Super Trip, Backpacking New River Trail State Park
July 28-31, 2011
Our "Super Trip" this year was a 4 day 3 night 30 mile backpacking trip along the New River Trail in the New River Trail State Park in Virginia. We began our hike on Thursday at the Galax VA. New River Trail parking lot and hiked 4 miles to the Cliffview campgrounds where we had the entire campgrounds to ourselves. The boys set up camp quickly and then jumped in Chestnut Creek which ran through our campgrounds. Friday we broke camp and hiked 15 miles to our next campsite in the New River Recreation Area.Again we quickly set up camp and jumped in the New River to wash off the sweat and cool off from hiking in 95 degree heat. Saturday morning we woke up early (5:00AM) broke camp and got an early start to try and beat the heat. We had 12 miles to go to complete the hike and reach our final destination, Millrace Campgrounds in the Foster Falls Recreation Area. Along the hike a dog took up the hike with us and followed us all the way to the campsite where he spent the evening with us.Once at the campsite we set up camp and again jumped in the New River for some rec time. The hike, while not a difficult elevation was very long and grueling in the extreem summer heat and tough on our bodies. Nearly everyone had a blister or multiple blisters on their feet.
Super Trip Photo Album
Summer Camp, Week 2, June 26-July 2, 2011
Summer Camp is probably the highlight of our scouting year. We took 33 scouts and 7 adult leaders to camp where we spent the week in camp site 2. Many activities for the week included, merit badge classes, pizza and movie night on Tuesday, Vespers and OA night on Wednesday, Family night on Thursday and The Grand Ole Adventure (scout skills competitions) on Friday. At assembly (morning and evening) there is an opportunity to win the spirit stick by showing scouting spirit that camptures the attention of the staff. We won the spirit stick at the Sunday evening assembly and the Friday morning assembly. Winning the spirit stick allows us the opportunity to decorate the spirit stick before it is returned to the staff at the next assembly. At the Friday night closing camp fire Troop 101 performed our traditional Celebrity Jeopardy skit.Following the skit the week 2 camp awards were handed out. Troop 101 swept all major awards and for the first time in troop history won Best of Bud Schiele for the third year in a row!
Below are the awards Troop 101 won at the closing ceremony...
The boys and adults were exhausted, but full of troop pride as we looked forward to going home Saturday morning. As we left Camp Bud Schiele we had to stop at the CBS sign to get a troop picture with our awards.Click the to read the article that was printed in the Shelby Star.
Summer Camp 2011 Photo Album
Family Camping, Whitewater Rafting, June 3-5, 2011
Family Camping is always a favorite outing with scouts and families. This year we tried something a little different by adding a high adventure activity to our family camping outing. We had 37 scouts and family members go whitewater rafting on the Middle Ocoee River in Tennessee as well as 3 adults and 3 scouts raft the Nantahala River in North Carolina. We camped at Appletree Campgrounds, one of our favorite campsites in Western North Carolina. The weather was absolutly perfect. Sunny and hot made for great rafting. Those who did not raft either stayed in camp relaxing with a good book or ventured into one of the local towns for a little sightseeing. Saturday evening after dinner we had our patrol dutch oven desert cook-off where each patrol made a dutch oven desert and the parents voted for their favorite desert. This was an extreemly popular outing and it was suggested we do this again next year. Ocoee River 2012, here we come!
Family Camping Photo Album
Spring Camporee, April 8-10, 2011
Battleground District Spring Camporee is notorious for bad weather and this year we were not dissapointed (see previous years photo albums). Arriving at our destination Friday night we challanged the boys to set up camp in 2 1/2 hours or less. The boys were focused and accepted our challange and to their credit they had camp set up very quickly and began cooking their dinner for the evening. Saturday morning was absolutly beautiful and was poised to give us a good weather camporee for the first time in recent memory. About 3:00PM all that changed as dark clouds loomed overhead. We began receiving calls from many anxious parents informing us of tornado warnings that were posted for our county. The leaders monitored the weather closely and about 5:00PM we decided to leave camporee for a safer location. We ended up in a church parking lot 20 miles away where we stayed for over an hour waiting for the weather to clear. As we waited we began receiving calls of more severe weather warnings that would last to the early morning hours. The decision was made to pack our gear and head for home. We returned to the camporee site where we challanged the boys to pack up camp in one hour. To our amazement they had camp packed up in 35 minutes. We left camporee and arrived home just as the skies opened up with golfball size hail and one of the heaviest rains ever witnessed. Spring Camporee lived up to its bad weather reputation!
