Backpacking to Three Forks

The Three Forks (July 16-18) campout was an adventure. We hiked around 12 miles going back and forth The troop also camped out 2 nights and had our picture taken on the starting point of the AT (Springer Mountain). The scouts that went on the campout were from Spartan patrol Ryan, Mike, Chris, John, Nathan, and Daniel. The scouts that came from Phoenix were Will, Patrick, Hank and Jakob. The scouts from Archer were Jeremiah, Jalil, Jeremy and Addison. The scouts from serpent were Aidan, Bryce, Matt and Jerry. The adults that went were Mr. Brown, Mr. Smith, Mr. Dinehart, Mr. Wright, Mr. K.C. Smith, Mr. White, and Mr.Farber.

We started out from the top of Springer Mountain and hiked down 1 mile to the parking lot to have breakfast. The troop spilt into two groups so we would not disturb as any other hikers. The troop met back together ½ mile from the campsite and ate lunch together. The next thing was set up our tent next to the creek that ran right next to our campsite. The new scouts had a section of their campsite to themselves which might not have been a good idea. They set up one dining fly that was one big piece of art. It would have been blown apart as soon as the rain hit but luckily no rain We all changed into bathing suits and made a massive dam that made a pool 4 feet deep. The troop played in the creek for upwards of 2 hours, so by dinner time we were all hungry.

The next day we packed up relatively quickly and left for the Benton MacKaye  trail which was more difficult but lower mileage. On the first 100 yards some scouts had trouble keeping up.. We took breaks every 100 feet for them to keep going and once they got there second wind they took off running.

All in all it was a very eventful weekend. The new scouts learned more basic camping skills and the older scouts learn a little bit of leadership skills. The troop also had a wonderful time on this campout.

From The SPL pen,

Nathan