Stone Mountain Campout
Stone Mountain State Park
March 10-12, 2006
by Mr. De Contreras

On the weekend of March 10, 2006 we kicked-off our 2006 camping season.  There were a lot of things going on at one time, so this will be an interesting summary to read.

This campout was a joint Troop car-camping trip combined with a shakedown backpacking trip for the 2006 Philmont Crew.  We traveled to and from the campout together, but once at camp the two groups were mostly separated. The one exception was the campfire program Saturday night where both groups were together.

On the trip we had 29 Scouts (21 car-campers, 8 Philmont Crew) and 9 adult leaders (5 car-campers, 4 Philmont Crew).

Since the Stone Mountain State Park locks their gate at 7 PM, Mr. De Contreras and Mr. Hibbard left early with some of the Scouts so we could get the troop trailer in before closing and do some initial camp setup. This also gave us two vehicles to shuttle the main group of Scouts arriving after the gate closed. The group camp site we had was only about a mile from the gate, so the two cars carried the equipment in and the Scouts hiked from the gate to camp.

Once everyone was in camp the car-campers set up on one camp site and the Philmont Crew on the other.  Both camp sites were nice level, open fields with picnic tables, fire pits, standing grills, and running water. Nice place to stay.  The car-campers were given a challenge on this trip to cook all their meals on Saturday over an open fire.  We have never asked the Scouts to do this before and it was a good learning experience for them. Before bed, some of the patrols gathered wood and prepared their campfire for the morning’s breakfast preparation. The Scouts mostly played and talked before turning in about 10 PM.

The Philmont Crew spent the evening doing planning and reviewing plans for their backpack trip departing Saturday morning at 8 AM.

Saturday morning both camps were alive with activity at 6:30 AM. The car-campers were building and/or starting their fires.  In the fire pit area we had 5 separate cooking fires going – one for each patrol (including the adult patrol).  It was remarkable how well all the Scouts did in starting their fires and cooking breakfast of pancakes or eggs and bacon. I didn’t hear any complaints and the Scouts all had a healthy, hot meal. That’s the good news.  The bad news was that all those pans needed some elbow grease to clean because of all the soot and heat from the fires.

The Philmont Crew did not have to cook over an open fire.  They used their backpack stoves and cooked a hearty breakfast that came out of a dehydrated food bag from Philmont. Yes, the Crew was eating just what they will eat on their week long backpacking trip to the mountains of New Mexico. The only comment I heard was that it took a long time to boil all that water over those little backpack stoves.

After breakfast and clean-up, the car-campers prepared for a 5 mile hike.  This was to satisfy a rank advancement requirement that some of the Scouts needed to complete.  All the car-campers went on the hike except for two Scouts who had injured or healing knees. Six Scouts were working on their Camping Merit Badge and fulfilled a requirement to hike with a full backpack for a distance of 4 miles.  This hike followed a path along a beautifully wooded forest and several hundred foot high waterfalls.  At the end of the hike out, there was an 1850’s farming homestead that provided some interesting educational opportunities. These Scouts left at 8:30 AM and were back in camp at 12:30 PM in time for lunch.  The two Scouts with the bad knees were driven to the Homestead where they had the opportunity to see some of the sights. The two adults and two Scouts that stayed in camp kept themselves busy by gathering and cutting wood for the dinner meal fires.

The Philmont crew had their camp torn down and all packed up in time for their 8:30 AM departure time. They planned to hike 10 miles and return to our camp site in time for dinner.  They were back about 3:30 PM.  Fast hikers!

After finishing lunch, the car-campers started working on rank advancement.  Older Scouts were paired with younger Scouts – the older Scouts teaching and testing the younger Scouts.  There were about 5 Scouts who completed all the work required for their next rank advancement.  About 10 other Scouts completed all the requirements that could be completed to set them up for their next rank advancement.

At about the same time the Philmont Crew returned to camp the rank-advancement work was finished and the Scouts from both camps ran off to play football, frisby, lacrosse, tree climbing, and just general running around.  There were a few Scouts that were happy to read a book, whittle sticks, play cards or just sit and talk.

As dinner time approached the car-campers started their fires to cook the evening meal.  Again, I was surprised at the relative ease with which the patrols all got their fires going. We saw some old standbys and some new treats for dinner.  I saw soup at one patrol, hot dogs at a couple of others, baked potatoes at another.  The adult patrol made fresh chili from scratch in a Dutch oven over the open fire, salad, hot cheese bread, and cherry cobbler also cooked in a Dutch over the open fire.

The Philmont Crew…   Well they had that wonderful “just add water” stuff from Philmont.

After dinner everyone was ready for the campfire program.  The campfire program was put together by Scout Brian D. as part of his Communications Merit Badge requirements. Brian put together a 45 minute program with skits (by Scouts Chris T., Brian W., John C. and Brian D.), Songs (by Scouts Mike B., Chris B, the Badger Patrol, and Brian W.), stories (Mr. D, and Scout John C.) and information (by Scout and Philmont Crew leader, Victor Y.).  The badger song was lead by the Badger Patrol and then Brian W. led us in the Girl Scout version of the Badger song – What a laugh that was.  Mr. D’s story was about the world’s best scout and the punch line was about never leave camp without a buddy.  Victor Y. shared the story of the day about what happened on the Philmont Crew backpacking trek. It went something along the lines of “first we couldn’t get everyone out of bed, then we couldn’t get everyone to finish breakfast, then we picked on Gary M. (just because we like picking on Gary), and then we had to climb those 400 stair steps…”  Everyone said that they enjoyed the program because it was different and funny.

The campfire program was completed by about 8:30 PM and Scouts from both camp sites left to play Manhunt (hide and seek in the dark). The Scouts wanted to go play on a big open field they had scouted out before dark. It wasn’t more than five minutes and the Scouts were back playing close to camp. We asked what happened and the answer was all the deer kept getting in the way of the game. We had seen up to 40 – 50 deer down there at dusk. I guess the deer felt safe in the confines of the State Park.  Manhunt was finished at 9:30 and most the Scouts were in bed by 10 or 10:30 PM. 

While the manhunt game was going those that chose not to play hung around the fire, talked, shared snacks and poked at the fire.

Sunday morning the car-campers slept in a little later and we didn’t see much activity until about 8 AM. By this time the Philmont Crew were on their way for another 5 mile backpack Trek. It’s Sunday, so the Scouts didn’t have to cook over an open fire.  The propane stoves were out in force and again we could smell the aroma of hot bacon, eggs, pancakes, and oatmeal (yes they had some healthy fruit for breakfast too).  Breakfast done and the equipment cleaned the Scouts started packing up or some started a fire to sit around and talk for a bit. We had planned to do some more rank advancement, but we did such a good job on Saturday that we didn’t have any more work to do. I’d like to commend a couple of the older scouts for spending a significant amount of time working with the younger scouts – thanks to Jack K. and Alex B.

After the first round of packing, cleaning and policing the camp, Scout John C. led us in a short non-denominational prayer service.  John offered thanks for the great weather and beautiful surroundings we had for our weekend campout.

The Philmont Crew was back by 11 AM and we all loaded up the Trailer, cars and vans for the trip home. Everyone made a stop at the first exit on the interstate for a fast food lunch and we were home a half hour early at 2:30 PM Sunday afternoon.

Thanks to Mr. Szilezy and Scout Brad B. for planning the event and to the Troop treasury for the $100 in camp fees and expenses for the trip. Now we are all looking forward to next month’s District Camporee at Camp Durant near Carthage, NC.