Spring Camporee Photo Album
Backpacking, The Ridgeline Trail, March 11-13, 2011
This backpacking trip was unique in that we were begining our training for Philmont 2012 and it was our first planned multiple day multiple campsite backpacking trip. To begin we night hiked to our Friday evening campsite at Crowders Mountain where we camped for the night. On Saturday morning we broke camp and hiked the Ridgeline Trail from Crowders Mountain State Park to Kings Mountain State Park where we camped on Saturday. Along the way we ate lunch and had an extended stop at the Boulders Area where everyone had a great time climbing up, over and under the huge boulders. On Sunday we broke camp and hiked to Kings Mountain National Military Park where we ended our hike. The weather for the weekend was absolutely perfect. Sunny and highs in the low 70's both Saturday and Sunday. While the hike was realitively easy as far as elevation difficulty it certainly was tough on our legs and feet as we hiked almost 15 miles by the time we reached our destination on Sunday.
Ridgeline Trail Photo Album
Backpacking, Crowders Mountain State Park
February 19-20, 2011
This was our frist trip back to Crowders Mountain State Park since 2007. This was suppose to be winter backpacking since it was planned for February. To our surprise we were treated to a sunny beautiful 70 degree weekend as we hiked the Crowders Mountain Trail, Rocktop Trail and Pinnacle Trails stopping at various points on The Rocktop Trail for some fantastic views. We ate lunch at the Crowders Mountain Overlook where we watched rock climbers for entertainment before we made our way to the group campsites. On Sunday we woke, ate breakfast and broke camp and hiked the Pinnacle Trail to Kings Pinnacle. Once at the Pinnacle we were again treated to the beauty only North Carolina has to offer. In all we hike around 8 to 9 miles for the weekend.
Crowders Mountain Photo Album
Ski Trip, Winterplace WV, January 22-23, 2011
Our annual ski trip to Winterplace is always highly anticipated. We have some diehard skiers in our troop. We left the scout hut and made our way to Winterplace within 5 hours stopping for dinner along the way. Once at Winterplace we checked in and made our way to The Mountain House, a restaurant by day and our sleeping quarters for the night. Over 100 people camped inside The Mountain House that evening.When we woke the next morning we were treated to a couple inches of fresh snow. We ate breakfast and hit the slopes for a fantastic day of skiing with a light snow falling in the morning and clearing sunny skies by the afternoon.
Winterplace Photo Album
Freeze Out, Camp Bud Schiele, January 9-11, 2011
Freeze Out is an annual troop favorite with the scouts. This year Freeze Out kept true to it's name. Weather for the weekend was a challange for all. Friday it was cold and rainy. Saturday it was cold and very windy keeping tempatures very cold with the windchill. Saturday night as the sun went down we watched the thermometer drop below 20 degrees just before we turned in for the night. A warm eveninig fire kept us warm as we conducted a Flag Burning ceremony. Each scout was given a worn American flag to retire. As each scout respectfully put his flag in the fire he told everyone what the flag and our country ment to him. It was a very moving ceremony for all. As we woke on Sunday morning we were surprised to find the tempature at 13 degrees.
We usually have the highest attendance on the Freeze Out trip. This year we had 16 scouts and 10 adults participate in this outing. Troop 101 Eagle Scout Josh Trivett joined us for the weekend to help instruct on the shotgun range. On our freeze out outing the boys have the opportunity to shoot rifles (thanks Garry for bringing your rifles) and shotguns (thanks Marvin) at the Camp Bud Schiele shooting range. A lot of preparation and training for this outing took place in our troop meetings with the emphasis on gun safety. In the afternoon, the newest scouts worked with Carl on their Wilderness Survival Merit Badge. The scouts had to build a survival shelter and sleep in it over night. Five scouts built and slept in their shelter. Venture Patol also built a shelter and slept in it.
Freeze Out Photo Album
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