Post Officers for 1996-97
President: Alison C.
Vice President: Maia M.
Secretary: Elisabeth F.
Historian: Rachel T.
Treasurer: Lindsay W.
Phone Tree Captain: Margaret C.
October 14: Bike Ride on the Eastern Shore. Alison, Kate, Lindsay, Maia, Rachel T. and Andrew
managed to squeeze this into a one-day trip. Thanks to Donna Vogt Cartwright, Jim Thessin, and David
for driving. We parked at my friends' house in Oxford and enjoyed their view and hospitality before and after the
bike trip. We did a 25 mile trip, enjoying the ferry ride outside of Oxford, birds, and an all-around great day.
October 27: Preparations for Hike-O-Ree. We reviewed equipment and hypothermia. We also used our camp stove
to prepare a delicious cake.
November 2-3: B.S. Hike-O-Ree: Thanks to the dedication of Cooper Wright and Wally Fertado, this is a well-organized
event for scouts. This was our second time participating in the Hike-O-Ree, but we had to scale back time allocated
to this. Once again, marching band, crew, and homework meant we had to squeeze this into a shorter timeframe and
several of the girls had to cancel. Instead of arriving Friday night, seven of us -- Alison, Kate, Maia, Rachel
P., David, Andrew and Kathy -- drove directly to our assigned hiking location on Saturday morning. Although
the hike was rated as a moderate (just for the record, we had requested more strenuous hikes, but were assigned
this more moderate one), we actually found this to be fairly challenging and lengthy, simply because one major
stretch of it had been quite ravaged by Hurricane Fran (we think). We ended up climbing over, under, and around
many trees, including some of the important ones with the trail blazes. We even consulted the map and used the
compasses. Nevertheless, it was a gorgeous day for enjoying the views, our lunches, and snacks (including the messy
pomegranate treat). The night was nearly as cold as our previous year's experience, so once again the officials
deemed it too cold to show slides in the amphitheater. It didn't matter to us, since it took us quite a while to
cook our little dehydrated dinners. We hit the sack, happy that at least this year we had brought enough extra
clothes and blankets to survive the below freezing temperatures.
Early Sunday morning, we packed up, did our service project, and drove directly to The Appetite Repair Shop
in Sperryville for delicious breakfasts and lots of hot chocolate. Very high style and lots of smiles all around.
November 16: SERVICE: B.S. Scouting for Food Service Project. Lindsay, Margaret, Rachel T., Rebecca,
Sally and Kathy helped count and load tons and tons of canned food gathered by Arlington Boy Scouts. Our post
enjoyed it and it was very helpful addition to the Arlington B.S. service project.
November 30: Golden Girls Meeting: There was a lot of laughing at this meeting, but it helped us gain a
better understanding of the steps involved and how we can work through them, either as a group or individually.
A special thanks to Sally Chadbourn for providing additional guidance on this process.
December 7: SERVICE: Cookie Decorations and English Picture Fest . We combined our December service project (holiday cookie bags for The Arlington County Temporary Shelter (TACTS) with a chance to share photos from last summer's trip to England. Lots of people showed up for this event: Alison (who did a superb job organizing it), Elisabeth, Kate, Lindsay, Maia, Maria, Rachel T., and Rebecca. Jim T., Paul, David, Sleepy Andrew, Caitlin, Rachel H. and Warrik joined us and shared photos and stories about our England trip. Rachel H. and Rachel T. agreed to take the selected photos and put them in the England Trip photo album, which we plan to loan out to the girls (and Warrik) on a rotating basis. The group successfully decorating hundreds of cookies, filling 50 Christmas goodie bags! Special thanks to the Cartwrights for hosting this event and to Alison and Donna for delivering the bags to The Arlington Co. Temporary Shelter (TACTS).
December 14: SERVICE: A "Moving" Experience
At the cookie decorating service project, Peggy Franklin mentioned that she had some furniture she could donate
to the shelter and Donna followed up with TACTS. The timing was perfect, because a woman had just moved into an
entirely empty apartment. We didn't bother calling the non-Arlington folks, since it was just going to take an
hour or so, but I'm sorry we didn't. It was an amazing experience to see this woman's face as 2 caravans and a
car drove up and unloaded some very beautiful furniture for her very empty apartment.
Elisabeth and Alison were the only girls, but they and all the adults (Peggy, Robert, Bill, and Kathy) were
touched by it. This was truly a moving experience that helped us put the rest of the holiday madness in perspective.
Many, many thanks to Peggy and Robert for their generosity and help and to Alison and Donna for making the arrangements.
Sunday, January 19: The Presidential Inauguration: Our troop helped with the Inauguration -- and we had a lot of fun. Alison, Maia, Rachel T., Rebecca and Kathy reported down on the Mall at 8 a.m.(in the freezing cold) and were assigned concert duty beginning at 2:45 p.m., so we played around on the mall all morning. Highlights included visiting the Technology Tent before it was open to the public (we just wanted to find a place that was open before 10:30 a.m.) and we had a great time with all of the equipment before the crowds were let in. We also dipped into the Freer Gallery to see Whistler's Peacock Room, the National Museum of American History to see the musical instruments and the Air and Space Museum where we found out that the Star Wars exhibit opens in October, among other things.
