Troop 135 September Campout

A new scout year is beginning. I am in the 8th grade now and have been awarded the position of Patrol Leader. We are getting ready to head out on our first camp out of the year. I have to leave my sister's varsity field hockey game early so that I can make it to Prince of Peace in time for our departure. I put my gear in the pile and run up to see if I can help finish filling the water jugs. Unfortunately they are all filled so I head back down to the parking lot and wait until Tim, our Senior Patrol Leader, calls lineup. Soon we are all in the cars and heading to Hoyt Boyscout Camp in Redding, CT.

When we arrive we immediately start setting up the rain fly. We get the rain fly up and then bring down the stove and patrol box. By that time it is starting to drizzle a bit. Luckily for Brandon and Chris they were able to get their tent up earlier than us, and set it up under the rain fly. By the time Jake and I get our tent set up it is pouring out. Since there was no room under the rain fly Jake and I dart out into the rain and start setting our tent up as quick as possible, unfortunately our tent was soaked in under a minute. So Jake and I roll our tent back up and move into Brandon and Chris’s tent.

After we are in the tent for a half hour Mr. Lauri, our Scoutmaster comes around and tells us that we have to move the tent out from underneath the rain fly. Fortunately it had stopped raining for a little bit, so we quickly get out and move the tent and then get back in and stay warm in our sleeping bags for the remainder of the night.

I’m woken up by Chris at four in the morning and soon enough everyone in our tent is up. Brandon then thinks he hears something outside around 4:15 a.m. so we all end up being quiet for a good 50 minutes. Let me tell you that is probably the only time your going to hear of four guys being perfectly quiet for a good 50 minutes. I end up looking outside at one point and tell them that it’s nothing but it doesn’t matter we won’t be able to go back to sleep.

Around 6 a.m. we get out and start making breakfast. The leaders then come out, followed by the rest of the troop. We are the first ones done cleaning up and we are so happy because there is not so much as a cloud in the sky. My patrol hangs around a bit until everyone is done eating and cleaning up.

Finally around 9:30 we line up and go over to the field so that we can start building our catapult. By 12 our catapult is built and standing with only a few adjustments needed. We head back to our campsite for an hour lunch break. We decided to go back to the field a bit early and start working around 12:45 p.m. Soon we are doing test fires and we found out that our catapult barely fires forward. More than half the time we have to jump out of the way of a rock hurling back at us. The water balloon war starts around 2 p.m. and we end up having to take apart our catapult and just use the net as a lacrosse stick.

The water balloon war is over within 5 minutes and we have to take apart our fallen mechanism. After everyone has undone their lashings and put the sticks in a pile, we did a sweep of the field to pick up all the little broken water balloons.

For dinner my patrol makes noodles with Swedish meatballs. Ryan arrived on Saturday morning and didn’t have a tent to sleep in, so after dinner I watched Ryan build his shelter for the night. Around 8:30 we have a campfire and then go to bed, but at 9:15 we are dragged back out of our tents because the venture patrol (which is the high school boys in the troop) hadn’t done any skits. So by 10 we are in our sleeping bags nice and warm.

I wake up at five and start getting changed. I hear the pitter patter of rain on the rain fly. At 5:30 Ryan comes in and goes “Guys I’m soaked, it rained half the night.” We then finish packing and by 6:30 we are out and making breakfast. My patrol spends at least an hour cleaning up the whole stove to make it nice and clean. Jake and I take down the tent and rain fly while Chris and Brandon put the patrol box and stove in the trailer. My patrol does a sweep of the area we were in and then put our gear in the cars and wait to go home.

Soon enough I am at home taking a nice warm shower.

For more info. about scouting in Brookfield please contact the following people: Cubscouts - Rob Libbey Pack 5 at 203-7445-2412, Rob Janofsky Pack 135 @203-775-9578, Boyscouts Kirk Lauri Troop 135 @ 203-470-9050, Jonathan Gibney Troop 8, Tom Tyrell, Troop 5 @ 203-775-4448.

Written by,

Nicholas Palmer

Troop 135, Patrol Leader