Troop 54 participated in the 61st West Point Scoutmasters' Invitational Camporee, our second time there. 166 troops and 3067 participants had registered, although the actual participation was lower, likely due to the weather. We had 4 youth and 3 adult participants on this trip.
The event takes place at the Lake Frederick Campground, a facility for members of the US armed forces. This Camporee has its only parking about a 20 minute drive away from the campground; not even trailers can be left near the sites. The organizers (cadets at West Point Military Academy) arrange busses to move everyone from the parking lot at Anthony Wayne to Lake Frederick. One constraint was that only a few busses were available during the school day. Only the vehicles pulling trailers were allowed to drive to the campground, and they had to return after unloading.
We got to Anthony Wayne at about 2:00 PM. They had encouraged the Scout troops to arrive early which led to about 2000 of the participants reaching the parking lot between 1 and 2 PM. A second and atypical constraint was that around 1 PM there was a 6-car pile up on the shorter route from the parking lot to the campground; that increased the time to camp to 40-60 minutes. All of this meant that our bus riders were at the end of a very long line for the busses; it took about 4 hours for them to get to the camp.
With little roadway along which to unload trailers at the campground, the cadets metered the gear vehicles out of Anthony Wayne. Our gear vehicle was in a line of its own, taking about 3 hours to reach the camp.
Heavy rain in the days leading up to the Camporee left the fields soaked. By the time we started lugging our gear to our site, the paths through the camping area were a thick mud. At the leader meeting that night, they told us this was going to be their coldest camporee ever. We were strongly warned that getting picked up at the campground was dangerous and not allowed and that an evacuation, if needed, would not be fast. The parachute demo planned for Saturday had been canceled because there was a 0% chance of the plane being able to fly in the weather that weekend, but they still expected to have the usual pallet bonfire on Saturday. We were advised to have some “Type 2 fun” at the event. Apparently, by that point, the forecast had changed from light snow to inches of heavy snow overnight (but we did not know that).
Very early on Saturday morning, an odd metal banging could be heard. Later, this turned out to have been the sound of pop-up canopies collapsing onto kitchen gear across the field. Many of the tents were also crushed under the weight of the wet snow, leaving some Scouts wet and cold.
Word from the cadets at 9AM on Saturday was that they were working on an "exfiltration plan". By this time, there was a continuous presence of ambulances, paramedics and police treating people for cold injuries. 18 people were taken to the hospital. Clearing the snow from the campground roads was slowed by the fact that their tractors had already been converted from plowing to grass cutting. Heaters were eventually brought in to create a warming center in the only building at the Drop Zone field. Two of our Scouts spent time there.
Moving around the field now meant trudging through up to 6 inches of slushy mud. Next to the dumpsters at the field, a huge pile of destroyed popup canopies formed, including one of ours.
Instead of just waiting around, we visited some of the event stations. The stations were open in the morning, disaster notwithstanding. The opening ceremony, however, was canceled.
By 11 AM, evacuation had started. We were instructed to start packing up our site but to keep the kitchen area up in case we were still there at dinner time. By 1 PM, we were told to pack up all but our tents and then to get our gear vehicle. Getting our gear out required taking a bus to the parking lot and again waiting in a line of gear vehicles for hours to drive back. Dragging the gear in had finished off one of our wagons, so we added that to the pile of destroyed gear. We were all back at Anthony Wayne with our stuff at about 6 PM. We stopped for dinner along the way back. Another troop from the camporee visited the same McDonalds while we were there. We got back to the church around 9:30 PM.
The disaster had no impact on Mr. MacNeal's cooking. The adults were treated to his usual fine fare for dinner, breakfast and lunch. Our Scouts went the lazy route and decided not to bother making their dinner on Friday.
Throughout the event, the cadets remained cool, collected, friendly and helpful. They are an impressive group of young people who had spent years planning the event. This was the first time that camporee had ended early. Type 2 fun was had, and memories were made.
Page updated 6/7/25
J. Froimson
