Scouts camping trip to Cranes Beach

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

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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.

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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.
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​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