Yawgoog 2012

      Everyone met up at the parking lot at Yawgoog on Sunday, July 8th at around five o'clock. When we finally got permission to enter camp, everyone piled down the road to our site in Three Point: Frontier. We organized our tents, which took a while because the camp didn't give us enough tents and we had to combine some.  Then we had to set up the garage tent, the tent that we put over the picnic tables for the week.  Next came dinner:  hot dogs cooked at our very own campfire!  After that was lights out.
      Monday morning, we got up and everybody did their jobs posted on the bulletin board.  Breakfast was pancakes, and we had to go straight to our troop photo after.  After an unreasonably long photo, we went back to camp to prepare for our swim tests which took place at about 10:00am.  We then had the rest of the morning free to hang out in our campsite. Lunch was hotdogs, and then we had our water front orientation.  After that, we had afternoon merit badge classes.  At Yawgoog, you have for merit badge 'classes' during the day, and one more after dinner.  Two occur after breakfast, and two after lunch, so scouts can earn up to  about five merit badges in the week, but three is usually a rational amount so you can have some free time and time for homework.  Anyway, afternoon classes started Monday and ended Friday, while morning classes started Tuesday and mostly ended on Friday, but may have to have a short class Saturday.  Dinner was pasta w/ meat sauce, and of course some bread and butter.
      Tuesday began the normal schedule. We had eggs and sausage for breakfast, and then of to classes!  Lunch was grilled cheese, and then after a short break, back to classes!  After a dinner of roast beef, we returned to camp, and some of us went off to one more class! This general schedule was fairly consistent throughout the rest of the week.
      There are some friendly competitions throughout the week of camp to help scouts enjoy themselves even more.  There is a troop competition that takes place after lunch each day that consists of a game in which troops select a representative to play and some troops are eliminated each day until only one remains.  We got eliminated on the second day in a game of ninja.
      Also, there is a mile swim at camp.  In order to take part in this "not race", you had to swim 20 lengths in the waterfront to qualify.  This year we had a troop record of seven people qualify for the swim, that's more than any other troop we swam with.  The seven were Nick Apuzzo, Adam Germaine, Jesse Warner, Dan McCloskey, Cliff Mackowiak, Ian Slattery, and me (Eric Weidman).  I finished first in the "not" race, and the others followed strong.  Everybody finished, which was the goal seeing as it is a hard thing to do.
      The final competition that was held at camp was the mile run.  Each troop gets one representative to run for them, and the troop decided to make me do it.  I accepted my fate, and decided to make it worth something. So I ran.  On the last turn, I passed the kid that was in first and sprinted to the finish.  Yay!
      On Saturday, there is a show called the Saturday Night Show that we go to watch along with every other scout and person on reservation.  Unfortunately, I had to leave camp the day before so I missed the show, but I'm sure it was great just like every other year.
      Everyone left on Sunday, July 15 in the morning, avoiding the parade that the other troops do (shhh!).
      I think Camp Yawgoog is a great experience for all scouts, and they should try to go if they can.
                                                                              YIS,
                                                                                Eric Weidman

Rocks Tree Farm 2012

      We pulled out of Lake Quonnipaug in Guilford at about 8:00 a.m. on Saturday, the 14th. We had about 20 people, but who's counting? (actually its kind of important, but I don't know the exact number. An astonishing number of people that were willing to freeze their butts of for the next three days and a record I think!!!!! We also had seven cars driving this year, its usually 2 or 3 cars. Anyway, we kept driving toward our traditional rest stops in Guilford, Vt; and Sam's Outdoor Store. Some of us ended up missing the exit to Guilford, so we had extra time at Sam's. Then, we continued on to the tree farm, 145 miles away from the last stop. Upon arrival, we changed into our cold weather clothes and began setting up camp. Most people including myself had to continuously pausing for re-warmth. Oh yeah, we counted and there were 29 people on the trip. We started our fire, and ate dinner. There was a variety of options to choose from such as hotdogs, chips & salsa, and of course, ramen. Going to bed was tough, we had to leave the warm fire, and it was a cold night. That night, the temperature got down to somewhere around negative 12 degrees Fahrenheit. It was even tougher to get up in the morning, but we ate and left camp by about 10am, a little behind schedule. We drove to the trailhead for MT Pierce, and started out. The temperature was much colder than previous years, so it was more difficult, and the first group of people turned around after only 40 or so minutes. We went to the highland lodge (an AMC location) while the rest of the group kept on. The next group left a while later, and a third group. The last group made it just past the junction (split in the trail) before hitting turn around time at 1:15. Everyone had a great time at the hike and the lodge after. Then we had to return to the outdoors for the second night. It was supposed to be negative eighteen degrees Fahrenheit. Some people slept in the ranger's cabin because it was too cold. Next morning we hustled out of there, and toward Littleton Diner and Chutters candy store. Finally we took off for home. This was a great trip even though it was cold. You should be more experienced to take part in it, and everyone had fun.

YIS Eric Weidman