3/2012 Camp Glen Grey

Troop 101 was out and about again this weekend on our monthly camping trip, this time to a little-known gem of a camp in Oakland, NJ known as Camp Glen Grey. A former BSA camp that is now run by the county and privately financed by the Friends of Glen Grey, its not only a beautiful piece of land hidden in the Ramapo Mountain Range, it is also immaculately up kept and open not only to Scouts and Scouters but also the general public. It has access to the Cannonball Trail, and indirectly, to the Appalachian Trail.

A compass. A simple device that pretty much hasn't changed since the Chinese started using it or navigation sometime between the 9th and 11th centuries. In the modern age, with GPS and Smartphones, we sometimes forget that a simple piece of magnetized metal can mean the difference between finding our way out of the woods, and well... you get the idea. While the BSA National Office has only recently started pushing for the use of GPS in the BSA handbook, it is still the compass that will work every single time. What happens when the battery dies in the GPS? Or you can't get a signal? While Troop 101 is always updating with the times, we still learn the original way to do something - and then learn the modern way.

That's what we were up to this weekend. Learning how to use the compass on a compass course - with a slight twist. Not only did the Scouts need to use the compass and know their pace to find the marker, the marker then had a question about something related to their rank advancement! Tricky? Yeah, but despite having to find all 31 (yes, 31) markers and answer the questions, the still managed to complete the course in a fairly quick amount of time. As Scoutmaster, I was incredibly happy with the results - not only were they within 10 ft. of the marker 90% of the time (and many times, dead on) and as a happy added bonus, the same results happened with our Committee Chairman, Mr. Emmetts! He was equally as challenged by the course as the boys were!

The results of the questions are still in question - we'll review those at our next meeting. (Stay tuned!)

While we completed our compass course, we sent our eldest Scout Nick and 2 of our assistant Scoutmaster back to the site to begin preparations for dinner. What was dinner? What else! Corned beef, potatoes and soda bread! (It was St. Patty's Day after all!)

How did we cook all that? Well, with some creative engineering, a few trees, a lot of rope and three pulleys, the ASMs and Nick built what can only be called a "swing set" and hung 2 pots of meat and one of potatos over the fire, using the pulleys to adjust the height of the pot over the flame. The results? Great! (Check the pictures to see what I am talking about...)

At any rate, after a great meal and some dirty dishes, we sat around the fire, watching it burn to embers, until it was time for bed, awoke in the morning and headed on home.

Time to clean up, repack the gear, and get ready for the next adventure...

Pictures can be found here.