Get ready for Summer Camp 2012!

You’ll see a new link on the right for “Summer Camp Information”.

http://troop61.info/wordpress/summer-camp/

The cold and damp Saturday of January 21, 2012 sported the event of a colossal clean-out of the Quartermaster’s closet in Ames Hall.

All materials in the closet were removed, sorted through, cleaned thoroughly, then replaced in the newly-fashioned closet. There were several scouts present to help faithfully set up tent after tent. They sorted through the bad parts, condemned some to the dumpster, then repacked them. The adults completely reorganized the patrol boxes, cleaning all the equipment. Scout master Hans Helgeson directed the project, helping out with basically everything, most notably fixing the old rolling box used during patrol meetings so that now it can actually support the items inside it. The closet was retrofitted with new fluorescent lighting and a large ceiling shelf, which holds multiple patrol boxes and clears up the closet significantly. 

Camp Yawgoog is a Boy Scout Reservation that hosts summer camps and rents out campsites. Camp Yawgoog includes three different camps as well as outlying campsites with a total of 1800 acres of land. The camp was founded in 1916 and is the fourth oldest continuously run scouting reservation in America. It is located near Rockville, Rhode Island.

On October 21, 2011 Troop 61 Sudbury embarked on a backpacking trip to Yawgoog Pond. The backpacking group included sixteen scouts and six adults. We departed for Camp Yawgoog at around 9:00 AM and arrived before 11:00 AM. The backpacking hike began at 11:30 AM. The trip consisted of a tour of the camp led by Ben Kurn and a hike around Yawgoog Pond. The total backpacking trip lasted about four hours. Throughout the hike we crossed many small streams and bridges. Some of these bridges consisted of only wooden planks placed end on end. We stopped for a trail lunch at a campsite near the lake. Just before arriving at our campsite we were able to witness and climb up Smuggler’s Cliff. Our campsite was on top of the 60-120 foot cliff. Upon arrival at our designated camp we unpacked and pitched tents. The campsite consisted of two picnic tables and many large boulders. In order to boil water, we had to use backpacking stoves called whisper light stoves.

At around 7:30 PM we were invited to Pack 1 of Barrington, RI’s campfire. There we performed skits, sang songs, and ate smores. We returned to camp at around 10:30 PM after stargazing for meteors in a large field (We actually saw a few).

The next morning we cooked breakfast, took down tents, cleaned the campsite, and left camp at 10:00 AM. We completed the journey around the lake on a short path and departed for home at 12:15 AM.

By G. Mays

On the weekend of September 17-18, 2011, members of Troop 61 Sudbury canoed off the shore of Cape Cod to Washburn Island, an uninhabited strip of land no more than two miles long. Before becoming a popular camping spot, the island had been used as a World War II landing site for the Army Amphibious Command. As a service project, scouts were encouraged to pick up trash left by previous campers.

After pushing off from the landing in Falmouth, scouts paddled about forty minutes through a serene channel with motorboats anchored on both sides and picturesque homes clinging to green hills overlooking the water. Arriving on the shore of Washburn Island, scouts hiked along a cracked concrete trail that had been used for military purposes. Off to the side of the trail the carcass of a rusted JEEP littered with bullet-holes lay half buried in the soil. After returning to the beach, the scouts pushed off and paddled to another landing, where the gear was unloaded and heaved up a slope and off the beach. Then it was carried along a well-worn path covered with pine needles to the campsite, a large open space with a few trees and two fire rings, which scouts were exuberant about because fire is now being permitted on the island. Once all gear had been organized, all tents set up, and lunches eaten, scouts canoed farther down the shore to a strip of sand. The clamming rake and fishing rods were put to use, catching four fish and a multitude of clams. Scouts also caught minnows to use as bait. Another Army trail was discovered perched atop a hill.

Upon return to the campsite, Mrs. Fogarty instructed scouts on how to clean a fish. Then the catch was wrapped in tinfoil and placed on the fire along with the clams. The steaming, juicy meat was devoured quickly along with a pasta stew. After being terrorized around the campfire with stories of Chunky the Raccoon, a massive beast the size of a patrol box that roamed the island in search of free meals, the scouts lay down for the night.

Upon waking and eating breakfast, all gear was packed up and loaded into the canoes. Then the campsite was swept. Landing the canoes on a close beach, scouts spent their remaining time beach-combing. Among the list of objects discovered were a jellyfish and Chunky tracks. Then the scouts were forced to paddle against the wind back to the landing on the mainland and their awaiting cars which brought them home.

by J. Caltabiano