Being in a duckie (inflatable kayak) or kayak all alone with a guide simply pointing at some rocks and saying “Go left around that rock over there that looks like a turtle.  Then spin left hard or you will hit a big hydraulic that will suck you under.  As soon as you pass that rock, the next one that looks like a walrus, you want to pass close enough to touch it or you will be in trouble again.  Now shoot the center of those next two rocks then break left and hold up in the eddy.  Got all that boys?Good.Lets do it!”  They talked about as fast as you can imagine, and the water is thundering by and you know you are in that craft all alone…. pretty exciting stuff!  Even the adults might have mumbled “well, that one scared me!”

The boys did a great job and were very attentive and responsive.  Our younger scouts especially really rose to the task at hand and we are all really proud of them.  Our guides were great and made sure we were all safe and spread themselves out along the rapids to quickly help anyone who got in trouble.  It was truly a fantastic Boy Scout experience that these boys will not soon forget!

2012 Day 2-Whitewater Rafting (Er… I mean Canoeing)

Hello these are your MC writers Wiley and Seamus*. We have a double shout-out to JZ from Will. Today, most of us woke up around 6:00 due to a very annoying alarm set up on “someone’s” phone, (Will). We crowded around an open fire due to the extreme coldness of the night. Patrick, Parker, Mr.P and Mr. Sw cooked us a warm breakfast that consisted of gravy, sausage, biscuits, and cantaloupe. After breakfast, we started to prepare for our day at the river. Next, we gathered around the fire for a special reading of the Bible, read by Mr.P. Then Jonny B. lead us in a prayer. we then packed up, and left to go to the river. We arrived at the place in ten minutes. We hopped off and then we had to sign a wavier. We went over to a shelter and waited for our guides and gear. Our guides came, and talked to us about the gear, the canoes, helmets, rules, and the dangers in the river. We then put our life preservers and helmets on, and we went on a bus. The bus ride was 20 minutes and it was a wild ride. every minute it seemed like the bus was going to break down. We were on the highest road in Pennsylvania, and we were told that there were a lot of black bears around, and then Michael spotted one. On the last 5 minutes of the ride, a canoe fell off into the road. Nobody noticed it until we were parked and were getting the gear. After that our guides gathered us around some trees and talked to us about the strokes and first aid. After the talk, we proceeded to carry our canoes down to the river. We had to wait for a few minutes because another group was “casting off”. When they were done, we proceeded to go. We didn’t have to travel very far for someone to fall off. Let me explain. We made a bet that the first ones to flip and fall into the river had to do something, (we couldn’t come up with a specific “punishment”) The next thing you know— we hear this big KABOOM!!!

Mr.G and Patrick flipped over, so they won the bet. We waited for them in an “Eddy”, which is a place where the water is still behind the rocks. After what seemed like 10 minutes, they finally reappeared and made it safely into the Eddie. The guide then explained how to maneuver over and around rocks. We then proceeded to continue down the river, when we came upon the first rapids. We had to get on our knees in order to make it out of there. Most of us made it out with no problem, while others still got caught in the rocks. We waited for everyone. Then our guides decided to split us up in to two groups, (one with 5 canoes, the other with 6). The group of 6 were flipping the canoes and doing safety rescues. The group of 5 decided to “ferry” upstream. After the two groups were done, they switched activities. When the group that had the activity of flipping the canoes into the river flipped over, they were in for a shock. The shock, the water was freezing cold. After the groups were done, we continued down the freezing river. We ran into some more rapids, and people were “flying everywhere”. Some flipped into the river, others were stuck on rocks, and still others went the wrong way. After every rapid we crossed, we had to wait for the others at the eddys. Our guides then decided to just keep going until we were close to our lunch area. When we were about 10 minutes away from lunch, the guides told us to have a race. And so everyone in canoes (except for the 3 canoes behind), raced for the title of first place. Ben and John T won the title. Everyone landed on the sand, and pushed their canoes towards shore.

For lunch, we had PB & J, turkey, roast beef, or ham sandwiches. And some apples, oranges, carrots, celery, and everyone’s least favorite— COOKIES!!!!!! After we consumed our food, we got ready and departed. We then flew through some exciting rapids… Which some of us (Mr. Sw and Mr. K) set a new world record… They fell THREE times in TEN minutes, lets give them a big round of applause!!!!! After that, Mr. R and Mr. Gu encountered some difficult times… They got a bath— actually three in fifteen minutes. it was so funny when they fell in the middle of the rapids, because their canoe had a mind of its own— it decided to go along with the current all three times. When we all got back to camp, it was a whole ‘nother story.

Well, lets just say majority of us went to get ready for the fishing later tonight. But, some of the CREATIVE scouts thought otherwise…Not to tattle, but the creative scouts might have been the sons of TweetleDee and TeetleDum (Mr. Se and Mr. Gr—not that we decided who is Dee or Dum). Will had this crazy idea to put his hammock at least 10 feet off the ground, please don’t ask why, but we don’t question Will. Now, Parker was just as guilty. He wanted a hammock of his own… You know what that means, yes he tried to build a hammock between two trees out of 1/4 inch thick rope. He tried using the rope like a “Jacob’s Ladder,” and well lets say “It didn’t QUITE work out.” He fell to the ground like a dead weight… Everyone then left to go fishing, excluding the following: Will, Matthew, Wiley, Parker, Colin, and Seamus. Well, thanks for reading and please subscribe for a payment of only $19.95 (plus s+h which = five payments of $60 plus tax). Look at the pictures and Good Night!

