Troop 1 Katonah, New York

As is true to Troop 1 Katonah tradition, we are again staying at the Cimarron campsite at Buckskin at Curtis S. Read Scout Reservation . We will leave Katonah at 8:30 AM on Sunday, August 9 and return the following Saturday, August 15, 2009. It is important that every parent read the "Parent Guide" given to each Scout. In it are all of the rules of the road, including activity and merit badge opportunities. To register for camp, please give Chris Kristensen a check for $320 made out to Westchester-Putnam Council, BSA along with the Scout's full name, address, phone number, and birthdate. Also please know that upon arrival at camp, each Scout must have the official Medical Form (now 5 pages long!) filled out by your family doctor. Lastly, please let Mr. Kristensen know what merit badges you would like to take ASAP, since some classes close out very fast. We can't register Scouts for merit badges until we have the $320 deposit. EVERY SCOUT SHOULD HAVE THE CHANCE T...

Over the weekend of March 21-22, the troop took a trip up to Durland Scout Reservation where we had an overnight campout. Once we arrived at Sperling Center, each patrol was sent down the trail separate from the others. Each patrol had a map to navigate the trails. Along the way a few wrong turns were made, but that was easily fixed. We successfully made it to Campsite 33 where we were staying. This campsite was new to us, because we've never camped out there before. It was a very large campsite, with plenty of room for all three patrols. We broke up into patrols and each one had there own area of the campsite to make camp. We each constructed our sites by setting up our tents, dining fly, fire ring, and a "camp help" all according to plan. Our camp help was to construct a tripod to hang our water bags and buckets. Around noon time, we had a visit from the the Cub Scouts of Katonah Pack 1. We showed them around the campsite and what Boy Scout camping is like. We explai...

This weekend, Troop 1 will get ready to welcome Webelos as they prepare to cross over into Boy Scouts! We will be camping at Durland Scout Reservation (formerly Clear Lake) this weekend and preparing a "model" campsite for inspection. Troop 1 will be up the hill at Site 33 (limited parking available at site). This will be a regular troop campout, a good chance to hone camping and cooking skills, and maybe take a hike. Pack 1 will be down at Jones Cabin, right around the corner from Sperling Center. They will arrive by mid day, set up, cook, and then hold the crossing over ceremony at their campfire with professional storytelling afterwards by Jonathan Kruk, a former Troop 1 scout. The Pack is interested in visiting our site, so the Webelos can see how we camp, so we should set a good example by creating the best campsite we can. For the crossover ceremony, Scouts should be wearing their uniform shirts and neckerchiefs. We will depart from KES Saturday, March 21 at 8:30am...

On February 28th, Troop 1 Katonah took a trip to Thomaston, Connecticut, and visited the Railroad Museum of New England . When we arrived in Connecticut we first stopped at Camp Mattatuck, a Boy Scout camp where we stayed overnight in a nice cabin . Once we dropped off our gear we then made our way over to the train museum. Once there, we split up into two groups. My group took part in the train switching activity first. What we did was have half of us ride in the cab of the locomotive, and watch how the engineer controlled the locomotive. Then, with the assistance of the conductor and brakeman, we learned how they uncouple from the coach cars, switch tracks, run around to the other end, switch tracks again, and then reconnect the train. Meanwhile, the rest of our group were on the back of the locomotive giving the hand signals to make all of this possible. Once we were done with this activity, we switched with the other half of our troop and learned what they were doing. Outside of th...