Today we Scouts should be grateful for 2 civilian conservations corps in the 1940s who had the amazing foresight to envision that we would need to protect public space in the years to come. They built two dams, two group camps, several tent camping areas, beaches, roads, picnic areas, and started the restoration process for the historic core of Hopewell Furnace. All of which is today, nearly 100 years later, known as French Creek State Park. As the encroachment of suburbia creeps in, this land is still ours to enjoy—and we do so almost annually through Pack 462. It's still just far enough away from civilization that we can escape the light pollution and see the stars—even with stormclouds rolling in. And it's just an hour from our homebase in Havertown. Now that I've concluded my shoutout to our host location, let's recap the fun we had. Let's start with the campsite itself.
We had the whole of Organized Group Tenting sites 1-7 to ourselves, although we only reserved site 5,6 which are the nice big ones. We had plenty of space for all our tents, plus plenty of room left over for fun & games. Joy and Jackie set up a badminton net. And that birdie was flying, with some legit volleys going on. The Hatton boys had some long drawn-out Cornhole duels. Wiffle ball and kickball games got everyone involved. Kids tried to learn how to use juggling sticks. Or they made up their own games, like a giant water fight by the water taps so they didn't have to worry about refills. Oh and the food! Mary Johansen taught us the sugary joy of melting Starburst into s'mores. Personally I think it's meant to replace the chocolate but I saw kids mixing them both. EWW from me, but OOH from them. The Starburst and marshmallow sandwich thing was great though. Kept going back for different color/flavor combinations. Meanwhile, Pastor Tim put on his Chef Tim hat and cooked up pancakes and eggs for breakfast, sausage sandwiches for lunch and turkey gobbler sandwiches for dinner, despite looking visibly wiped out by the humidity by the end of all that. Fire and propane are hot. But those meals were EN FUEGO!
Then there were our excursions to the French Creek amenities. Some of us took advantage of Disc Golf and hiking, others made it to Hopewell Lake for fishing and boating, and another group made it to the Pool. These photos capture the joy of it all. Our biggest turnout was Friday night into Saturday AM, but as some Scouts left others arrived for day trips or Saturday overnight. Unfortunately for those of us who remained the whole time and especially for the Arnolds and Davins who only had one night in the tents, Saturday night was a crazy thunderstorm. Many of us fought hard to resist the urge to run to our cars and make an early exit or just sleep inside. There were rivers running through tents, showers coming straight through rainflys, or water seeping through walls. But for those of us who survived the deluge, we made memories and woke up to a little more than breakaway b'fast. We reheated pancakes and sausage and gobbled down PopTarts so the kids had energy for 1 last hike as the adults folded up tents and lugged their supplies up the hill to the parking lot. There will be patches to come. But I'm sure the kids will remember this one even without the mementos. Thanks to all who made it out, including our guest family who we hope will join the Pack moving forward.
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