January 2013: Camp Yawpaw

Coming back from holiday break found T101 off on another adventure, this time returning to Camp Yawpaw in Mahwah, NJ. This is usually the site of our annual cabin camping trip, and we were quite happy to get the smaller of the two cabins, Byrd Cabin, this year.

To refresh everyone's memory, last year found us in the larger of the two cabins on the property, during the coldest weekend of the year, with a broken wood stove, and tainted water.

Happily, this year's trip went much better. First off, Byrd is a much smaller cabin, and therefore much easier to heat and maintain warmth (no that we needed it, as the temps during the weekend were in the mid 50's) and there was an actual wood burning stove in the cabin - not a converted 55 gallon drum. Also (I found out later) the cabin had recently been refurbished with a new roof, new ceiling and new insulation only a few months ago.

While not the largest cabin there, it certainly is the nicest... as far as cabins go.

The weather this weekend, while not overly cold, was not overly clear either. The mountain top was besieged by fog the entire weekend, which is not a particularly bad thing, just incredibly annoying as everything is saturated by dampness. Our Scouts managed to get the fire going, and despite the wood's fiendish desire to not light or stay lit, we managed to stay warm and cook our meals around the fire pit. The stove in the cabin was kept at a balmy 102 all weekend, making everyone comatose almost immediately upon entering. It also helped the fire that the camp ranger is constantly stocking all the sites with split, dry firewood all year. Two of the outer walls were insulated with stacks of firewood.

So what the heck were we doing up there? Preparing for next weekend's Klondike Derby! The Scouts in attendance were grilled on all the basic Scout skills in the hopes that they will retain the information to place at the Klondike. We also performed a mock missing person / mountain first aid rescue scenario, which the Scouts completed... well, we could still use a little work in that area. I'm sure we'll do fine on Saturday.

Other than the review of Scout skills, we tested out a new recipe - pie iron pizza! A little bit of pre-made pizza dough, some tomato sauce, mozarella and a few bits of pepperoni, and boom!

Pie iron pizza.

Its something that I've wanted to try for a while, and since we were going to be in site all weekend, I figured it would be the perfect opportunity to test it out. Everyone had some, and it seemed to go over quite well - even sparking a discussion of what else could go in the pizza, as well as what else was out there to make in the pie irons.

Why did I do this?

I'm always trying to get the Scouts to think beyond what they are used to - even take them out of their comfort zone. Even though we were in site all day, and therefore had access to a fire, they boys still put down cold cut sandwiches for lunch.

No matter what we do, it seems they always choose this meal for lunch. Personally, I can only take so much cold cuts, and I felt it was time to look into other items. Hopefully, the pie iron pizza will open the flood gates to other new and exciting ideas as far as our menu goes.

The other issue is that pie irons are much lighter and easier to carry than a griddle and grate - which is what we normally use for just about everything. Also, the items used in pie iron cooking could be far less in weight and space, and therefore we need one less cooler - which take up a lot of space, and fully loaded can weigh quite a bit.

For instance, with the pie iron pizzas, I used Pillsbury pizza dough in a tube. We got 4 sandwiches out of the tube, but I also didn't cut the initial sandwich dough frugally, so in reality, we should be able to get 6 - 8. Now, the tube is... a 5th of the size of a loaf of bread, and can be placed in a backpack, as oppose to a cooler. It needs to be chilled, but not necessarily cold. The number one difference is that a tube is pretty resilient to pressure, as oppose to a loaf of bread, when you crush it, you get... bread sticks.

What is the ultimate goal? I'm personally shooting for less gear, less weight, and more efficiency. In this instance, we're eating better by taking a better and more suitable candidate for what we need. Not all of the places we camp at allow us to park at the site - including Camp Yawpaw, and therefore, the less time we spend carrying equipment back and forth to the car and site, the more time we spend camping, working on our fieldcraft, and having fun.

Change takes time however, so we'll see how the rest of the year goes.

At any rate, we had a wonderful time despite the fog and wetness, and managed to get some practice in for the Klondike Derby. Saturday will tell how well it all payed off.

Now to dry out our gear, stow it, clean it, and get ready for the next adventure... the Klondike Derby!

I'm sorry to say that there are no pictures from this weekend; our staff photographer was sick and unable to join us this weekend.

Happy Holidays and New Year from Troop 101

The end of 2012 saw us celebrating at our annual 2012 Holiday Party.

The boys chose the theme of "Disco Pajama Party".

Yeah, you read that right.

So, we had a grab bag, watched "A Muppet Christmas Carol", ate cookies and cake, and drank milk and egg nog.

Not much else to say other than I forgot to take any pictures.

So, from all of us at Troop 101 we hope you have a very happy holidays, and a safe new year!

NYC 2012: Scouts in the City

As a leader of Troop 101, I like to make sure that we always do some sort of trip every month to keep the "outing" in "Scouting". In previous years, we've scheduled a weekend camping trip, and many a year it gets cancelled - mostly because December is a busy month for anyone - the leadership of T101 included.

