This is Troop Historian Ethan S. here.
Last weekend was November camp. As most of you know it was very cold but that did not stop the scouts of Troop 701. They were out there with as much vigor as they have at a summer campout. The theme of the campout was medieval camp. The scouts enjoyed activities such as human chess, cross the moat, archery and of course no medieval themed camp would be complete without building catapults.
Human chess was played by people replacing the normal chess pieces (rook, knight, bishop, king, queen, and pawn) with patrol members. Whoever was the king would command the group. It is then played like normal chess except when a piece attacks another it must win in an actual sword fight. It was a very fun game that even resulted in some battle scars. If you want to know what I mean look at Vince’s eye on Tuesday.
Cross the moat was a game involving rope, paper, and wooden planks. The rope was laid out on the ground with a gap in between two pieces of rope. Pieces of paper would be put in between the rope. The patrol would have to arrange the planks of wood on the paper and put everyone on them and then pick one up and place it down somewhere else until everyone is across. Nobody could touch the ground.
Archery was also very fun with many people hitting the targets consistently. I would like to thank everyone who helped run archery as it seemed to take a lot of work.
One of the big things we did was build catapults. Each patrol was given nine strips of wood, rope, and an elastic band to make their catapults. They were also allowed to use their own stuff they want and stuff from the woods. Each patrols designs were different. Some used a triangular base, some a rectangular base, some relied on the force of tension, some relied on sheer man power. Everyone worked really hard on their catapults as anticipation rose until launch time. Every catapult had measurable success.
By the end of the day all the patrols were very tired but happy. However, camp was not over yet. We sat down for dinner which was chicken pot pie wonderfully prepared by the quartermasters. Finally it was time for campfire. The next morning the quartermasters surprised us with hot chocolate, the best way to end camp.
