Troop 17

 

  

 

Sailing Trip

This year’s sailing trip was another successful one. We had good food, good wind, good weather, and good fun. We had great food at the local restaurant there, and hope to go there again. We also had excellent conditions, with fair skies, and a fairly powerful wind to push us along. Plus our new scouts were helped along to getting or getting closer to their scout or tenderfoot rank. So again, this year’s trip was another success, with three years under its belt. I hope to do it again.

 

Mitchell Stadler

 

 

Sailing Trip

We had a blast! The sailing trip was great. I got there a little late but they were still setting up tents. We didn’t do much Friday night; we just sat by the fire and talked. On Saturday, we had an awesome breakfast. Then we went to the boats and we were off. I got to be on Shrimp and Grits, it was an awesome boat! Sometimes we would go under and lay down. We finally got to a spot and cooked hotdogs on the back of the boat. We also took a swim and the water was really cold! After we all ate we started to sail back and just relax. As we reached the shore it started to down pour. When we got back to the camp site we played football and went to sleep. Sunday we pack up and left. I felt we all had a great time together sailing.

 

Ellis Moser

 

 

On Friday we met at the scout hut and drove down to Oriental to stay at our campsite by the dock. On the way there we stopped at Kinston and ate at an all you can eat buffet, which was very good. Then eventually we set up our tents and made a campfire on a peice of tin. Then, after a long night evreyone went to bed. The next morning everyone got up and we went to breakfast for another buffet. After breakfast we drove to the other side of the river and were assigned to our different boats (Shrimp and Grits, Cool Change... ) We had a great day of sailing, and I dont know about anyone else, but I took a nap on the front of the boat! We eventually stopped and had lunch. We listened to the Carolina game, had hot dogs, played a game called Mafia, and some people even jumped in the water. On the way back it was very nice, until later when it rained a little bit. Then we got back to camp and played football until we went back to the same place we ate at breakfast for dinner. After that we got back to the campsite and did random things like hunt for crabs (which there were tons of on the dock), played sports, and other things until we went to sleep. The next morning we packed up our stuff, had a trash pick up, and had a church service. Then we drove back (and stopped at Hardee's on the way for breakfast) and got back to the scout hut. All in all, it was a great trip.

Sam Collins

 

I want to recognize a wonderful job that several of our scouts did in helping support Carolina Bank with a United Way Car Wash fundraiser.  Troop 17 was asked to help with manpower to wash and dry every car that could be redirected into the Carolina Bank parking lot.  This was deemed a success by Keith Strickland in raising over $400 in the few hours of operation.  Great job guys!!

 

On May 22 through May 24 Troop 17 went on a canoe trip down the Haw River.  We arrived on Friday and set up our campsite.  We were lucky to be able to use Troop 65’s scout hut right on the river.  On Saturday, we canoed for about 5 hours and traveled about 6 miles down the Haw River.  The weather was great for this trip but there were a ton of spiders, tics, and poison ivy.   An exciting thing that happened on the trip was that a black king snake jumped into Mr. Moser’s boat.  He just picked it up and threw it back in the water.  On this trip we were fortunate to have 4 new troop members.  All 4 of the new scouts got their scout badge.  Before we left on Sunday, we cleaned up the camp site and had a church service by the water.  This was a fun trip.  I think that we should canoe more than once a year.

 

Chase Briggs

 

 

Troop 17 went on an awesome canoeing trip on May 22, 2009. We arrived there late afternoon and hung out. We were either fishing, or by the fire, or playing 4-square in troop’s 65 awesome scout hut.

Saturday morning everybody was up cooking breakfast. We were all ready to go canoeing. We all piled in the cars and headed upstream to where we were going to put the canoes in the water. After Mr. Bates told us how to use proper canoeing strokes, we were off. We paddled about a mile then we came upon a dam. We had to get out and walk around it. Then Matthew found a pet turtle the size of a quarter. A couple of hours later we arrived at an island and had lunch. We all took a swim too. A few miles down the river I saw something huge fly from my dad’s canoe ahead so I paddled up to see and it was a 6-foot-long black snake in his canoe that he had thrown out. Then we had a swim break for a while. While we were swimming Mr. Bates fell a sleep, so we untied his canoe and he drifted away. We arived back at the campsite and loaded the canoes up. Then we hung out again. A lot of us went fishing and I pulled in a 7 or 8 pound bowflyin fish. As it got dark we all played 4-square!

Sunday morning we had an awesome breakfast and finished the morning with a good church service. I hope we can go camp there again!

 

 

 

 

 

 

This trip was one of the more exiting of the scout trips we have been on. We did a new activity, got plenty of exercise, and were able to head back to the campground to play high and dry. (Especially the dry part, we have had some trips with less formidable weather) We biked the whole trail, all 34 miles, stopping aplenty at first and barely at all later, which really should have been the other way. We also got quite spread out at the end, with a group a mile ahead of the group that was a mile ahead of the other group. But we all got through it unscaved, and unharmed, depending if you consider a popped tire an impairment. We fended our own in meals aside from Sunday breakfast, which really everyone only ate the biscuits. The fire ate the eggs. A few people took advantage of the river by fishing, but no one was victorious with their casting, except for a tree. It would be an excellent choice to go along to be a permanent spot on our trip roster, as ones like Charleston / Yorktown. Some people were suggesting having a race down a place like this, having some on bikes, some canoes, and some kayaks. Could be a possibility. Without a doubt this was a very successful and happy scout trip.