Also, no one likes getting sick a week or two before Christmas or during Chanukah.

So, we've decided to start scheduling a day trip in lieu of our weekend long camping trip - last year we walked the Cannonball Trail in Oakland, NJ, and this year (despite my better judgement of having us near "normal" people) we find ourselves wandering the urban canyons of the Big Apple.

Why the NYC? Well, first of all, in my 21 years with the troop, we have never been to the one city that is less than an hour from our homes. Second, NY is a pretty cool place in general, and even more so during the holiday season. With 3 story high Christmas trees, ornaments the size of mountains and Christmas lights the size of Fiats, why not go to the city that never sleeps?

Our day started in the parking lot of the Willowbrook Mall, waiting for a bus that wasn't packed with Santas who were heading in for the Santa Run... in the Village? (We never did bother to look into it). Between the Santas and the elves who were... let's just say that it wasn't proper cold weather clothing for female elves it took two buses before we found room, and after a brief ride into Port Authority, we headed down into the subway to catch a ride to the American Museum of Natural History.

Which was great, as the subway stop is underneath the museum at 81st.

We spent about 3 hours wandering the halls of the museum, learning about the history of both man and beast, and then had a lunch at the museum cafeteria. Hopefully, they learned something - you didn't expect me to wander into the city with the troop and not attempt to at least make them learn something, did you?

From the museum we hit the city streets, wandering through Central Park, southeast to 5th Avenue to see all the window displays and building decorated for the season. As expected, the streets were packed with tourists, but despite that, we got to see a lot, including St. Patrick's cathedral. We had intended to get close to the the tree in Rockefeller Center, but unless we knew someone in one of the office buildings, that just wasn't happening. The closest we got was two blocks away, packed in so tight that you couldn't raise your cell phone to your ear to answer it!

We worked our way down to the NYC Public Library (which was beautifully done itself) and said goodbye as one of our Scouts was picked up for dinner with his family in the city.

From there we made our way to Times Square, where we saw Spongebob, Dora, and several other characters wandering the streets. We spent time taking in all the sights and sounds of the center of the New Year's universe, then made our way back to Port Authority.

Where we spent an hour waiting to even get on a bus (I guess we deserve that for going in during the peak tourist season).

A very nice day wandering the city. (It isn't often I say that.) Pictures are here.

Rotary Fruit Sale 2012

The first weekend in December found Troop 101 at the annual Wayne Rotary Club Fruit Sale!

As part of our community service to the residents of Wayne, Troop 101 every year helps the Wayne Rotary club distribute purchased cases of apples, oranges and grapefruit to folks from Wayne and surrounding towns.

While we don't know exactly how many cases were sold, what we can tell you is that one entire tractor trailer was unloaded and distributed throughout the day; normally there are extra cases on the truck available for cash sales to those who either need a case, or were not on the Rotary mailing list. This year, we sold out of available cases, we unfortunately had to turn away a lot of customers!

We had a good turn out with the troop this year, and we had a lot of fun running around and loading people's cars. Keep in mind that each case weighs 35 lbs, and our two smallest Scouts weigh about 70lbs! That's a lot of lifting for some of us!

All in all a great day, though a bit chilly - which is better than the snowstorms, ice storms, arctic temperatures and nor'easters that have hit us in previous years!

Pictures are here.

Eagle Scout Nick Eliades

Thanksgiving weekend, Troop 101 and its leaders were very proud to present Nick Eliades with his Eagle Rank Award.

Nick has been with the troop since he was 11, and has worked long and hard to earn his Eagle Rank. He successfully completed his Eagle Scout project, which was cleaning and organizing his church's basement storage area, earned a minimum of 21 merit badges, served in a leadership position within the troop at the rank of Life for 6 months, and passed a Board of Review made up of leaders from the Council.

Nick is also a second generation Eagle Scout - his father, Maios, and his Uncle John (who are twins) earned their Eagle Ranks together back in... well, we don't want to really say, other than it was prior to Nick...very, very prior to Nick. Both were present at the ceremony, and in their original BSA uniforms!

Nick is the 55th Eagle Scout to earn the rank within the 75 year history of the troop.

Pictures to follow...

2012 Halloween Party

Troop 101 had their annual Halloween Party this year, with the usual fright night shenanigans that one can expect from a bunch of loonies!

Even though we had just been to the Asbury Park Zombie Walk earlier that month, we did not in fact have any zombies in attendance. We had one leprechaun, a U.S. soldier (despite his Russian made rifle), a... I have no idea what, and a bunch of masquerade ball attendees. We played some games, bobbed for some apples, ate a lot of candy, and watched "Sleepy Hollow" on the big screen.

Frankly if you ask me, they are pretty scary without the masks!

Happy Halloween everyone!

Pictures (not my greatest work) can be found here.