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Major battles in the French & Indian war occured in this area and many soldiers endured extreme hardships here for the good of our nation. After the French set up shop, the British came, then the colonials (Benedict Arnold, Ethan Allen, Henry Knox to get the canons that ultimately forced the British out of Boston), then Burgoyne came through in 1777 on his way to a defeat at Saratoga. Ben Franklin, Jefferson, & Washington, later visited. Then we came.

Few of the scouts understood what the Council patch on their shoulder represented, so this was meant to bring meaning to it all.  Ft. Ticonderoga is between Lake Champlain & Lake George (on NY/Vermont border). Ft. William Henry nearby at the south end of Lake George, is the setting of James Fenimore Cooper’s “Last of the Mohicans.” A great book/movie to take in before visiting. 

There is a scout camp on one of the islands in Lake George that I hope to learn more about. Curtis Read Scout camp is about 30 mins. west in the Adirondacks.

http://www.grandtetoncouncil.org/index.cfm?pageid=1492

(The scout camp is on the very back side of the Grand Teton, the centermost mountain on my webpage header. When seen from the scout camp, the back of the Grand Teton looks like the Matterhorn in Zermatt. The scout camp was also at the base of this large waterfall, it really was beautiful).

personal-management-final.pdf 

Investing Options

There was a great Far Side clip with two scientist who discover that time is actually equal to money. I wish I could have found it for this class. I will post a zipped file with all the training material I produced. So far I’ve managed to attach the introductory handout as well as a worksheet I did to help the kids understand investing options. I thought this class was particularly instructive. As I mentioned in the Energy MB, a big upside of scouting is it’s ability to introduce topics to kids at a very early age. They will hopefully always remember the messages in these classes and become just better equiped for life.

Besides suggesting someplace interesting to go, the secondary point of this presentation was to help the older venture crew understand that what we were collectively after was something very special. That when we did events, knowing that time was valuable, we really spent time considering and planning what were were going to do and what we wanted to accomplish.

kaaterskill-hike-latest.pdf

If you like the idea of this hike and want to go, let me mention just a few more things – when you drive up Rt.23A, you’ll know you’ve reached the trailhead when you do a sharp hairpin turn right at a beautiful waterfall (Bastion Falls). Park up the road a bit, there is a small parking lot on the right. You’ll have to be extremely careful walking down the road. When you walk up the trail after the first waterfall, don’t stop at the next one you see and think you’ve reached it. Keep going. The high falls are spectacular. If you feel so inclined, hike up the left side of the falls. If you look carefully, you’ll find some engravings chiseled in the wall. One is to Vite the wonder dog who tragically jumped to his death back in the 1800′s. At the top, there are hundreds of names and dates chiseled into the stone. No such thing as leave no trace back then, but you know what, it is really kind of cool to see.

A good book telling the story of the area is “The Catskill Mountain House” by Roland VanZandt.

This is a great overnight hike for the older scouts. Hike up above the treeline across the entire Presidential Range and up and over Mt. Washington, the highest mountain in the northeast (6288ft). It is quite a challenge and achievment. I wanted to revise this slightly but ran out of time. I’ve also attached a copy of a map we used when we first introduced the Whites and this hike to the scouts.

mt-washingtonv3.pdf

whitemtn1.jpg

A great hike idea if you are looking for something the scouts can be quite proud of  -

From Monson, Maine, the Appalachian Trail begins its journey through the fabled 100 mile Wilderness. This is the longest stretch on the AT that doesn’t cross a paved road. Many of its best highlights are packed into the first 30 miles, including the Lower Wilson falls, rock strewn rivers, and great views. Campsites are abundant and there are 4 shelters along this route. The 27-mile Gulf Hagas hike starts on the gravel road to Katahdin Iron Works off ME 11, 5.5 miles north of Brownville Junction.  I’ll post more on this later.

I had this idea for an award (patch, certificate) that the scouts could earn for hiking the Appalachian Trail in each of the 5 New England states (CT, MA, VT, NH, ME). The patch would look identical to the above (the classic trail marker symbol for the organization), with the state initials in it somewhere and maybe “5 stater” or something like that (in gold). I talked to the AT Conservancy and got permission to use the AT logo on a limited (troop) basis. Maybe we can do something council wide with permission.

If you are out of region, maybe you can just run with the idea for 100 mile AT/PCT hike or something…

Making a competitive car is very simple and you don’t need to be a physics teacher or engineer. All you need to do is get on the internet and search “pinewood derby”. It’s all there. This does take time and you do find that most sites are ones where you have to pay for a book to get anything useful, but if you sift through them, you’ll slowly find what you need. Better yet, read the attached. I may not have collected all the secrets, but I think I got most. Combined with what we learned on our own from experimentation and success (something like 5-6 first place pack awards between two kids), everything you likely need to know is right here. If you read the attached and apply the basics of weigh location & axle prep, you can probably win something in your pack. I’ve includes lot’s of design ideas as well.

pwd20071.pdf

This was a good program to introduce the scouts to how things worked locally and what it means to be a good citizen. I started the event with a slide presentation from our Historical Society. I really wanted them to get a sense of the long history, their connection to it, and their duty/obligation to make the community, and life, better for all. I printed this out 2 to a page, cut, then stapled down the side (something to keep as a reminder of key messages).

The requirements have changed slightly since I created this presentation, but hopefully it helps somehow.

citizen-of-communityv2.ppt