*= Parker helped type the last two paragraphs.

2012 Day 1-To Ohiopyle

Hello Troop 820 followers. This is Will and Liam here bringing you the daily update of our adventures. The morning started off fairly well, and we managed to make it out on time… more or less. About and hour into our escapade we received a message that Mr. Gr had to go to the hospital. We stopped for a while to allow the others to catch up after switching cars, but we were soon back on track and moving.

We then stopped for a little tree climbing and lunch. While traveling onward Lil’ Blue was trapped behind “Evil Kenivle,” who was a motorcyclist taking his time on the road, while the car pulling our trailer forged on. At some point, the newly nicknamed “Turn Here Taylor” took a wrong turn. The remaining cars assumed that he had taken the correct turn, so we continued on. We finally arrived at the campsite and realized that our trailer, food and gear included, was absent. We eventually found out that the trailer was in northern Pittsburg, or North Dakota (the street thankfully). With the absence of our gear we entertained ourselves with working on the younger scouts Totin’ Chips while I (Will) who had carried my hammock in my backpack, set that up in two high trees like my brother had suggested. After a while of playing on it though, I got a fun surprise when one end slipped off the tree and dropped me twelve feet [Editors note:  more like 5, but it really scared him] onto the ground. Needless to say, my hammock is now much lower to the ground. Finally, after exploring the river near our camp ground, the gear arrived and we could set up camp. Big Blue arrived only 10 minutes later.  We continued the work on the Totin’ Chip and all of our scouts received it. None of the scouts were as good at chopping as Liam.

Please enjoy todays photos, and thanks for all your comments so far!

2012 Day 1-We begin

 

The day dawned bright and clear for the start of our trip!  Mr. Gr and Mr. T arrived at the scout house early to start sorting out all the groceries and putting them in boxes by day.  Pretty soon Mr. Gu arrived with fresh donuts, coffee and hot chocolate.  Yes, we do rough it, don’t we?

The bags and packs began piling up outside the trailer as the scouts arrived, then Mathew our quartermaster started the trailer loading.  Unfortunately, we chose the tallest scout and the shortest trailer!  The solution was to put some of the younger scouts into the trailer and pass everything in.  Soon, we were ready to depart, and Deacon Bayne led us in prayer for a safe trip:

Mr Gr was feeling a bit queasy as we loaded the trailer so he held back a bit, which if you know him, was very unusual.  Shortly after we started our drive, he called the other cars to say he need a rest stop as he still was not feeling well.  Just south of Wilmington, the Bus II and Big Blue pulled into the rest area as the rest of us continued our drive.  The good news in Mr R is an ER nurse and was driving Big Blue so he could pretty quickly tell that Mr Gr was passing a kidney stone!

By the time the rest of the troop stopped for lunch, Mr Gr was told he passed the first of several stones and he needed to stay home from the trip and take care of his kidney.  Once Mrs. Gr got to the Wilmington hospital, Big Blue took off to catch up to the rest of the crew by nightfall.  Our prayers are with you Mr Gr!

Meanwhile, back with the troop, lunch was over and the scouts were restless.  A woman from Boston came over to the dads and said “I just have to say two things: First, thank you for volunteering your time with the scouts.  Two, as soon as I pulled in, I knew you were a scout troop.  My 30 and 31 year old sons are both Eagles.  Have a fun trip!”

I’m not sure what convinced her they were scouts, but this is what they were up to at the time:

2012 Day 0-Preparations

 
Greetings Scout Families and supporters! 

As we prepare for our 2012 Summer trip, we would like to thank all of those who have followed us in years past on this blog, and ask you to check in again every day to see where we are and what we are up to! We also want to thank all of you who have made this trip possible by coming to the spaghetti dinner, supporting us in scouting, or helping to plan the trip or run the troop.  We especially want to thank Chuck Rekow (http://www.chuckrekow.com/) who once again has supplied our Summer Trip t-shirts. Every year they just get better and better!

You can also support us by clicking on any of our advertisers on the blog site that interest you, as we earn a few cents for every click you make.  Last year, this generated nearly $65 for the troop.  Please also comment on the blog so we know you are reading along.  These comments come directly to Mr. S's phone and are always to a chuckle around the campfire when he reads them out loud and we have to guess "who said that"!

So, on Saturday, June 23 we will depart for Ohiopyle PA and our trip.

For the first two days, we will be whitewater rafting on the Lower and Middle Youghiogheny River in three types of boats.  On day three, we switch to Rock Climbing near Ohiopyle, PA.  We will complete the Merit Badges for both of these activities on the trip.  Prior to leaving, our scouts have already earned the Canoeing badge!

On Wednesday, June 27, we will leave Ohiopyle and travel to Gettysburg PA to tour and camp on the historic site, spending two full days and nights sleeping right on the battlefield!  Only Scout troops are allowed this honor.  This also puts us very close to the section of the Appalachian Trail that we will be hiking.

On Friday, we will “Occupy” the Appalachian Trail by hiking part of the 2181 miles, earning our place in history and a major qualification for the Hiking badge.  If the Scout has participated in past trips, this should cover an important requirement for this badge.  We will also cover some of the major requirements for the Camping badge for our younger scouts.

On Saturday morning June 30, we will head home with our packs light and our badges in hand!