Tres Froid Weekend on the French Santee

Had a Great Trip on the French Santee!
A little on the chilly side (mid 20's on Saturday morning), but no one suffered frostbite.

On the right you see the troop as they relax briefly after breakfast and our flag ceremony.

Our first trip on Saturday morning was to Battery Warren on the South Santee River. The scouts managed to drive a couple of deer right between the scoutmaster and Mr. Smith, who were standing about 15 feet apart.


The afternoon was spent in a trip to Hampton Plantation. Behind the scouts in the picture is the old plantation house and the oak tree on the right is the Washington Oak, named because GW on a stop at Hampton for breakfast on his southern trip in 1791 was asked by Mrs. Horry if it should be cut down, GW offered the opinion that it should not. The tree stands today as a monument to our 1st President.

One out of state visitor reading an exhibit on the French Santee at Hampton was heard to say, "But of course, Santee is French." I'm not sure what it is French for, but our Santee Indians would not have been amused.


On Friday and Saturday nights we had prime visibility to look at star clusters, the Orion nebulae and the moon through a 5 inch reflecting telescope.

Big thanks to former scoutmaster Joe Coates for his cooking for the adults and cooking lessons for the scouts. You can see on the left that Joe's kitchen was well equipped and well manned!

I would also like to thank Jack Cochran and Al Aiken for coming out on Saturday for skills instruction of our younger scouts. We had a few scouts who were able to finish up some requirements for rank advancement due to their efforts.


The trail on the French Santee ended on Sunday after our Huguenot Scouts Own Service, when the troop departed on a preplanned 5 mile hike. We took compass bearings and took a few short cuts through the forest from the forest service roads. One scout had a fashion casualty and so we sent half of our group directly back to base. The remaining group, seen in the picture below, found out that maps printed off the internet are not necessarily complete. They had to make a 1/2 mile detour through the pine forest to the Old Georgetown Highway and stopped shortly to rest (not eternally, though a couple were ready) at the Brick Church (St. James Santee) . This group ended up covering 7.8 miles, learned many valuable lessons (don't hike with the scoutmaster anymore) and were very tired, as we returned for a late recovery at home base...finally back at the scout hut at 3:30 PM (original recovery was 2:30 PM).

On to the French Santee!!!

I'm looking forward to our weekend on the French Santee. Last week the scouts received a little background on those early colonists in Carolina, who arrived in the 1680's and 1690's. I know at least a few of our troop are descended from those hardy, French Calvinists (the scoutmaster is one...), and one of our scouts retains a Huguenot name (clue...it begins with a Gig...).

Some of our younger scouts who did not finish the canoe merit badge in August will do so on the Wambaw Creek, which flows into Hampton creek and the French (South) Santee.

We will visit a French Huguenot plantation, Hampton Plantation, originally settled by the Horry family and later owned by descendents of the Horry's, the Rutledges. Archibald Rutledge, our 1st state poet laureate, owned it last and gave it to the state upon his death in 1973. In the picture on the left we see the "Washington Oak" in front of the house, the house was added on to several times and contains a ballroom and fake windows. It also had a secret tunnel to the river at one time. This is actually the back of the house as the front faces the river, the main road back in colonial days.


As of Sunday night, 25 January, the forecast for this weekend is: Friday night partly cloudy, low of 30. Saturday sunny high of 54. Saturday night low of 31 and Sunday sunny high of 57. We may get our polar bear award, so scouts dress warmly and have a good sleeping bag and insulated pad for your bag.

Astronomy on Saturday night with my 5 inch reflector should be superb in the dark skies of the French Santee.

Thanks to the scouts who showed on Saturday to do chuck box preparation. They did a great job and are now well prepared for the camping cooking experience as former scoutmaster and superb cook Joe Coates will be with us this weekend to help instruct our newer scouts in outdoor cooking. Laissez le bon temps rouler!!!

January '09 Update

Scouts and Parents,

A few updates for you...Congratulations to our first of 2009...New Eagle Scout Mattias Miklancic!!! Mattias' preparation for his Eagle board showed last night as he answered a plethora of questions from an inquiring board.

News from Council...

1. Scouts interested in serving at Ho Non Wah need to get their applications in to council. Counselor in Training must be 14 and at least 1st class. Counselors must be 15 and at least a Star. Positions will be filled by the end of February so if you are interested....
2. National Youth Leadership Training will be held 27-29 March and 03-05 April. This is the BSA's advanced leadership training. Our troop will sponsor at least one scout (fee-$100), but we possibly could send another. Contact me if you are interested.
3. 2010 National Jamboree (100th anniversary website ) is coming up next year. Waring and I will be putting in applications to attend. The council will select those who go to the jamboree.

I will be sending out the permission form and information on our upcoming camping trip to the French Santee later today or tomorrow.

Congratulations to Eagle Scout Wythe Crisler for being the first (as expected) to utilize our new Patrol Leaders Council blog. Check it out...it is listed in my favorite links on the upper left of my blog...I hope to see a lot of scout blogging this year...

Great start to the New Year!

Congratulations to Mr. Jeff Donaldson on his superb job of organizing our Junior Leader Training day last Saturday. We had 15 scouts show up (most of the PLC). They had a great time and learned a few leadership lessons.

Other scouters who assisted Mr. Donaldson were Mr. Cochran, Dr. Aiken, Mr. Kiel and Mr. Miklancic. The scouts went over goal setting, planning, conflict resolution, communications and team building skills. A great start for our new PLC team!