Ft. Ticonderoga is between Lake Champlain & Lake George (on NY/Vermont border). Major battles in the French & Indian war occured in this area and many soldiers endured extreme hardships here for the good of our nation. After the French set up shop, the British came, then the colonials (Benedict Arnold, Ethan Allen, Henry Knox to get the canons that ultimately forced the British out of Boston – that’s him on the patch), then Burgoyne came through in 1777 on his way to a defeat at Saratoga. Ben Franklin, Jefferson, & Washington later visited…then we came.

Ft. William Henry, nearby at the south end of Lake George, is the setting of James Fenimore Cooper’s “Last of the Mohicans.” A great book/movie to take in before visiting.

I hiked all week while he was at camp. Very cool trip, we took in Yellowstone the next week. We also took interest in the whole Lewis and Clark expedition while out there and made our way to their route across Idaho. I’ll post photos once I figure out how to use wordpress better. See: http://www.grandtetoncouncil.org

The scout camp is on the very back side of the Grand Teton, which is the center-most mountain on this site’s header. When seen from the scout camp, the back of the Grand Teton looks like the Matterhorn in Zermatt (photos in LD Hiking section). The scout camp was also at the base of this large waterfall, it really was beautiful.

I’ve posted a zipped file with all the training material that I produced for this class. The worksheet (.xls file) I did to help the kids understand investing options was particularly instructive. I started the money-management part of the training with a simulated stock trading role play exercise. As I mentioned in the Energy MB, a big upside of scouting is it’s ability to introduce topics to kids at a very early age. They will hopefully always remember the messages in these classes and become just better equipped for life.

This is a time consuming MB and it requires a fair amount of prep, make sure you know what you are getting into when you sign on to run this one. You really need to do this one right, there are very important concepts in here that the kids absolutely need to learn properly.

Personal Management Merit Badge Downloads

See also the “Where Does All The Money Go” and “Best Jobs in America” graphics I have posted under Brick-a-brac. These might be useful.

This is not my work but you might also find useful:  personal_management_v1.ppt

Time management is one of the objectives of this merit badge. Here’s something really cool to help the scouts (and you) keep on top of things:  http://www.pocketmod.com/

What do you know, here it is:

kaaterskill-hike-latest.ppt

If you like the idea of this hike and want to go, let me mention just a few more things – when you drive up Rt.23A, you’ll know you’ve reached the trailhead when you do a sharp hairpin turn right at a beautiful waterfall (Bastion Falls). Park up the road a bit, there is a small parking lot on the left. You’ll have to be extremely careful walking down the road. When you walk up the trail after the first waterfall, don’t stop at the next one you see and think you’ve reached it. Keep going. The high falls are spectacular. If you feel so inclined, hike up the left side of the falls. If you look carefully, you’ll find some engravings chiseled in the wall. One is to ‘Vite the wonder dog’ who tragically jumped to his death back in the 1800′s. At the top, there are hundreds of names and dates chiseled into the stone. No such thing as leave no trace back then, but you know what…it’s actually kind of cool to see.  North Lake State Park is near the top of the falls if you want a civilized place to camp.

A good book telling the story of the area is “The Catskill Mountain House” by Roland VanZandt. Another book I came across recently that is a better trail book is “Catskill Mountain House Trail Guide: In the Footsteps of the Hudson River School”  by Robert Gildersleeve. It’s just and excellent book and I’d say a ”must have” resource needed to fully appreciate the area.

A few years ago, I found the old stage coach trail up the mountain and mountain biked up and down with friends. A pretty cool trip you might want to consider. You can search for “Rip’s Rock.”

Here’s another art related doc I found later on Asher Durand. It has somewhat of the same hike concept as I had…

durand_resources.pdf

View five vintage Kaaterskill Falls postcards after the jump -

This is a great overnight hike for the older scouts. Hike up above the treeline across the entire Presidential Range and up and over Mt. Washington, the highest mountain in the northeast (6288ft). It is quite a challenge and achievement. I wanted to revise this slightly but ran out of time.

I’ve also attached a copy of a map we used when we first introduced the Whites and this hike to the scouts.

mt-washingtonv3.ppt

Download an excellent White Mountain map here
(Large size: 1667 x 1206 795KB)
(map credit: White Mountain Attractions Association Inc.)

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This is a great hike idea if you are looking for something the scouts can be quite proud of  -

From Monson, Maine, the Appalachian Trail begins its journey through the fabled 100 mile Wilderness. This is the longest stretch on the AT that doesn’t cross a paved road. Many of its best highlights are packed into the first 30 miles, including the Lower Wilson falls, rock strewn rivers, and great views. Campsites are abundant and there are 4 shelters along this route.

The hike ends/starts on the gravel road to Katahdin Iron Works off ME 11, 5.5 miles north of Brownville Junction, a short distance from Gulf Hagas, a slate gorge filled with waterfalls (a day hike on its own). AMC’s Little Lyford Pond Camp is nearby. I’ll post more on this later.

(Map credit: 100 Classic Hikes in the Northeast by Jarad Gange)

I had this idea for an award (patch, certificate) that the scouts could earn for hiking some part of the Appalachian Trail in each of the 5 New England states (CT, MA, VT, NH, ME). The patch would look identical to the above (the classic trail marker symbol for the organization), with the state initials in it somewhere and maybe “5 stater” or something like that (in gold). I talked to the AT Conservancy and got permission to use the AT logo on a limited (troop) basis. Maybe we can do something council-wide with permission. If you are out of region, maybe you can just run with the idea for 100 mile AT/PCT hike or something.

New note: I was recently sent this – the Green Mountain Council in Vermont has a similar program already established for hiking the Long Trail. Surf to website or see attached:

green-mountain-council.doc

Making a competitive car is very simple and you don’t need to be a physics teacher or engineer. All you need to do is get on the internet and search “pinewood derby”. It’s all there.

This does take time and you do find that most sites are ones where you have to pay for a book to get anything useful, but if you sift through the web, you’ll slowly find what you need.

Better yet, read the attached. I may not have collected all the secrets, but I think I got most. Combined with what we learned on our own from experimentation and success (something like 6-7 first place pack awards between two kids), everything you likely need to know is right here. If you read the attached and apply the basics of weigh location & axle prep, you can probably win something in your pack. I’ve includes lot’s of design ideas as well.

pwd2007v2.pdf  (email me if you want the ppt, this is a large file)

Update note 1 (Feb08): Webelo1 son wins pack championship. I’m telling you, it’s all in here!! Polish those axles and get the weight right!

On this idea – I bought one of these antique repro maps for my house and had it framed. It is really beautiful. I purchased it from Zazzle.com (off ebay), but it is sourced from the LOC. Probably lots of other distributors (type in your home town on ebay and see what comes up – hopkinton, ma has a bunch of them now).  The LOC has maps from all over the country.  You pay say $10 for the map, get a framing deal for say, $30 each (it has to be framed nicely), then sell for $125 around Christmas time. Good luck.