I was a scout leader in a small town in Ontario and my troop and I always looked forward to group camps with other troops out at Scout Cabin. Scout Cabin had been a hunting camp that a group of old scouts had willed to Scouts Canada when the last one passed away. It was on the Severn River and surrounded by thousands of acres of Crown Land. Lots of wildlife, good fishing, swimming and tons of forest to do scout stuff in like building shelters, hiking, woodcraft; basically the stuff young teenage boys dream about before they discover girls.
I ran the scout troop in the bad part of town so I had the holy terrors in my troop and Scouter Ray had the scout troop in the country south of town so he had the farmboys (an even match I'd say)
. My scouts got along great with Ray's scouts at group camps and jamborees and they all loved a weekend trip to 'The Scout Cabin'.
To get to Scout Cabin you had to drive for about a half hour on gravel roads until you got to an old logging road, then another half hour on that until it turned into a rattlesnake road for another half hour until you got to the boat locks on the Severn River. Get your packs on your backs and then it was a gruelling hike through the bush on a very poor trail for an hour until you hit the small clearing on the banks of the Severn River where Scout Cabin stood. It's not a bad hike for a man but for a couple of men herding twenty boys through the bush and across a beaver dam it can be a bit of a challenge.
It was around Thanksgiving and we were about a month away from having snow so Scouter Ray and I decided to organize one last trip for the year out to the cabin. We planned to muster our 2 troops at the local mall right after school let out on a Friday so we could be on the road by 4pm which gave us enough time to get to the cabin before dark. We'd spend the weekend at the cabin and hike out on Sunday afternoon and have the boys home in time for Sunday dinner. Ray offered to bring his aluminium cartopper boat along so we could ferry all the supplies into the camp and not be delayed lugging in all the food on our backs.
Scouter Ray and I filed our itinerary with the regional scouting office and started planning the details of the camp; activities, food, gear, permission forms, etc. We finally got the approval back from the regional office but there was a condition attached, we had to take Scouter Jim and his troop with us or find another Scouter to accompany us to meet the Scout policy requirements. Terrific, Scouter Jim was about as useless as they came, an accountant who pushed papers at the regional office and kept his troop in a church basement doing badgework all the time instead of getting them outdoors where they belonged.
Scouter Ray and I were fit to be tied but on such short notice we couldn't find another scouter to come along and we couldn't disappoint our scouts so we conceded to let Jim and his troop tag along.
We explained everything to Jim about the tight timetable for getting into the cabin and he agreed to meet us with his troop of 6 scouts in the mall parking lot at 4 pm SHARP! - Don't be Late. That late in the year we only had a half hours grace to get to the cabin before dark should we encounter any delays and there are always some delays.
The road to Scout Cabin BEFORE it gets bad
[attachment 55959 S43rdttn.jpg]
The boat locks at Severn Falls
[attachment 55960 L43damtn.gif]
The view upriver to Scout Cabin - just past the far point on left
[attachment 56229 lake.jpg]
I ran the scout troop in the bad part of town so I had the holy terrors in my troop and Scouter Ray had the scout troop in the country south of town so he had the farmboys (an even match I'd say)
. My scouts got along great with Ray's scouts at group camps and jamborees and they all loved a weekend trip to 'The Scout Cabin'.To get to Scout Cabin you had to drive for about a half hour on gravel roads until you got to an old logging road, then another half hour on that until it turned into a rattlesnake road for another half hour until you got to the boat locks on the Severn River. Get your packs on your backs and then it was a gruelling hike through the bush on a very poor trail for an hour until you hit the small clearing on the banks of the Severn River where Scout Cabin stood. It's not a bad hike for a man but for a couple of men herding twenty boys through the bush and across a beaver dam it can be a bit of a challenge.
It was around Thanksgiving and we were about a month away from having snow so Scouter Ray and I decided to organize one last trip for the year out to the cabin. We planned to muster our 2 troops at the local mall right after school let out on a Friday so we could be on the road by 4pm which gave us enough time to get to the cabin before dark. We'd spend the weekend at the cabin and hike out on Sunday afternoon and have the boys home in time for Sunday dinner. Ray offered to bring his aluminium cartopper boat along so we could ferry all the supplies into the camp and not be delayed lugging in all the food on our backs.
Scouter Ray and I filed our itinerary with the regional scouting office and started planning the details of the camp; activities, food, gear, permission forms, etc. We finally got the approval back from the regional office but there was a condition attached, we had to take Scouter Jim and his troop with us or find another Scouter to accompany us to meet the Scout policy requirements. Terrific
, Scouter Jim was about as useless as they came, an accountant who pushed papers at the regional office and kept his troop in a church basement doing badgework all the time instead of getting them outdoors where they belonged. Scouter Ray and I were fit to be tied but on such short notice we couldn't find another scouter to come along and we couldn't disappoint our scouts so we conceded to let Jim and his troop tag along.
We explained everything to Jim about the tight timetable for getting into the cabin and he agreed to meet us with his troop of 6 scouts in the mall parking lot at 4 pm SHARP! - Don't be Late. That late in the year we only had a half hours grace to get to the cabin before dark should we encounter any delays and there are always some delays.
The road to Scout Cabin BEFORE it gets bad
[attachment 55959 S43rdttn.jpg]
The boat locks at Severn Falls
[attachment 55960 L43damtn.gif]
The view upriver to Scout Cabin - just past the far point on left
[attachment 56229 lake.jpg]
is a very nice way to describe my condition, Sunny.
I grew up in the big smoke of Toronto but I was fortunate to have a bunch of country cousins, every chamce I got it was off to the woods.
WOW, what a difference! The Malcolm I'd met 4 years ago wouldn't have worked hard to earn that bike, he'd have stolen it!
You can't imagine how proud I was of Malcolm.