Fall Cub Scout Campout 2015

Our Cub Scout Pack went to Greenbelt Park in Maryland for the Fall 2015 camping trip. While camping inside the Washington D.C. Beltway was not something I'd ever thought I'd do, it turned out to be a great experience. We arrived Friday night after dinner but before dark. We set up our tent near everyone else, but not too near.

Posing by our tent

The pack's camping trailer didn't arrive till after dark, which meant we had to unpack it and put together the canopy for our cooking and dining area (basically two picnic tables). Happily the design for the canopy is super-simple and with a big crew of parents and cubs we had it built in under 15 minutes.

Our base of operations for the weekend

We had a mini-campfire before going to bed. In the morning, it was the Wolves' turn to make the meal, which meant cooked breakfast. The food purchaser had ambitious plans--eggs, pancakes, and sausages, along with fruit, bagels, and muffins. Cooking could have been a challenge, but our food purchaser had clever plans--egg whites in cartons, pancake mix that only needs water, and precooked sausage patties. A little mixing was all we needed before putting our portable stoves to work.

Flippin' sausages

The breakfast buffet

After breakfast, the pack went on a short hike along Blueberry Nature Trail, which had a conspicuous lack of blueberries. We did see many downed trees, including one tree that downed a bench!

False advertising or wrong time of the year to visit?

Many trees fallen down

Roots of one massive tree

No sitting on that bench!

For the afternoon, we went to the Goddard Space Flight Center's Open House, which will get its own post tomorrow. The evening meal was prepared by the Webelos back at camp. Afterward, we had the official campfire with its full program of songs, salutes, and skits. The Wolves had a fun skit and we all enjoyed singing along to some silly and sentimental songs.

Fall Campfire 2015

Wolf skit

The next morning we had a hot water breakfast--hot chocolate (with tea and instant coffee for the adults) and oatmeal, along with leftover fruit, bagels, and muffins. Afterward we had a flag ceremony and a short non-denominational prayer service. We sang "If I Had a Hammer" and had a mini-reflection on the Scout Law.

Prayer service

We packed up our stuff and then went on the optional geocaching hike. We found five geocaches along the Dogwood Nature Trail (which not only had dogwood trees but also some dogs on leashes going for walks!). The caches weren't too hard to find and gave us a satisfying end to a great camping weekend.

Cubmaster demonstrates geocaching

On the trail

We also saw some deer!

Unnatural path!