Johnston Mill Nature Preserve Webelos Hike

Troop 9 Family,

Yesterday's Webelos Day Hike produced outstanding results, notwithstanding the inclement weather, and I thought you would appreciate knowing more. Dave Filpus suggested the ideal location for a Webelos day hike. Wayne Vanderburg and I walked the Johnson's Mill trail on Saturday, identifying where we wanted our Scouts to set up teaching locations and trying to anticipate issues that might arise. But, by 12:30pm on Sunday, the rain was turning to ice in Chapel Hill. We decided to postpone and reschedule the event in order to avoid dampening anyone's enthusiasm for Boy Scouting with a day hike on a slippery, icy trail in freezing rain. James and Wayne called the Troop members who had committed to attend, and I called the Webelos parents I had spoken with previously, to advise of the reschedule. No one seemed surprised.

Wayne recommended that we go out to Johnson's Mill and inform anyone who showed up in the parking lot of the reschedule. Our expectations were so low that we were certain we would stand outside in the freezing rain for an hour by ourselves. James, Wayne, my son Garrett and I met in the parking lot at 1pm. A few minutes later, ASM Matthew Grady showed up. Then the first parent showed up with his Webelos son - they had both been at December's Movie Day recruiting event. As we were talking about the need to reschedule, five more cars pulled in. It was exactly 1:30. The rain was coming down steadily, mixed with some ice. Then Scout Sprit took over!

The Webelos said they wanted to see the trail anyway, and the rain did not matter to them. With the consensus of their parents, we agreed to an abbreviated hike that would fulfill the Arrow of Light requirements. James stepped up to lead the six Webelos and Garrett as a Patrol, followed by Wayne, Matthew, myself with the six parents. First, we stopped by the picturesque site of the old Johnson Mill to let James talk to the Webelos about Troop 9. We showed everyone the Eagle Project that was recently completed on the site, and answered more questions about the Troop and Boy Scouting. Then, James led everyone on the loop trail. We stopped twice, for James to teach the Scout Sign, Salute and Handshake, and recite the Oath and Law for them. The rain and temperature were not as bad as had been feared, and we returned to the parking lot after about an hour on the trail. Matthew helped me pass out information brochures to the parents, and skill worksheets to the Webelos. Everyone had thoroughly enjoyed themselves, in spite of the rain and cold temperature.

Two of the parents were Den Leaders. They said they would like to return with more Webelos from their Dens when we reschedule the hike. We made a very positive impression on our visitors, and I want to commend James for showing awesome Scout Spirit yesterday. Also, a big "thank you" to Wayne and Matthew for displaying great leadership qualities to the Webelos parents. Troop 9 could not have looked more impressive to our visitors. You truly helped "turn lemons in to lemonade" for those Webelos families and Troop 9.

Yours in Scouting,

Gregg

Eno River State Park

Length: Two nights
Crew: Three adults, four Scouts
Day One
Backpacked about three quarter of a mile to the group campsite at Few's Ford. We had to cross a pedestrian suspension bridge to get there. Set up camp.
Day Two
Since we did not have a Few's Ford for Saturday night, we moved camp to the new Piper Creek campground at Cole Mill. We backpacked out to the cars and hiked into the campground. We were the first campers to camp at Piper Creek. Only one site had a fire ring built, so that's where we camped.
The newest Scout in the troop had a magnesium fire starter. He taught the other boys how to use it. The leaders are trying to buy their own.
Day Three
Returned to Chapel Hill.

Camp Chestnut Ridge

Length: Two nights
Crew: Three adults, three Scouts
Day One
Set up camp at Camp Chestnut Ridge.
Day Two
Played capture the flag with boys from troops 45 and 845. The scout leaders from all three troops did group cooking.
Day Three
Returned to Chapel Hill early to be ready for the Eagle Court of Honor Sunday afternoon.

Wilson Creek Backpacking Trip

Length: Two days
Crew: Four adults, three Scouts
Trip Sheet
Day One
We met at the church and drove to the parking lot at the trail head. The parking lot and trail head is new since we were there last year. The new trail is much steeper than the old trail. It may be better to use the old trail from the road instead of going straight up the new trail. We set up camp at the juncture of Harper Creek and Raider Camp Creek.
Day Two
Part of the crew went up Harper Creek to find the South Harper Creek Falls. They got on the wrong trail and ended up just coming back without finding the falls.
Day Three
We hiked out and drove back to the church.

