Hangin' with the Cubs Summer '19
This is what our Cubs like....
This is how the leaders feel .....afterwards...
Wow what a weekend!
What an enthusiastic team of kids and a great team of leaders (thank you Sean, one our Scout leaders, and Seanie and Antony (youth members)) for joining us this weekend. We appreciate all your help this weekend.
Well where to start, we arrived at Larch Hill at 9.15 am on Saturday and made our way to the "Chicken Huts". We had discussed with the cubs options around camping and/or hammocking in our last meeting in cubs, but we decided to throw a "spanner" in the works and offer out the adirondacks (aka the chicken huts) to the kids. We had a healthy and enthusiastic selection of wants for hammocking and the shelters. Now to start unloading gear and setting up site.
We wanted to get a hike in for the kids but also have kids set up site and/or do some pioneering. A few weeks back we did a shout out in the den of who liked hiking and who wanted to sort out base camp. Again there was a good amount of likes for both options. We decided to divide and conquer and the kids who are heading up to Scouts in September were staying at base camp to sort out the hammocks and do some pioneering and the rest of us went off on a hike. Time was passing fast enough and Mary pointed out that it was nearly 11am so tick tock, time to get off on our hike. So off we went..
I should add here that if you see random photos of eggs, the kids were asked to make friends with an egg, buddy up and see who could keep their new friend safe the longest. Their new friend got a face and a name! Guacemole turned up again and let's not talk about him / her.
Like I said we went on our hike...
.. and the others made some cool things like a flag pole and a suspension bridge and finished hoisting the hammocks into the trees and got fed and minded their eggs...
We were gone with our bunch of cubs oh the guts of 5 hrs but we don't believe in rushing things. We took several rehydration breaks, take in the view breaks, have a snack break (any excuse for us to get our breathe breaks). We found another shortcut which involved a steeper ascent and eliminated some corners. We lost one of the eggs at this point but Guacy was brought home in a popcorn bag #determination.
We reached Fairycastle and had lunch and a cuppa and the kids went and did what they do best which is explore and run off with our phones to make vlogs and take selfies. But they came back to us when they were good and ready to start the walk back to base. Not a grumble not a complaint, happy days.
At one point when we saw the pyramid in Larch Hill from pretty much the end part of our hike Andrea started laughing hard.. what's up we asked... she asked Aoibheann to repeat what she said and she whispered it again..."help us" - everyone burst into laughter or was it tears of joy ah we were nearly back at camp #happycubs!
A finishing photo was requested by the last cub over the line Mr Lippy himself. The one without a boot..
Once we hit Larch Hill, our home for the night, we went down to the stream....never have we appreciated cool water so much as at that moment. Rian went exploring in the stream and the rest of us followed! Feet cooled down and when we had enough we dried our feet on, well our clothes, and we continued back to camp
I can only speak for the hikers but we were very glad to get back and see everyone, downtime!
The cubs all reconnected and the leaders sat and chilled for a bit...but soon it was time to start thinking of grub under the watchful eyes of Dimi and Mary. The cubs at base prepped dinner and the rest of us checked out our beds for the night.
Dinner was gorgeous thank you all!
Andrea checking our hammocks for the night!