Our actual assignment was to usher for Weir and Wasserman (the Grateful Dead without Jerry Garcia) and the girls had a blast. We trundled home at 5:30 pm, tired and wind blown, but giggling about our patriotic service with the Grateful Dead. Many thanks to David for taking us down to the Mall by 8:00 a.m., and Erica for picking us up from the subway.
Three cheers also for Margaret who marched in the parade with her H.S. band and Lindsay who worked the parade route with her other G.S. troop. (Condolences to Rachel P., who had sprained her ankle so couldn't participate as planned.) This only happens every four years, so we are happy that this many of our scouts took advantage of the opportunity.
Feb. 1-2 Golden Girls Overnight: We worked on the prerequisites to the Gold Award and met with a member of the Gold Award panel to discuss project ideas. Special thanks to Jan for her professional day-long workshop on the Stephen R. Covey book, The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People: Restoring the Character Ethic, which provided structure for our work on the Senior G.S. Challenge.
Feb. 9: Planning for Cross-Country Ski Trip
February 22-23: Cross-Country Skiing: Unfortunately, this had to be cancelled due to lack of snow.
March 2: Planning for Caving Trip
March 16-17: Caving in Franklin, West Virginia. This required a full weekend and Rachel P., Elisabeth,
Elise, Katie, Rebecca, Paul, Tom, Sarah, and Kathy were able to find time for this adventure. We stayed at Thorn
Spring Park (dads bunked with the Venture Scouts of Boy Scout Troop 106). We left late Friday afternoon, had dinner
in Harrisonburg with Troop 106, and then drove on to Franklin, West Virginia. After settling in, most of the group
hiked to a small cave, for an evening exploration. Saturday morning, we did our caving. The adventure was somewhat
marred by an injury (one of the boys fell and had to be carried down the mountain by the rescue crew. Although
he had to be evacuated to the Hariisonburg Hospital, he recovered quickly.) After our delicious dinner Saturday
evening, we were invited to join the troop next door for what turned out to be an unforgetable and world-class
slide show . Check out the September 1995 issue of National Geographic to read and see some of the same pictures.
After this, we joined several B.S. troops playing Capture the Flag .
April 6: Planning for Bike Trip
April 13: Bike Trip and Tour of the College of William and Mary, Williamsburg, with lunch at the Cheese Shop. Again, this had started out to be a complete weekend trip, but was scaled back to accommodate homework, musical and athletic obligations. Still, we were able to drive there and back in one day and the scouts had an inside tour of the College by a senior as well as a short bike ride around campus. Very mellow and very fun.
April 20: Golden Girls Meeting to work on Gold Award Proposals
May 4: Planning Meeting for the Canoe Skills Day
May 17: Canoe Skills at Warrenton Cabin. We reviewed water safety, B.S. Safe Swim procedures, canoeing equipment, parts of the canoe, portaging, water rescues, and more. Special thanks to Tom for sharing canoes and experience with us.
July 13-26: B.S. Maine High Adventure
Explorer Post 1192 attended the B.S. Maine High Adventure Camp, near Baxter State Park, for 10 days in July 1997. We had a great time -- 9 days canoeing on the Allagash Waterway and 1 day climbing Mt. Katahdin. Although we didn't have time on this trip to see the Lumberman's Museum in Patten, we encourage others to! Also be sure to visit Gloria's thrift shop in Patten.
We are providing the details of our trip to help other scouts plan and enjoy their Maine High Adventure trips.
Expenses:
|
Camp |
Car |
Gas & Tolls |
Lodging Mt. Chase Lodge (incl. dinner and breakfast) |
Additional Transportation Costs at Camp |
Food (In Transit - 8 meals) |
TOTAL each |
| ($44/day) $440 ea. |
$450 $90 ea. |
$135 $22.50 ea. |
$186.18 $31.03 ea. |
$170 $28.33 ea. |
approx. $40 ea |
$651.86 |
Notes on Expenses:
Camp: $440/person (10 days x $44/day)
Lodging: In transit lodging was free (we stayed with Alison's family in New London, Ct. where we went swimming
and had a quick tour of Connecticut College.)
The night before we arrived in camp, we stayed at Mt. Chase
Lodge (RR1, Box 281, Patten, ME 04765 207/528-2183). We decided to stay in the lodge ($29/person or $31.03/person
with tax, which included dinner AND breakfast). Camping outside lodge would have been only $19/person and would
also have included dinner and breakfast. We also made arrangements to have the first breakfast on the return trip
(following the 10 days of trail food) at Mt. Chase Lodge.
Transportation: our group was only 6 people, so we used a caravan with a roof rack. We reimbursed the owner
for mileage and are very grateful that worked out for us. We found Delorme
and Mapquest to be useful web sites for determining mileage and routes for
the trip.
In-transit Food: We estimated $40 (or $5/meal) for in transit food and that seemed sufficient for fast food
places along the way.
Camp costs: These are hard to figure, especially because the itineraries are seldom planned in advance. As
we understand it, the camp likes to work with each group the morning they assemble at camp, once they have assessed
the abilities of the group (both in terms of canoe skills and teamwork). Our emphasis was on canoeing, so the trip
was 9 days of canoeing and one day for the Mt. Katahdin hike. This meant that we had to pay for long distance transportation
to our put-in, but we were able to camp in the free B.S. campground spots for the nights before and after climbing
Katahdin.
For more information, contact:
Dave Hostetter Maine High Adventure
Email: dhostett@acad.umm.maine.edu
Boy Scouts of America
HC 74 Box 69
Whiting, Maine 04691
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