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Mt. Washington Winter Camp - Jan 23 and 24, 2010
The Winter Camp was a one night camp to experience sleeping in a snow shelter and to test some techniques for staying warm and dry. Due to recent high freezing levels, we changed our camp location to a site higher up Mt. Washington to ensure that we would have enough snow. We set out from Raven Lodge at the cross-country ski area and travelled west descending slightly from the contour of the slope. We brought a sled to carry some group equipmenfurther. t, but all of the youth carried their personal gear. Saturday was beautiful and the temperature was above freezing. After selecting our camp site, we dug three large trenches and fashioned roof frames from staves, tarped the structures and piled snow on the edges of the tarps. A tunnel was dug through one of the walls for an entrance. The shelters were relatively warm. During the night a storm blew in and brought driving snow. Most of the morning was spent cooking, dismantling the shelters and packing up. The sled was a challenge to pull in the fresh snow, so we loaded it lightly and prepared to make a second trip out with gear without the sled. There were no pictures taken the second day of the horizontal snow. There were a few cold hands, but the youth faired well. Next year, I suggest we pack lighter and go Horne Lake Caves Provincial Park - Nov 11, 2009
The scouts, along with the other sections of our group, marched in the Remembrance Day parade in Lantzville. After the ceremony and the hotdogs and pop that followed at Costin Hall, we headed for the caves. The wet and cool cave was in contrast to the relatively warm parade march. Only Main Cave was visited; the trail to Lower Main Cave was closed. From the entrance, we walked along the lower level until the water fall and then climbed up the stream cut to Ouigee Wall, where water showers down from the roof. Some of the scouts climbed the cut wall and entered an upper tunnel, crawling into a small room covered in formations and then through a sump, crawling in the water. The tunnel pinched to less than the width of our helmets - thank you for not trying to go through. The only loss was one set of raingear that shredded on the rocks.
PIRATES COVE CANOE/CAMP
We planned for Pirates Cove in the fall of 2008, but due to adverse weather we had to use our alternate location - Newcastle Island. This year, Pirates Cove was a one night camp; Oct 3rd and 4th. We set out from Cedar-by-the-Sea on a warm fall day with a brisk northwesterly wind. We canoed to Round Island and built a sail, rafted the canoes and set off for Pirates Cove. The trip to Pirates Cove took 1hr and 45min, which included the stop to prepare a sail. The youth spent the afternoon building a temporary shelter on the beach to sleep in; although at 10:30pm they chose to set up the tent due to the cramped quarters in the shelter. It was a two person shelter, not three.
Sunday included a hike to check the wind conditions on the east side of the island and shortly after 1:00pm our canoes rounded the SE point of De Courcy Island and headed north-west hugging the shores of De Courcy and Link islands. We portaged the canoes across the isthmus connecting Link and Mudge islands and headed straight for Round Island and back to the boat ramp. The return took a little more than 3hr. There was no sign of Brother XII or Madame Zee at Gospel cove.
Forbidden Pleateau Backpack and Mt. Albert Edward Ascent
Four scouts and two leaders set out on a beautiful fall weekend, Sept 11-13, 2009. We hiked along the Battleship Lake route to the campsite at Kwai Lake, arriving before we needed to pull out our flashlights. The following morning the scouts were asked if they wanted to hike to a distant peak and they responded with an enthusiastic, Yes! After 9km and 900m in elevation gain we arrived at the summit of Mt. Albert Edward. About 500m from camp, on the return, we ran into a bear on the trail. Whoa Bear - Hey Bear; the bear ambled away. The next day we hiked out via Lake Helen McKenzie.
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