Fall Camporee - Camp Reeves

Length: Two days
Crew: Four adults, four Scouts
Trip Sheet
Day One
We met at the church and drove to Camp Reeves and set up tents.
Day Two
We participated as a patrol in the orienteering contest and placed third overall.
We performed a flag retirement ceremony at the Saturday night campfire.
Day Three
The troop took first overall for the whole camporee.

Uhwarrie Panther Creek

Length: One day
Crew: Four adults, four Scouts
Trip Sheet
More Pictures
Day One
We met at the church, drove to the trailhead and repositioned cars. We hiked into the campsite. The boys worked on Orienteering merit badge.
Day Two
We hiked out on a beautiful climb over Dark Mountain. We drove back to the church.

Summer Camp at Camp Cherokee

Length: Seven days
Crew: Three adults, three Scouts
Trip Sheet

Kaufmanhaus Bike Trip and Court of Honor

Trip Sheet
Friday Night
One tent camped overnight.
Saturday
The group biked the southernmost section of the American Tobacco Trail twice. The trip started from the New Hill/Olive Chapel Road Access and traveled 5 miles to the White Oak Church Road and back. The group had lunch and biked it again. One bike had two flat tires, both at the same location of the trail. One boy collected a number of golf balls from a section of the trail that passed by a golf course.
Saturday Evening
After a potluck dinner at the Risk's house, the troop conducted its May Court of Honor up in the campground at the top of the hill. One tent camped overnight

Pinnacles of the Dan

Length: One days
Crew: Three adults, one Scouts
Trip Sheet
More Pictures
Day Zero
Originally, we were to go on Saturday, but the weather forecast was horrible, so we moved the trap back to Sunday
Day One
After parking at the powerplant, we all went into the power plant to get a permit. The operator's office is on the second level, so we climbed through the plan to get there. The operator told us that the trail to the resevoir is closed permanently, but you can hike up to the Pinnacles, but no farther. He also suggested hiking up the Dan to a new beaver dam. So, we planned to climb the Pinnacles in the morning and go out to the beaver dam in the afternoon.

A couple of hundred feet up the Pinnacles trail, one of the adults was having some trouble climbing. We came back down and decided to head out to the beaver dam instead. The route to the beaver dam is quite strenuous. Much of the trail is overgrown. You need to cross the Dan at least once. We crossed the river three times on the way out to beaver dam and once on the way back.

One of the scouts saw a wild turkey crossing the river. We all saw a pair of hawks flying over the beaver pond. After lunch at the beaver dam, we bushwhacked the trail back to the base of the Pinnacles trail. The one adult returned to the powerplant, while the rest of us climbed the Pinnacles trail. Climbing to very top of the Pinnacle meant leaving packs and trekking poles at the base of the peak and scambling up on hands and knees.

From the Pinnacles trail, we could see the aqueduct, which has been modernized, replacing the old wood aqueduct with fiberglass. The Scoutmaster was looking around for the waterslide.

Rip Rap Trail, Shenandoah National Park

Length: Two days
Crew: Two adults, four Scouts
Trip Sheet
Day One
After shuffling cars at the Skyline drive parking lots, the group backpacked down the Rip Rap Trail. We camped in the same campsite as the previous trip. We worked on Wilderness Survival merit badge.
Day Two
After packing up camp, we backpacked back to the cars.

South Mountains

Length: Two days
Crew: Two adults, four Scouts
Trip Sheet
More Pictures
Day One
We backpacked to the group campsite and set up camp. We hiked up along a ridge to the top of the waterfall. Mr. Vanderburg was taking pictures, but the battery in the camera died at the top of the falls. The troop has pictures of the waterfall from previous visits to these falls in the galleries.
Day Two
After packing up camp, we hiked back to the cars. We did some work on Forestry merit badge. On the way out, we visitted the trees the troop planted back in 1999. The trees are now eight to ten feet tall.

Uwharrie Backpacking Trip

Length: Two days
Crew: Two adults, two Scouts
Trip Sheet
Day one
We arrived after one of the typical two-hour car rides that leave you straining to go. Maybe it was the energy that we had left unused in the car, but by lunch time we had knocked off almost half of our allotted 7 miles for the day. Lunch was at a location to be supplied. Rest finished, we proceeded down the trail and began to encounter one of my very favorite things: CREEKS! So, what with the creeks to cross, and, more importantly, with the diminished amount of water in our water bottles, our pace slowed somewhat. Despite the lessened momentum, we managed to make it to our camp site on time. The site, by the way, was awesome! It had a creek and a nice, flat surface that was perfect for pitching tents. Thus, effectively, end the activities of Day One.

