Trip Report Jockey Hollow National Park
September, 12-13, 2009
Paul Zakrzewski – SIC
Troop 49 Met at 8am at OLPH Church in the rain and proceeded to depart for the Jockey Hollow National Park. As we progressed down Rt. 287 the rain slowed and by the time we arrived at Jockey Hollow it all but stopped. Our goal for the day was twofold we wanted to complete the requirements for the trail medal for those scouts that did not have it and second, to do trail maintenance for the scouts that needed this requirement for the 50 miler award. Both were accomplished.
We started out with the white trail for the trail medal and actually overestimated the distance and we finished much earlier than anticipated. We had scattered rain through the entire hike but the boys did a great job clearing debris and picking up all trash along the way. PJ and Adam demonstrated their Vine swinging technique along the trail and Will went above and beyond trail maintenance by attacking some pretty large limbs that had fallen on the trail. The trail was a nice combination of elevations and when we finished the first hike we were all pretty wet but ready for lunch at the Visitors Center.
The Park Ranger was nice enough to allow us to bring benches outside and eat lunch under the overhang of the building. Upon finishing lunch we proceeded to view all of the indoor displays and the Jockey Hollow movie. It was obvious that some of the boys had been there before as they were each playing a part and knew the movie pretty well.
After this short rest we proceeded back out of the trail and did the yellow loop through the park. This loop took us past all of the key historic sites in the park including the Wick House and Gardens, the Pennsylvania Brigade Encampment, The Grand Parade Ground, the Wick Apple Orchard, and then back to the Visitors Center.
We loaded up the scouts who were camping overnight and proceeded to Lewis Morris Park and set up camp and started with appetizers upon Mr. Dishian’s arrival. The older scouts worked on requirements with the younger scouts before dinner. We had a great dinner and the rain actually held off through set up and dinner. We set a camp fire after finding and splitting dry wood and the rain returned at about 8pm. As always, being prepared we had tarps and tents in place to keep us dry for the most part.
Lights out at 10pm although many had turned in earlier due to the rain.
We awoke Sunday morning to beautiful sunshine and a great breakfast prepared by Mr. Dishian. After pulling down camp and patrolling the campsite for any trash we packed up and were all back in Oakland by noon.