From June 24-27th, 22 scouts and 9 adults went camping in the Adirondack Mountains with a goal of dayhiking up some of the highest peaks in New York. It was wet, rainy and somewhat muddy. The troop drove up to the campsite on Friday afternoon and got there on Friday night in time to set up the tents and the campsites. Most of the boys slept in big 3-4 person tents, but the older boys slept in small two person tents to train for Philmont (a long ten-day hike in Arizona).

The next day everyone went on a 1-mile hike up Mount Jo. After that they went on a nature hike with the Park Ranger and saw some great signs of wildlife including many tree stumps courtesy of some hungry beavers. Even though it was raining very hard several scouts went swimming in the lake! Just before dinner on Saturday evening the weather cleared up and some of the boys found a field and played a game of football while four others (Savino Brusco, Michael Landy, Chris Miller and Owen Hayes) decided to sprint to the top of Mt. Jo and back in under 45 minutes. After dinner everyone came around the campfire and each patrol acted out a skit. When the skits were over, we roasted marshmallows and listened to lots of jokes and riddles (Jokemeister Charlie Brusco kept us in stitches as did Rootin Tootin Roy — aka Justin Hoak). We all made sure we got a good sleep that night because the next morning we would hike up Mt. Marcy or Mt. Phelps; two very challenging mountains to climb.

On Sunday it started out as a very nice warm day; good for hiking. There were three groups on Sunday 1) those who were going on Philmont and would hike Mt. Marcy, 2) other scouts who were hiking Mt. Marcy (ie the highest peak in New York), and 3) those who were hiking Mt. Phelps. The other scouts had a choice between Mt. Marcy and Mt. Phelps. The boys who were going on Philmont had to leave at 7 a.m. so they woke up early. This fearless crew started out but apparently got lost in the parking lot for 10 minutes before finding the trailhead to Mt. Marcy. The other guys that were doing Mt. Marcy had to leave at 7:30 a.m. so they also had to wake up early. They boys who were doing Mt. Phelps were leaving at 8:30 a.m. so they did not have to wake up as early as the other boys. One interesting item of note is that the Philmont crew lived in fear of the younger scouts catching them on the hike up to Mt. Marcy so they tried to keep a fast pace. While they made a few excuses (ie getting lost and something about bloody noses), it only took the younger guys about 3.5 miles to catch the Philmont crew.

Mt. Marcy is a 15-mile hike and Mt. Phelps is a 9-mile hike. Mt. Marcy is the tallest mountain in the state of New York being 5,344 ft. in elevation. Mt Phelps is 4,160 ft. high in elevation, and it was named after the man who cut the first trail up Mt. Marcy. His name was Orson Schofield Phelps. Both mountains were extremely steep at points and very muddy. Along the trail we were greeted with periods of rain and frequent drizzle. Needless to say both hikes were very strenuous: We had to climb deliberately over big steep rocks that were wet which made the hikes harder then they already were. There was also a large stream to ford with a cool dam that was built out of wood. When everyone got back, some took showers and some relaxed before sitting down for a delicious beef stew for dinner.

On Monday morning everyone packed up their stuff and their tents and headed home. It was also some of the boys in the Super Eagle Patrol’s first camping trip as boy scouts. Congrats to patrol leader Kenny Taylor, Tommy Meade, Liam White-Krawiec, Jack McCarron and Clay Layton! I think they will be coming on a lot more of our hikes and campouts.

Anthony Crinieri