Troop 54 returned to Camp Sayre in Milton, Massachusetts for our fourth time (our previous visit was in December 2016). The camp is owned and operated by the Spirit of Adventure Council BSA. We had Adirondack 11 and its small surrounding area. Our night time arrival at around 9 PM started with finding the site; the map was alright, but some signage was lacking. Since rain was in the forecast, we used the shelter as our cooking area.
We had 7 youth and 2 adult participants on this trip.
Camp Sayre serves as one of the homes of the Council's Base Camp program. This camp was busy, with 19 different units (Scouts BSA, Cub Scouts and Girl Scouts) occupying the various sites and cabins. The parking lot was pretty full. At this camp, you leave the vehicles (including the trailer) in the parking lot and bring the gear to the site using carts.
The Egan Center, located at the camp entrance is the office and activity center for the Council. Its bathrooms and hallways were available to campers. Closer to the site, there was a more rustic latrine.
One downside to our camp setup was that the prevailing wind blew the campfire smoke straight at the cooking area so that any one on cooking duty had to take fresh air breaks.
During the day on Saturday, we went to Treetop Adventures, for some aerial adventure, including ziplining. This facility had several courses of different difficulty levels. It used the same Safe Belay system as Catamount (which we visited in 2022); this system greatly reduces the risk of using a climbing setup. Our Scouts started a long course close to our “last start” time, making good use of the available access. Everyone had fun.
The rain held off during our climbing, and it was generally not too heavy when it was raining.
This was our 185th consecutive month with at least one overnight camping trip.
Page updated 5/30/24
J. Froimson
