Troop 304: 1998 - 1999 Camping Trips

May
May is the traditional month for the District Camporee. This year it was held at Camp Greenough on the Cape. The Troop took a couple 1st places and our Scoutmaster, Phil Curtis won a first place among adult leaders for his delicious Dump Cake desert! 

April 17th - 19th
We camped for three days at  Camp Greenough on Cape Cod and visited Otis Air Force base to work on the Aviation Merit Badge. Troop Historian, Jon Hatch describes the trip from a scout's viewpoint!

March 13th-14th
It was back to Camp Dalton for another Winter Campout! Our second of the year!
Although now experienced in Winter camping, we learned that we were not experts! After a long afternoon finding their way with map and compass, all the scouts were glad that they brought warm clothes with them! One of the scouts that was working on First Class built a great flag pole to meet his requirement of building a camp gadget!

February 6-7th
February is the traditional month for Troop 304's annual Freeze-Out! This year we chose Camp Dalton for the location of our Winter camping trip. The scouts learned how to how to set up tents, when you couldn't drive in a stake! They also learned the importance of a drop cloth below their tent in preventing moisture from soaking through and getting their sleeping bag wet! There certainly were a lot of other lessons learned in how to stay warm when camping in the Winter!

January 9-10th
The annual skiing trip is always one of the most popular campouts of the year, and this year was no exception! Gunstock was the destination for this year's skiing trip. The troop stayed in a cabin at the Minuteman Council's Camp Storer. Although at times rain poncho's would have been a better choice than ski parkas, the scouts all had a great time skiing!

December 12th
The last troop activity of 1998 was a 6-mile advancement hike around the conservation land in Lexington. The scouts had planned this hike at previous troop meeting and had drawn maps for their hike in preparation for a Second Class requirement. Some basic orienteering skills were practiced in preparation for First Class requirement. All the scouts learned the value of including all the possible paths on their map!

November 14th – 15th
Scoutmaster Curtis reported that the campout at Camp Dalton this year was the best outing so far. The New Scout Patrol did very particularly well at setting up and organizing their camp, starting the fire, and cooking their food. When Sunday morning it rained, the only group with dry wood was the New Scout Patrol!

October 3rd – 4th
The Mt. Chocorua campout was fantastic. All the boys hiked up to the top of the mountain and down. This was a total hike of about 10miles. Although there were some sore feet that evening, it was a great first hike of the year. Many of the scouts also made progress on their cooking, fire making and camping skills. They also learned the evils (difficult cleanup) of cooking macaroni & cheese on a campout! The Scoutmaster’s table included Cajun spiced chicken on the grill, and tin foil stew. The dessert, apple pies, were shared with the scouts.

July 5^th – 11^th
This year's summer camp at Minuteman Council’s Camp Storer was a terrific experience with 9 scouts attending with substantial adult participation. Most of the scouts attending either advanced in rank or earned several merit badges or both! All the scouts had fun and were already planning on attending next year!