 

Mitchell Stadler

 

Our Scout Trip forced all of the scouts to be prepared for a cold camping trip. Everyone said that their toes were frozen the entire trip. This scout trip was dedicated to help the younger scouts get requirements for first and second class. These requirements included lashing and orienteering.

 

Our Scout troop left the Scout hut at 4:00 p.m. Our destination was the Wildlife Club, located about 20 minutes away outside of Graham. Once we arrived at our campsite we set up our tents, organized all of our stuff in our tents, and ate our supper.

 

After that we made a campfire and sat around it to keep warm until it was time for bed. The next morning most of the scouts ate omelets in a bag and had some hot chocolate for breakfast. As soon as breakfast was over, most of the older scouts went fishing. Unfortunately Mitchell Stadler was the only one who caught a fish. Somewhere around noon the younger scouts began working on their lashing and then on their orienteering. We ate lunch and had a game of football and capture the flag (also known as CTF). After awhile it became boring so Mr. Bates took us to a place where we could find arrowheads. No one found an arrowhead so we went back to the campsite and went fishing again.  We played around until supper. For supper everyone had a foil pack and they looked mouth watering. My baked apple pack was voted the best foil pack while Dallas’s pack, unfortunately, was voted the worst foil pack, basically because of the horrendous odor (How is that for description!). We sat around a fire and ate smores until we had the flag ceremony. During the flag ceremony we burned the flag and Charlie Mize recited a little speech honoring our Country’s flag. Everyone went to bed or sat around the fire after the flag ceremony.

 

The next morning, the leaders made a special breakfast of sausage, fried eggs, and biscuits. Too bad the biscuits ran out because I only had one. Mitchell caught another fish which was HUGE. It was a Bass that weighed 8 pounds and was over a foot long. We then packed up and head for the Scout hut. We didn’t have a little church service because it took us a little too long to pack up our stuff. The parents picked up all of the Scouts after they finished setting up the Scout tents, so they could dry out. It was a very fun and relaxing trip for all of the Scouts.

 

Mathew Inabnit

 

 

For the ski trip we had to be at the scout hut at 4PM. We were all so excited about skiing.

We loaded the cars and were off. The ride up there was pretty long. All of the kids couldn’t wait to get there. When we pulled into the gates of Winterplace Ski Resort all of the kids in my car were cheering. We went into the ski lodge to get our boots and skis and safety instructions for Saturday. We stored our skis and headed to our sleeping quarters.

 

We slept in the Mountain House lodge. When we got there we were the only group. Everyone got an air mattress and set up their bed. We played a while before we went to sleep but lights were out at 11. Saturday morning we got up, got dressed, ate breakfast and headed for the slopes.

 

We went back to the ski lodge got our skis and went skiing. We had ski lessons and snowboard lessons that were really helpful. Skiing was the best part. The lift lines were short so we got to ski a lot. The snow was pretty good considering that it was a bit warm.

We all skied into the afternoon. It started raining after lunch but we kept skiing. All to soon, it was time to go. We dried off packed up and headed home. We had a very successful and fun ski trip.

 

By Luke Huffines

Troop 17 volunteered to help park cars at the Chamber of Commerce meeting last Friday night the 16^th. It was dark and probably one of the coldest nights I have experienced. Over exposure was not out of the question. We had to stop cars and ask if they had a V.I.P. pass or not. If they did then they would park in certain area closest to the building.  It was very difficult to stand out in the cold weather for a long period of time, but we were lucky that we had hot chocolate, courtesy of my dad. We finished up at 7:30 before we all turned into popsicles. That was our adventure with parking cars.  

Alston Hill

Fly Fishing and Hiking on Stone Mountain

By: Luke Huffines

Patrol: Pedro 

 

Friday afternoon we left Burlington for our drive to Stone Mountain. As we were driving, it was raining some. We got lucky, the rain sort of stopped before we got to our campsite. We set up our tents, had a great campfire and played capture the flag before we went to bed. I couldn’t wait to go fly fishing on Saturday.

 

Saturday morning we got up in the rain and fixed breakfast. We packed up and got ready to go either fly fishing or hiking on Stone Mountain. We drove into the park. My group went fishing. Fly fishing is one of the hardest fishing techniques to learn. As I was fly fishing I saw so many cool things. All of the trees looked cool. The leaves were turning orange and brown. Some of us put on waders and some of us wore tennis shoes to wade in the water while we fished. Luckily, William caught a rainbow trout and I got to see it. The colors on the skin were so bright. It was a mix between pink and green. I wish I had a camera so that I could have taken a picture of the fish. After fishing we met up with the rest of the troop and hiked up the mountain to our campsite. I was so tired because of the hike up the mountain. That night it was very cold and we had to make a fire to keep warm. It was very windy that night. We all fixed supper stood around the fire a little while then we went to bed.

 

Sunday morning we started a fire to warm up. We ate breakfast and then we had a flag retirement ceremony and devotions. After that we hiked back down the mountain. When we saw Buford we knew that we were headed to Wendy’s and home. I think everybody had a really good time.