2017 Winter Camporee - South Sea Islands Adventure

The Taughannock District's Boy Scouts spent a day on a South Seas Adventure at Camp Barton on Saturday, January 21st, in the district's Winter Camporee. The "South Seas" were really far South - Antarctica, to be precise - but the weather proved to be close to tropical for January in central NY, with temperatures in the fifties by mid-day.

The Scouts participated in ten competitions through the day, from a Dutch-oven cooking competition, through pioneering, crossing a rope bridge, critter identification to a map and compass course, and more. A scavenger hunt had the Scouts seeking tags with QR codes bearing answers to questions on their score sheet, taking pictures of twenty-six things, and finding photographed features through the camp - at the end of the day, two patrols had found every one of the fifty things on the scavenger hunt, earning special certificates.

Mike Homrighaus and Mike Hughes (three of the Five Mikes who organized the event) lead the opening to the camporee.
	The weather was pea-soup fog when I left home in Harford, but as I drove into Camp Barton, the sun was rising beautifully over Cayuga Lake.
Troop 79 organized a Dutch Oven cooking competition. The patrols selected and prepared ingredients, loading them into the Dutch Ovens in the morning. Troop 79 leaders watched the ovens through the morning, and the results were judged by a panel of judges (and consumed by the Scouts) at lunch time.	Preparing carrots for the Dutch Oven competition - with flying carrots everywhere.
	Bill Wright from Troop 13 leads the Critter Identification station.
Troop 55 organized the Firebuilding competition.
At the Pioneering competition, led by Troop 91, Scouts lashed triangles, then the patrols had to transport a Scout standing on the triangle across the field. As the Scout balances on one leg of the triangle, and the triangle is held upright by two other Scouts on ropes, a third Scout uses a third rope to move a leg of the triangle. Complicated, but it works!
Frontenac Creek flows into Cayuga Lake - just a little snow and ice left, in this usually warm January.	Frontenac Creek at Camp Barton
Eating the results of the Dutch Oven competition at lunch.
There wasn't any snow this year for the Klondike Derby sleds, but those patrols who brought them anyway were prepared for anything...
Another Klondike Derby sled on wheels.."Be Prepared"!	District Vice-Chair Mike Hughes judges the patrols on Readiness for the South Seas Adventure. Bonus points might be given if the patrol came equipped with one or more Mikes... just because...
Troop 29 provided a rope bridge. Patrols were judged on how many Scouts could cross the bridge in a given time.
	Troop 55's Puffin Hole Patrol won the camporee, and took possession of the Legendary TaughannDuck Pole for the next year. The pole is a tradition of the Taughannock District and its predecessor Fuertes-Frontenac District (the duck came from the Tioughnioga District).
The final scores showed Troop 55's Puffin Hole patrol in first place with 89 points (out of a possible 100), Troop 2's Spartans in second place with 74.3 points, and Troop 55's Ghostly Tree Heron patrol in third place with 62.7 points.