5/18 Troop Meeting St. Mary’s School 7:00pm – During this meeting, we will review the recent canoeing trip and work on First Aid for rank advancement. This will be followed by poison ball.
5/26 Troop Meeting St. Mary’s School 7:00pm – This meeting will be used to discuss the upcoming June fishing trip and start the fishing merit badge. In addition, there will be opportunities for rank advancement and a discussion of Memorial Day weekend activities as outlined below.
Upcoming Activities
5/21 -Earth Day 2022 DelCarte Cleanup Event 9:00 to 12:00
Join the Town of Franklin Conservation Commission for a Clean up Event at Delcarte Conservation Area. Please see below for information. Scouts will earn volunteer hours.
https://www.franklinma.gov/conservation/news/earth-day-2022-delcarte-cleanup-event
5/22 – Riverbend Trail Franklin 2:00 to 4:00
As part of Fraser Baird’s Eagle Scout project the troop is sponsoring the Riverbend Trail off Lincoln Street in Franklin. Fraser has done a lot of cleaning up and marked new trails but more needs to be done. He is looking for volunteers to help him on Sunday May 22nd from 2pm till 4pm or earlier if we get finished. We will be clearing brush, moving debris and clearing trash. If you/ friends/family can help please sign up on the sign up genius. Thank you, Fraser Baird. Scouts will earn volunteer hours.
https://www.signupgenius.com/go/30e0a4aabab2ca7ff2-eagle1
Memorial Day Weekend
May 28th Grave Reflagging
May 30th Memorial Day Parade
Please sign up on Scoutbook on the event pages
June 17-19: Deep Sea Fishing Cape Cod and Camping at the Midway Recreation Area in Bourne
We will be camping on the Cape Cod Canal at the Midway Recreation Area. On Saturday morning we booked a private fishing charter boat to take us out for some ocean fishing. When we get back there are a ton of games we can play (sand volleyball court, horse shoes, corn hole, etc.). We are planning to do a fish fry with some of the fish that we catch on our morning trip. In the afternoon there is an option to bring bikes and ride along the Cape Cod canal to Town Neck Beach in Sandwich (4.5 flat miles each way). The facilities at this Rec area are really great. This will be a trip the Scouts and Adults will remember for many years to come!
Here is a map of the canal and bike paths for reference: https://www.capecodbikeguide.com/pdf/Cape-Cod-Canal-bike-path.pdf
Sign up at: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/30e0a4aabab2ca7ff2-june6
July 17-23: Summer Camp at Camp Squanto Plymouth
There is still space for additional Scouts (regular pricing $510) but if you are considering going to camp please let Tim O’Toole know as soon as possible.
https://www.signupgenius.com/go/30e0a4aabab2ca7ff2-troop9
May Canoe Trip Recap
It was already getting hot with full sun as we prepared our canoes for launch into the murky Charles River.
We navigated a little ways down the river, but pulled over at a nearby dock as we noticed some of the teams needed help with their canoe paddling strokes.
After a quick adjustment we were back on our way, paddling along the winding river. There are no houses at the beginning of the journey, but there was a lot of wildlife.
We saw countless Beaver Dams, Great Blue Heron taking flight, and giant Carp jumping out of the water. The river was about 3 feet lower than it was a few weeks ago when Mr. Apicella and Mr. Latshaw took a trial run of the river. I don’t think there was enough water in some spaces to contain these massive Carp!
We made it to our campsite around 11:30PM and after pulling the canoes out of the water we set up our campsites.
We had lunch after everything was set up and then worked on getting enough firewood to last us through cooking dinner and into the evening.
The afternoon was a bit more relaxed with Scouts going out canoeing and fishing or just hanging out by the camp. Lucca caught his first fish and Alex brought back a Crappie (Calico Bass) which was filleted and cooked over the wood fire. This helped Alex to finish up his Fishing Merit Badge that was started at camp last summer.
For dinner we got a nice fire going and then cooked cheeseburgers and hot dogs on a grill right over the fire. We also had baked beans and both pasta and potato salad, as well as strawberry shortcake for dessert. We hung out by the campfire for a bit as it grew dark until we noticed it was starting to rain and then saw the forecast calling for RAIN starting about 10pm. We decided to call it a night and headed off to bed.
Sunday morning the birds were up early and were amazingly loud. The chance of rain in the forecast had changed to just cloudy skies. We got our coffee brewed and then cooked up a nice “Mountain Man” breakfast in a skillet over the campfire (sausage, peppers, onions, potatoes, eggs, and cheese). The Scouts had just planned bagels and cream cheese, but they were happy to be able to toast their bagels on the campfire. We broke down camp and hit the water again for about another 4-5 miles along the Charles River to the South Natick Dam. The water was so low that it exposed quite a few large rocks sticking up and out of the water. We had to take extra care to avoid those. The views of the multi-million dollar houses in Sherborn were also quite amazing! We reached the end of our journey around 10:30 and loaded the canoes back onto the trailer and gear into various vehicles.
Many thanks to Mr. Apicella and Mr. Latshaw for their extra time and effort to make this a great trip. Unfortunately due to a medical issue Mr. Latshaw was not able to go with us, but we are grateful for the extra time he took to work with us at our troop meeting last week and teach us some of the basics of canoeing.
troop29franklin 