June 10-11, 2006 - First Crew Camp at Green Falls.

Earlier in the season, shortly after Jeff was elected Patrol Leader, I met him for coffee to pick up a set of topo maps for the Orienteering trek. We talked about camping in the summer, and there and then I asked him, "Jeff, could you plan us a camping trip?" This guy loves to be outside - of all of us, he camped the most in 2006, so the request was not anything he couldn't handle. Ahh yes, the freedom that delegation brings!

The crew voted on several locations and in the end, we picked Green Falls, part of the Patchaug State Forest. We were not let down. The site we picked was just a stone's throw away from incredible rocky ledges and a roaring brook. We withstood yet more "Rover Sunshine" as Jeff and I set up camp on Friday night. Tina arrived Saturday, and Erik watched his weekend dissolve as his car's oil drained across his garage floor that morning. Jay of course was traveling, so three it was, with two additions to our crew, Buddy and Margaret, our two honorary rovers of the four-legged variety. We spent considerable time cleaning up the site and making it free of litter. We set up a simple camp gateway, which basically was a series of flags suspended from rope over the access road. We flew our St. George's flag for the very first time along side a cardboard mockup of our forthcoming crew flag. Old Glory, of course, was flown gloriously.

Saturday's activities were basically a dry-run of the upcoming Brownsea Squire training. We did this because most of the crew were really new to Scouting and they were anxious about learning everything needed to pass the tenderfoot test. We figured repeated exposure to the material would be helpful, so that people would be less concerned about going into Brownsea cold. We spent most of Saturday doing lessons in knots and trail signs. We also reviewed use and care of the US Flag. With the work behind us, we then turned our attention to dinner which was a wonderful dutch oven chicken stew. Yum yum! That evening, we roasted marshmallows the Beagle-Scout way and did old fashioned s'mores.

Sunday was a great day, probably the best of the weekend. We took a 2 mile hike around Green Falls Pond with the dogs and we weren't disappointed. We took one of the blue trails around the pond and took a detour down to the foot of the man-made waterfall to get a good shot of it. We saw lots of old-growth oak trees and loads of mountain laurel coming into bloom. Following the hike, we broke camp and had a quick lunch of hot dogs roasted on sticks. Yes, hot dogs on sticks. How could you not?? All in all, it was a great first camp experience for us as a crew, and it certainly won't be the last.