Benjamin Tallmadge Historic Trail

2011-11-19 @ 21:30, Submitted by Frank Hurley

Three Hundred Benjamin Tallmadge District Scouts and Leaders hiked the entire Benjamin Tallmadge Trail over the October 15-16 weekend, with an overnight stop at Cathedral Pines County Park. Three weeks prior, the BSA National Office accepted an application to designate the Benjamin Tallmadge Trail as an Historic Trail. It is now part of their National listing.

Check out the updated Benjamin Tallmadge Trail Map Sign and the Benjamin Tallmadge Trail Walking Guide.

Local High Adventure Program

2010-09-10 @ 00:01, Updated by Webmaster

Are you looking for local high adventure trips that can be planned for a weekend and at relatively low cost? By "local" we mean on Long Island, or just a few hours drive. By high adventure we mean a trip that will help you get away from typical car camping at the area parks - to practice leave-no-trace, to eat freeze-dried backpacking meals, to carry a minimal amount of gear and to begin reaching for something more challenging. We hope that these local high adventure trips may be a stepping-stone for you to bigger and more serious high adventure trips.

Whether it is for a few of your scouts or for an entire troop, Suffolk County Council (SCC) is prepared to help. Our Local High Adventure Program is being developed as a way to help your Troop expand its program and connect with other Troops while providing great experiences for all. Specifically we have three approaches:

First, we have a list of ideas for potential local high adventure trips.

If you need some ideas, call us. Many people assume that for real high adventure, you have to travel far, have a lot of experience, and incur high cost. We are trying to break that assumption and show that local high adventure is available close to home. Here are a few examples:

• Bike trip to Block Island (leave-no-trace style in this high end resort island)
• Kayak the Great South Bay (pack all your gear in the small cubby hole on the kayak)
• Rock climbing camp out (sleep out over night hanging from a rock climbing wall)
• Urban backpacking hike (Train, Brooklyn Bridge, Staten Island Ferry, camp out Staten Island, and return)

Second, we have pre-planned trips with all logistics taken care of!

For example we planned a leave-no-trace bike trip to Block Island. We filed the trip permits, checked to be sure all the leaders had the needed training, made the reservations and purchased the ferry tickets. We helped plan the high adventure meals, did the shopping, and provided a pre-trip briefing meeting. In short, we coordinated all the logistics so the leaders and the scouts could focus more on the trip itself. The trip was a lot of fun and the scouts learned that freeze-dried meals actually taste pretty good!

Third, we have a coordination and support service

Maybe you have your own ideas, but need some help getting started, maybe you like one of our ideas but your scouts want to make some adjustments - no problem! We will work with you to help you customize your own trip. Or, maybe you do not have the needed 2-deep leadership, or your leaders feel they need some more experience - again, no problem! We will coordinate with other Troops to help recruit additional leaders or additional scouts to fill out your crew. For example, we are working closely with two different Troops that want to go on the Kayak the Great South Bay trip in spring of 2010.