Camping at Camp Wanocksett

For this outing recap, I decided to do it like a journal. I hope you enjoy reading about our trip.

Friday, October 28, 2022

We left on Friday afternoon from the Cole Center to head north to New Hampshire and Camp Wanoncksett. We arrived a little later than we had hoped, but worked together to unload the vehicles find good campsite locations and pitch our tents for the evening. Once we were done setting up camp, we had some time to go on a night hike to stretch our legs from the car trip. We have a long day tomorrow with the hike up Mount Monadnock, plus Finn and I have a 6am wake-up call since we are on breakfast duty tomorrow morning, so we turned in for the night pretty early.

Saturday, October 29, 2022

Last night was a bit cold for an October night. At about 4am I heard a really cool owl. I’d never heard anything like it. Luckily, I was able to go back to sleep for a little. I woke up at 6am and the sun was already starting to come up. Finn and I started to prep and cook breakfast. Breakfast burritos were on the menu for today. While we cooked and ate breakfast, Aiden and Charlie made sandwiches for everyone to take on the hike. After breakfast, Finn and I were on “KP Duty” (Kitchen Patrol).

After we made sure the site was cleaned up, we grabbed our water and packed our day packs and set out on our hike of Mount Monadnock. We walked about a mile from the campsite to the trailhead of the mountain. The hike up the mountain is 4 miles up and 4 miles down. This was my first real hike as a Scout and it tested my mental and physical strength.

Some parts were tougher than others and we made sure to help each other out. It helped having a few of the older Scouts on the hike to give tips along the way. As we got closer to the top of the mountain it became a bit more rocky and there were fewer trees. Once we hit the summit, it was all worth it. We got so many great views of the surrounding towns, forests, and cars. We were even able to see Boston way off in the distance because it was so clear.

At the top, we stopped to rest and eat our sandwiches we packed. After lunch, we began the hike back down. At times it felt like the hike down was tougher than the hike up because our legs were tired and the trail was covered with wet leaves. As we were coming back down, we saw quite a few people coming up the mountain. Once we reached the bottom, we began the walk back to camp. We picked up some firewood from the camp master for our evening campfire.

Matthew and Alex were on dinner duty tonight. We had tacos and an improvised soup of rice, beans, meat, and onions. It was … interesting. But, when you’re that hungry after a hike, you’ll eat anything. After dinner we had a campfire and made s’mores, sang songs, and told stories.

Sunday, October 30, 2022

Last night was a bit warmer because a few of us decided to bunk together. This was a much better decision. This morning, we had oatmeal. Something a bit easier and less cleanup. After breakfast we packed up all of our gear, walked our patrol lines to make sure the campsite was clear, and closed out the trip with our rose, bud, thorns. I really like that we close out our trips with this. After that we were on our way back home.

This being my first campout with the Troop, I have to say I had a blast and can’t wait for the next one!