Day two
After breakfast and packup, we began on our 2.5 mile portion for the day. Looking back, my memories of the hike are rather blurred. My strongest ones are of a grayness, a mental grayness, largely imposed on the world around. But even within it, there were always things to see. You'd find your attention being directed by a crew member to say a neat rock in the trail or maybe a bit of moss or lichen. Then we would stare at it for a while in silence and both go away with the impression that we had seen something distinctly worth while. So we continued walking down the "gray" trail, which, when you think about it, was not that gray after all, and eventually reached the car that was at that end of the trail. We all had lunch and waited while Mr. Hock got the other car, and afterwards went home. In summary, this trip, like every other trip had its ups and downs, but overall I would give it an A!

Wilson Creek Backpacking Trip

Length: Three days, Friday through Sunday
Crew: Two adults, three Scouts
Trip Sheet
Pictures
Day 1

The group drove in one car from Chapel Hill to the Wilson Creek Visitors Center, but found it was not open yet. We continued up to FR 464 to try to enter the Harper Creek area from the north side, but the FR 464 was blocked by a landside. So we had to backtrack to the Harper Creek trailhead on Brown Mountain Road. The car was parked on the road by the trailhead and we hiked in. Lunch was at the campsite near the confluence of Hunter Camp Creek and Harper Creek, where the Mountains-to-Sea trail changes from the Hunter Camp Creek Trail to the Harper Creek Trail. We took the deadend trail to Harper Creek Falls by mistake, had to backtrack to where the main trail turned uphill. The falls were worth the visit, but we should have dropped the packs at the trail split. After a somewhat treacherous trail over the falls area, we found an excelled campsite with a firepit and benches on a rise overlooking the trail, the creek and some waterfalls.

Day 2

We left the campsite with dayhike packs and continued up Harper Creek Trail with the intention of having lunch at the South Harper Creek Falls and then deciding whether to come back down by backtracking on the Harper Creek Trail, taking Hunter Camp Creek Trail, which is a little longer, but has more ridge hiking and less creek hiking or by Persimmon Ridge, which is much longer with more ridge hiking.
It took twice as long to get to South Harper Creek Falls as expected. There were three major creek crossings (where you had to wade through current) before branch off for the Persimmon Ridge Trail, and many ( we stopped counting after six ) more major creek crossings before we got to the Harpers Creek gorge. We did see a beaver dam, freshly built from mountain laurel and met some fishermen at the last major creek crossing before the gorge.
The climb up the gorge to South Harper Creek Falls is very steep, but well worth the visit. We had lunch on a huge rock ledge, which the waterfall crossed after coming down a fifty foot drop and before dropping another hundred foot drop. It is spectacular. The total drop of the falls is two hundred feet. Above the falls, there is another major creek crossing and a climb through a poorly marked set of trails up to a campsite with a beautiful overlook of the falls and the gorge.
From the top of the mountain, we took the Hunter Camp Creek Trail, because it is obvious that there would be many fewer creek crossing and an easier trail. It turned out to be much easier than we expected. There is one major creek crossing just before the intersection with Harper Creek Trail, where we had lunch the day before. After a short revisit to Harper Creek Falls, we rehiked the short trail to the campsite.

Day 3

We hiked back to the car, which was covered with road dust, had lunch at the Visitors Center and drove home. At the visitors center, we asked about leaving cars at the parking lot. They said to let the center know if we were leaving cars overnight. The phone number for the Visitor Center is 828-759-0005.

Northern Tier Post-Trek

The crew drives back to Minneapolis. They stop to look at the Mississippi River. After a Northwest flight back to Raleigh/Durham, they get in just before 10 pm.

More Pictures

Northern Tier Day Six - Wind Lake to Sommers Canoe Base

Wind Lake - Moose Lake
3.5 Miles* - 1 Portage

Because we were so close to the base and couldn't get in until 3 pm, we hung around the campsite until 1:30, with the boys canoeing out to larger rocks in order to swim, sleep and sunbathe. We still took it nice and slow for the last little bit of canoeing, but when we landed at base, things got a little bit hectic again. We had to take the canoes and paddles and life jackets to the racks we got them from, check in the food and equipment crates and packs, put some of our gear back in the car, get some toiletries and such out of the car, and get ready to spend the night in the cabins, which were much nicer than the ones we spent the first night in, complete with bunk beds, a light, and a heater (Which we did not use). After that, we all got a chance to hang around in the sauna for as long as we could stand it, and eat another meal at base. In the evening, we had Rendez-vous, a voyageur tradition when they got to talk with old friends for the first time in a while and meet other fellow voyageurs. We and the two or three other crews coming in on that day shared songs, skits (Which we had to come up with), and stories from our trips. After it officially ended, we could look a bit more at the historical setup outside of base, mess with bear traps, play a game from the era, or try throwing tomahawks. Once we got tired of that, we just headed back to the cabins to sleep and prepare for the trip home tomorrow.

