by Jacob W.
From March 27-28, Troop 516 occupied the Turkey Run campsite of Prince
William Forest to hunt dragons. When we got there we moved our patrol boxes
to our sites. Then we set up dining flies and tents, made fires and went to
bed. This was the first campout for the scouts that bridged from Pack 213
and with the guidance of some older scouts they were setup and ready first!
We got up at 7 am, ate breakfast and rallied at the ampitheater for
instructions from Mr. Foster. He said that his kingdom was besieged by 2
dragons and that 7 armies were needed to help defeat the dragons. Before
setting out though, the armies were trained on the use of axes and saws,
shown how to build cooking fires and instructed on how to find their way
through the forest using a compass. At each stop, a scout earned a staff,
shield or sword so that the armies were equipped for the afternoon hunt.
After resting and eating, the squads set out on 1 of three different
orienteering courses. Along the way they encountered dragons and
werewolves, learned terrain features, animal signs and how to identify
trees. By the end of the day, the kingdom was saved and the troop had a
magnificent feast of medieval stew, made by Mrs. Foster. The armies made a
short compassless night hike back to the ampitheater to celebrate with a
bonfire and exchange their tales of the days adventures and misadventures.
The tales were bigger than the dragons and enjoyed by all before retiring
for a well earned rest. In the morning, the scouts gathered for one last
time so that each scout could receive his shield and a sword.
On Febuary 21-22, 51 scouts and scouters traveled to
Baltimore, MD for a weekend of living history. First stop
was Ft McHenry where the scouts watched an inspiring
presentation on the writing of the Star Bangled Banner before
exploring the fort.
We left there and went to the USS Constellation to spend the night.
We were divided into a port watch and a starboard watch. We learned
to rig the sails and then turned the yardarm. Then we raised a barrel using the
capstan. Then we lowered the colors and ate dinner. Dinner
consisted of hard-tack, beef stew and dried fruit. After that we
toured the ship. We went to bed in hammocks. Every hour a
different group of boys woke up to stand watch for an hour. Checking
the ship top to bottom and ringing the ship’s bell every ½ hour.
When we got up, we got dressed, packed and went to the bathroom.
Then we got into our watches and raised the colors. We ate breakfast
that was made up of oatmeal, bacon and a biscuit. Then we went to the
gun deck to learn how to fire a shell gun and actually worked the guns
to run-in, load, run-out and fire in 3 minutes. After that we went to the
spar deck and they fired a rifled gun.
When we left the ship, we toured 3 other vessels at inner harbor – the
submarine Torsk, the lightship Chesapeake and the US Coast Guard
Cutter Taney.