August 2006 Campout: Pine Mountain Trail, Pine Mountain GA

August 26& 27, 2006

Campout: Pine Mountain Trail, Pine Mountain GA

Scouts: Pete McKenna, Jamie McKennsie, and Ian Graessle
Scouters: Rick Farber, and Pete Corbett

Pine Mt campout was our official first campout for the new school year.

Although we had a small turn out we decided to make the trip a lightweight trip which means we work to keep our packs less then 30 pounds fully loaded with water and food. The Scouts and Scouters used Tarps to sleep under which always helps dramatically to lower our weight. The scouts also chose to use the fires tablets to cook with instead of our traditional stoves. Everyone did a great job packing only the essentials for safety and reasonable comfort which made for lightweight packs.

Unfortunately the weather was August HOT…and the one good thing is we had the trail all to ourselves. We set out from the Church early Saturday morning got down to the check in bought our pass and we were on the trail by 10. The Scouts chose the Cascade falls trek all total about a 8 Mile loop. We got to our camp site at around 1 set up our tarps had lunch and took a trek down to the Cascade Falls where the scouts took a cool dip in the water. It made a big difference!! We walked back to camp with plenty of water for dinner and the scouts worked the afternoon building an emergency shelter. Ian was going to sleep in the shelter but opted out.

Dinner took longer than normal as the cooking tablets did not boil water as fast as the scouts stoves normally do. After dinner the scouts worked up a big camp fire and enjoyed fellowship around the fire into the evening hours.

The next morning we got on the trail early to make it to the closest Wendys for Brunch…..all had a great time and brought home some great memories including dreaded Chigger Bites.

Great weather, Great fellowship, Great scouting.

Scoutmaster Corbett