At the annual parish clothing drive, a select few scouts helped collect, sort, package, and load used clothing items to be donated to various charitable organizations.
Troop 1978 Maine Summer Camp 2018
July 13 to July 21, 2018
By: Ian Kiyokawa
This year, our Troops’ trip to Philmont Scout Ranch was cancelled due to forest fires. As a substitute, the Philmont Crew went to the Maine High Adventure Camp. This was a real let down because they had trained so hard for Philmont and they wouldn’t even get to go. Despite this setback, the Philmont Crew quickly set up another trip which was spectacular.
After driving through 9 states, traveling more than 600 miles in roughly 13 hours, the Philmont Crew arrived in Baxter State Park in Maine. The Crew first canooed for 3 days and portaged to better canoeing waters. Portaging was very hard for the Crew. They portaged for 3/4ths of a mile and canooed the rest until they got to the area where they could start the backpacking portion of the trip. The Crew backpacked to base camp, which was difficult because there were a ton of downed trees all along the path. Nobody enjoyed having to climb over the downed trees all the time.
Some things people really liked about the Maine Trip were the views. The Appalachian Trail has beautiful natural features all along the way. Another thing the Crew liked was “rump bumping”. It’s when you wear a life vest on your bottom and ride the water downstream. The thing that made the trip very special was the combination of canoeing and hiking. It was like having two big activities in one trip.
One of the most disliked parts of the trip was the bugs, but there isn’t much you can do about that. Another really bothersome thing that the Philmont Crew was being faced with was having to cross all the downed trees with their heavy packs on. Also, they hated having to have to resupply after running out of food.
Over all, the Philmont Crew really enjoyed their Maine High Adventure Trip. I would recommend that we add it to our Troop’s High Adventure Summer Camp list. It is a great combination of hiking and canoeing and an adventure of a lifetime.
Vienna Virginia Troop 1978 Sea base High Adventure Camp 2018
June 20 to June 28, 2018
By Ian Kiyokawa
The Summer of 2018 was the first time that Troop 1978 has ever gone to Florida National High Adventure Sea Base. Everyone had an experience of a lifetime and I wish to continue the fun. In this report, I will name some of the things that went very well for the Troop while at Sea Base and other things that didn’t go so smoothly as we would have liked.
The first topic I will cover is the journey getting to Sea Base and everything that went in to it. I feel like we could have had a couple of more planning meetings leading up to the trip. Also, a more set schedule of the trip before leaving on the boat would have been nice. We kind of hopped around places a lot. If we had a more hour by hour timeline to follow, things may have gone much smoother.
Everyone who went knows we over packed. One thing that all the scouts HATED was bringing and wearing their Class A Uniform. It seemed unnecessary since we all were wearing our Class B Uniform. Also, we had no need for water shoes. The only kind of shoes that were worn were slides/ flip flops and the Neoprene Socks, which helped prevent rashes on feet while snorkeling. We also had no need to bring any clothes really on the boat except for Key West. All we needed clothes-wise were sim shirts, swim trunks and Neoprene Socks. One other thing that just was never really used by anyone was the headlamps we were supposed to bring. Since we had the deck lights on all the way until everyone was in bed, we had no need for them.
One thing that almost all the Scouts were disappointed in was the Key West visit. Not all of us were able to do what we wanted. Something that was not fun was visiting Fort Zachary Taylor. We had no real reason to go there. What most people wanted to do was to split into groups consisting of an adult and four scouts. Some of the groups may have been uneven, but it would have made the experience much more fun. If you think about it, it is easier to make a decision on things to do with a small group of about 5 people instead of 20.
Now onto more positive things. So many things went incredibly right. Things to continue is the snorkeling part of Sea Base. Living on a boat with all your friends was an amazing thing to do. Sea Base does offer other programs of scuba diving but you live at base camp. Both trips sound fun though! I want other people to experience what I did when living on the boat. I loved nearly every aspect of it. The only thing I would say is that the trip felt a little short. Right when we were getting into the swim of things, it was over.
Another thing that went really well was all the places we visited in Fort Lauderdale. It really helped all of us ajust and get comfortable with everything. Staying in the hotel was great and so was visiting the museum. Breaking off into small groups or using the buddy system let everyone enjoy what they wanted to do. But as I said earlier, we should have a tighter schedule to help things run smoothly.
Vienna Virginia BSA Troop 1978 Powhatan Scout Camp
