Campout

Saturday January 22, 2010 through Sunday January 23.

We will be camping in the Blackstone River and Canal Heritage State Park. Blackstone River Park has a large forest with lots of trails and a secluded and sheltered pine grove camping spot that is perfect for winter camping. Planned activities include sledding, hiking, animal tracking, snowshoeing, a visit to King Philips Cave and Lookout, and other adventures. At this winter camping trip we will be doing some aluminum foil cooking (no pots and pans to clean) and Dutch oven cooking. The winter is a great time to do this type of cooking because you need some good warm fires to cook – and to stay warm with, too!

We will be using the spacious regular troop tents (not the backpacking tents) to sleep in Saturday night. These tents have more room to keep gear out of the snow, and have worked great for other winter campouts. The Troop 4 Website has a list of gear needed for a one night winter campout. Most scouts already have most of the gear and anything else is usually around in the scouts homes.

We will be patrol cooking for Saturday dinner and Sunday breakfast. Scouts should bring a bag lunch for Saturday (no soda). A plastic sled comes in handy on this trip, for both sledding and for hauling in your gear. If you have one, please bring it.

We will meet at St. Mary’s parish center at 9:00 AM on Saturday January 22. Patrols will have an opportunity to assemble their ingredients into tin-foil cooking packets using the parish center kitchen before we depart. We will need a few parents to drive to/from the site. We will return for pick up on Sunday, January 23 by noon.

We will be planning the trip at the January 13 troop meeting. If your son is planning to attend, please return theĀ  permission slip by the January 13 troop meeting. If your son can’t make the January 13 troop meeting but wants to attend, please call or email Phil Bedard before that date so we can include him in planning for the event.

Winter camping is fun and a great outdoor experience – and not that difficult. The adult leaders and troop have many years of winter camping experience and all of our trips have been a great time. Hope for lots of snow cover!