March is such an interesting month, weather wise. There are some years where its so hot, you wish you could go swimming. Other years, its so cold you sit there and think to yourself "What happened to spring?"
Since last month we cancelled our trip to snow, mostly I was thinking "Mother nature is sort of a b*tch." March - normally a time when things start getting a little warmer, the animals start to emerge from hibernation, and humans are getting ready for spring break, and Easter. In our case, we stood around wondering why it was March and there was 2" of snow on the ground and everything was freezing, including the tents.
Needless to say we survived, but I think everyone underestimated the weather just a bit - even if it was a simple as wishing they had brought their slightly heavier boots, as they were attempting to cram a 2-sock covered foot into a temperate combat boot.
At any rate, this month's journey finds us in Blairstown, NJ at Yards Creek Scout Reservation, run by Central New Jersey Council. I nice little camp that is actually a part of the Yards Creek Pumping Station grounds which is run but New Jersey Central Power & Light. While the camp is not huge (I believe it is less than 100 acres all told) it is in a quite little area on the eastern slope of the Kittatinny Mountain Range, which is home to the NJ portion of the Appalachian Trail, and within spitting distance of the Delaware River. This camp is actually one of two (the other being Kittatinny Mountain Scout Reservation) that is owned by CNJC. Sadly, we learned this weekend that in an effort to cut back on costs, CNJC is selling KMSR to the state, which plans to fold it into the Stokes State Forest property. CNJC has not run a summer camp program in many years, and this is just one more sad state of affairs not only for CNJC, but also BSA as a whole, especially in the NJ area. CNJC had a program that I had intended to make use of once I felt our Scouts were ready, and that was hiking from KMSR to Yards Creek on the trail - but it doesn't look like that will happen. (I guess this is a fine example of "use it or lose it".)
Getting past the weather (which was cold, but not overly windy) we actually had a nice quiet weekend despite the leader training and their incessant chanting and singing down in the lower site. Our new SPL, CJ, got to cut his teeth as a boy leader, and while he has a bit of a way to go, is definitely moving in the right direction. For his first time, he did pretty well. Food as usual was great, with a breakfast of French toast (buy the "Texas toast" cut - works much better) and bacon, a lunch of pie iron calzones (with pepperoni, mushrooms and onions) and dinner of (of course!) corned beef, potatoes and cabbage for St. Paddy's Day.
We also had a new desert - bananas with mini marshmallows and chocolate chips inside, baked in tin foil in the fire. I have no idea what to call it. However, it was enjoyed by all who tried it and it seems to be on our list of items to have make another appearance on our next trip. Two scouts and 1 adult went through a whole bunch of bananas that night!
The Scouts practiced their lashings (which they decided they needed work on) and we managed to make a cooking apparatus (we referred to it as a "swingset" or a "bi-tripod") as well as a tripod for the water jug and a flag pole. More practice is needed, but I have to give them credit - the lashings were correct, but cold made the fingers less than useful by the end of the day - which is why they had to do dishes with hot water.
For our first trip out in over a month, we seem to still have this whole camping thing under control.
Now to clean and stow the gear, and on to the next adventure!
No comments:
Post a Comment