At TV Saturday morning, ready to head up the trail to Samsons's pebble and the MS Trail.
This was one of the largest groups to take part in our monthly overnight trip! For September we decided to start at Treasure Valley Boy Scout Camp (TV) in Paxton and hike about 5 miles north to a beaver pond in Rutland State Park. For the most part the hike fillows the Mid-State (MS) trail but the last mile or so is actually along one of the park interior access roads.
Participants included Scout leaders F. Looft, D. Hartnetss, T. Bauer and D. Menard; adults B. West and D. Eggleston; and scouts A. Bauer, P. Eichholz, D. Entwhistle, D. Eggleston, J. Stone and M. West.
At TV Saturday morning, ready to head up the trail to Samsons's pebble and the MS Trail.
The first rest and pack adjustment stop was only a half mile into the trip, but up the worse hill from TV to
the MS trail at Samson's pebble. Good time to realize that it was much more humid than anyone thought. The
temperature was low enough though that we had to put shirts back on when we stopped to rest so that we
didn't get chilled.
Finally in camp at the pond. Scout Master Dana Hartness and the scouts are starting the
evening's fire. To the right in the picture is Riska, Dana's dog (or is Dana Riska's pet?).
Relaxed and enjoying the late afternoon. The silver triangular pod to the right is my backpacking
oven cooking a fresh cherry pie. I'm using a backpacking chair for comfort and have my candle lantern
hanging just over my head for night time reading. The tarp was brought because it was suppose to rain (it did,
most of the night!). Water was obtained by filtering the pond water using a PUR Scout filter (in the red
bag behind the white bag below my hat in the center of the picture).
Sunday morning was beautiful. While waiting in the parking lot at Rutland State Park
for our rides home so I took some pictures of the trees turning color in the early fall.
Overall, a wonderful and relaxing, not too strenuous trip that enticed our new scouts to
continue making trips one weekend a month throughout the fall.
Created and maintined by F. J. Looft. Correspondance can be addressed to fjlooft@ee.wpi.edu.