Northern Tier Day Five - Pipestone Bay to Wind Lake

Pipestone Bay - Back Bay - Good Lake - Indiana Lake - Wind Bay - Wind Lake
11 Miles* - 5 Portages

It was going to be another long day of paddling, with only two or three portages and a lot of open water canoeing. Mr. Hock saw the opportunity for a "detour", which would lessen our distance on Basswood Lake, which would be more crowded and allowed motorboats, and give us some more portages. It turned out that the "detour" was actually the route that was in the leader's guide we had gotten the route from, but most of us welcomed the chance for some time away from the sun. We made it through that, despite one ugly beaver dammed inlet which required a lot of getting out of the canoe and pushing, finally making it onto an inlet with a whole ton of plants (no idea what) and some serpentine paths through them. This turned into a bit of light-hearted canoe racing, which had the interesting strategy of trying to force the other canoe into the reeds to avoid a collision, but the reeds would significantly slow the canoe. We managed to do one of the two portages that began our trip, so we camped incredibly close to the base.

Northern Tier Day Four - Tin Can Mike Lake to Pipestone Bay

Tin Can Mike Lake - Rapids - Jack Fish Bay - Pipestone Bay
11 Miles* - 3 Portages

There were only a couple of very short (50 rods or less) portages today, so we were expecting to essentially just pull the packs out of the canoe and put them back in again. Little did we know that the two shortest of these portages (15 and 20 rods, 240 and 320 feet) would be some of the most annoying we'd face if not the hardest. We found this out on the first of these, when while passing over what looked like just another muddy stretch of terrain (The other portages were full of those) we sank into the mud, some of us up to our waists! Even at the end of that portage, it was easy to sink ankle deep or deeper when wearing a pack, so just taking the packs 20 feet over to the canoe became almost a daunting task! We all made it through that portage and another like it but slightly less mucky with all our possessions intact.

Northern Tier Day Three - Basswood Falls to Tin Can Mike Lake

Basswood River - Horse River Horse Lake - Tin Can Mike Lake
13.5 Miles* - 9 Portages

We knew we'd be doing our longest portage, 340 rods or 1.1 miles, early that day, so we weren't that thrilled with it based on our experience with the portages back on day one. Fortunately, the long portage was flat and shady, although the bugs were bad. It seemed every hundred feet or so would be another mud hole with another several dozen mosquitos breeding in it. About halfway through, we stopped to take a break, reapply bug spray, and figure out where to go. We noticed a wrecked canoe that had presumably tried to go down the rapids we were portaging around. We had even more portages in the rest of that paddling day, totaling another mile of portaging. When we made it to the lake where we were supposed to camp, all the sites were taken, so we had to make another portage onto the next lake to take a site there. This was our biggest day of the trip, as we traveled 12 miles total and almost 2 miles of portaging. That night, right after we had all gotten into a sleeping bags, we were woken up by cries of "Moose!" It was across the lake, so all we saw (fortunately, considering stories of moose in camps) was a brown blotch, or a brown moose shaped blotch through binoculars.

Northern Tier Day Two - Washington Island to Basswood Falls

Basswood Lake
11.5 Miles*

No portages, so it was just a long day of paddling. We stopped once along the way to eat lunch and swim a bit. The main part of the campsite was on a large rock with no shade, so the mosquitos weren't that bad. Unfortunately, the flies were worse there than at the other campsites. Anything in the sun that didn't move was a fly target, especially if it had touched human sweat or anything else that a fly might consider nutritious. (And that's about everything) The flies never made it past just being pests, as they didn't bite and they didn't land on moving things, like us, as much. At least there wasn't a mosquito presence until the evening.

Northern Tier Day One - Sommers to Washington Island

Moose Lake - Wind Lake - Basswood Lake
9.5 Miles* - 2 portages

We woke up bright and early on our first day of paddling, knowing we'd have to get up every day on our trip at about the same time. (So jet lag actually helped) We went and picked up our life jackets, PFDs, and canoes, and set off into the Boundary Waters. We had our first two portages that day, both about a half mile, but they were probably the most physically strenuous on the entire trip, because they were steeper and had less shade than other portages the same length. We made it to the campsite before lunch, and found it to be something of a mosquito haven, worse than any we would go up against later in the trip. Despite that, we still managed to set up camp, get used to the cook gear and survive to the next day.