 By Jackson Provan On Friday, September 27th, Troop 3 set out on their yearly Cranes Beach campout. They arrived at the campsite, a clearing in the woods a short distance from the estate just down the road from the farmhouses, in the early evening, and began unpacking their supplies for their two-night campout. After everything was unloaded, they set up tents. Boys Scouts of America has now become Scouting America, and this year Troop 3 has as many girls as it does boys. At Cranes Beach, there were six girls’ tents and two boys’ tents. After they ate dinner they all went to bed, tired from the day's activities. The campsite at Cranes Beach The next morning, after dining on egg, bacon, and cheese breakfast burritos (a campout specialty), they headed out to the Crane Estate for a service project. A Cranes trustee guided them on what he would like them to do, having them shovel dirt off walkways to the beach. Half the team set out doing this. Everyone else dug up metal poles used to hold up the rope fences to keep beachgoers off the dunes. Using their skills at untying knots to get ropes and fences loose, they used shovels, hands, and other carpentry tools to lift them out of the ground. Sometimes doing one would take ten to fifteen minutes, considering some rods were seven feet tall. While it would take a very long time to pull up the fences across the whole beach, they did this for about two hours. Finally, after putting up a sign on a trail, they went back to the campsite, enjoying sandwiches for lunch. Above left: Scouts pulling out metal fencing posts Above center: Dante Bruno shoveling dirt off the boardwalk to Cranes Beach Above right: Group picture of Troop 3 after the service project With the rest of their time free, Troop 3 spent the day building teepees out of sticks and competing in a lip sync competition. Returning to their bunks for bed and falling asleep laying cards, they woke up the next morning, disheartened to go home. After they ate a breakfast of oatmeal, they had to pack up to go back to Manchester. Collapsing the tents, cleaning up the campsite, and packing everything away, they set off back to Manchester. After a fun weekend, people were already talking about coming back next year. Above left: Group photo of Troop 3 sitting in a tepee they built
Above center: Cia Donohoe sitting by the fire, making the last night’s dessert: Dutch oven apple cake Above right: Troop 3 playing life-sized chess at the crane estate
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  Troop 3 goes vertical - 45 feet up high in the air.
Troop 3 spent the weekend at La Vida - enjoying a 3+ hour long ropes course and overnight camping. While we were only one town away in Wenham, we hiked about 10 minutes with our packs on to our campsite behind Gordon College and were immersed in woods. A La Vida pick-up transported our cooking equipment, water, food supplies, and tents to the site. While our trees were still bare and the temperatures were in the 50s/40s at night, we had no rain or bugs to fend off. We started the day by setting up for lunch. We took several stoves with us so that every Scout would have a chance to cook at least one of our three hot meals. Many cooked at least two! Next we covered how to set up a 3 bin dishwashing station before setting out to pick a site to pitch our tents. There were small cabins (not insulated, no lighting) but everyone chose to sleep outside. Our main activity began mid afternoon. The Scouts were very brave - some climbed up 45 feet in the air. This activity lasted 3+ hours so everyone had many opportunities to climb different structures. We ended with a teamwork exercise with the Scouts climbing in pairs. Dinner provided another opportunity to get the Scouts in front of the stoves. Maya, a La Vida employee, joined us for dinner and the overnight. A recent graduate of Saint Anselm College who works at La Vida in the summer, she enjoyed her time with Troop 3 so much she asked if she could become a Troop 3 volunteer! We'll be in touch with her and hope to take her up on her offer in the fall. No campout is complete without an amazing campfire, some campfire desserts and a great game of manhunt. The adults had a plan for bedtime, but the Scouts beat us to it. With the climbing, fresh air, and running around, nearly all Scouts were in their tents around 10/10:30. Thank you to our adult leaders Tom Conway, Ashley Ochs and Mark Bruno. The Ochs family, Ben and Lucia, did a great job helping to plan and cook the meals. All the scouts seemed very excited to climb, pitch a tent, cook a meal or two, run around with flashlights and even learn the proper way to clean cast iron stoves and wash dishes in nature. Between the cooking and camping, the Scouts made a lot of progress with rank advancement too! @ Falmouth, Cape Cod. 4,500 Scouts from across New England. A rainy first day, followed by two days full of sunshine, albeit much cooler. Everyone had a blast! @ American Legion Post 113 Amaral Bailey, Manchester-by-the-Sea   Scouts, adult leaders and parents once again attended this year's Veterans Day ceremony at the American Legion Hall to honor our veterans and show their appreciation for their service. We couldn't have asked for better weather.   |
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