Maine Adventure 2009

This was a never-before-done-by-Troop-10 trip, a "tour-de-force", planned and organized by Mr Marble. The trip was to be a 4-day excursion, incorporating a mountain climb, canoeing on the Saco River, and the opportunity for many of our scouts to complete the cooking requirements of their Camping merit badge. A tip of our (scout) hats to Mr Marble for his hard work!

Saturday -
Well, it looked like we'd maybe gotten a break from the glum weather forecasts, as the trip up was sunny with many puffy clouds. Just to be safe though, we pitched our troop tarp over the front of the large Adirondack shelter at the Mount Blue State Park campsite in Weld, ME. The scouts slept in the shelter, while the dads tented in the adjacent un-mowed field.

Sunday -
After breakfast, we packed up our gear and headed to hike nearby Tumbledown Mountain. It was gray and overcast, with occasional bouts of drizzle and light rain. We split into two groups, the First Class (& above) scouts taking the challenging Ridge Trail, while the remaining scouts followed the "easier" Brook Trail. We were to soon find that the Brook Trail was no picnic either, with water running down the trail, brooks to cross and many long, steep sections of boulders of various sizes.

At the top we found a large lake, which would have been nice to swim in on a hot day. The Ridge Trail group joined is soon afterwards, and after a break, the entire troop headed down the Brook Trail. We drove to our second campsite in Fryeburg ME, by which time the rain had become steady. We set up our tents and our cook tarp. Heavy rain began about 2:00am Sunday night.

Monday -
Still raining in the morning, we were informed by the canoe rental company, that the Sunday night rain, along with the impeding forecast of more, would result in potentially unsafe conditions (high water and rapid currents) on the Saco River for the next few days. They offered us an alternative to canoeing on Conway Lake. Although when we started, the skies had lightened up, the drizzle returned once we reached the middle of the lake. The rental company said that there was a small island where we could land and cook our lunch. However, it did take us quite a while to find one that was not posted (*ahem*)

Rain stopped long enough for us to return to the beach, but resumed when we got back to the campsite. After dinner, we packed up and headed for home.