Troop 54 returned for a second year to Camp Wanocksett in Dublin, New Hampshire. This is the Boy Scout camp of Nashua Valley Council. As we did last year, we shared the Arrowhead site with Troop 18 of Ashburnham. Each troop had eight Scouts and three leaders, which exceeded the site's capacity of 20. Fortunately, the camp staff were able to give us a four person cabin in the adjacent Provo site, which was used by Troop 18 Scouts.
During our week, there were about 240 Boy Scouts in camp, and the troop traveling the furthest came from Hopatcong, New Jersey. About 400 people packed the dining hall at each meal. The camp had about 75 staff. For their seven week season, the camp anticipates a total of 1425 Boy Scouts.
The weather this year ranged from the 50's to the 80's. The last few days were cool and wet. Camp staff provided two campfire programs; one of the most entertaining skits was the Venetian Fountain.
Our Scouts earned a total of 28 merit badges, including Archery, Chess, Climbing, Engineering, Fingerprinting, Kayaking, Painting, Photography, Rifle, Robotics, Swimming and Wood Carving, with individual Scouts earning between one and six badges. Six of our Scouts participated in the first year camper program, completing requirements toward Tenderfoot rank. Two of our Scouts completed the Mile Swim. At least a couple of our Scouts attended the dance held with Camp Wa-Klo, the adjacent girl's camp.
Our leaders helped in a number of ways, including providing an engineer to visit the Engineering merit badge class, driving participants to the trail head for the sunset hike up nearby Mount Monadnock, driving participants to an excursion to a museum for Art merit badge, and Miles Swim lifeguard (rowing), Triathlon lifeguard (rowing), Triathlon road safety.
The dining hall food was pretty good, especially considering that the dining hall was constructed in 1960 for about half the number of diners. The roast turkey dinner on Wednesday and the Beef Stroganoff on Thursday were probably the best meals.
This was the troop's 103rd consecutive month with at least one overnight camping trip.
A few videos taken by Keith MacNeal:
