"What started off as an experiment proved to be one of the most enjoyable trips the troop ever took."
What Mr. Pratt refers to here is a canoe trip down the Sudbury River. In 1967 the Weymouth Heights Club had put together a canoe fleet for the Troops use, which consisted of four seventeen foot aluminum canoes. The object of this trip was to try out the new canoes, and to learn the essentials of canoe camping - what has to be done to make a canoe trip a success.
Mr. Pratt goes on to report in The Scout News, June 30, 1967
"Transportation was furnished by Mr. Parry, Mr. Rehill, and Mr. Robbins. Mr. Parry and Mr. Rehill went along in one of the canoes. The other two cars went from bridge to bridge and met the canoes as they passed through.
The canoes were put in the Sudbury River at Winch Part in Framingham. It was about twenty miles downriver to the camping place in Elbanobscot Park. The river gradually grew wider and deeper. The water was very clean. The improvement the boys made in paddling skill was very noticeable. The last eight miles was through marshes where it was difficult sometimes to find the main channel. The marshes abounded in bird and other wild life.
Lunch was at twelve o'clock, when the two parties got together at the Route 20 bridge in Wayland. Elbanobscot Park is a wild life preserve. There is a good campground, an athletic field, and a swimming pool fed from a natural spring. The canoe men didn't waste much time getting into that pool. The party left Weymouth at 7:30, put the canoes in the water at Winch Park at 8:30, and arrived at Elbanobscot at 2:30. After a swim and setting up the tents came supper, and after than an evening of the same. And Girls! Girls! Girls! - A whole troop of Girl Scouts from Natick, who were camping nearby. Of course they had to be taught to swim and paddle a canoe. The boys put the canoes in the swimming pool and an enjoyable time was had by all.
Sunday morning the Catholic boys went to church at Wayland. The Protestant boys had a service on the campground. Then came breakfast, which was pancakes and syrup. After that the party took to the canoes and paddled downstream as far as Fairhaven Bay. They ate lunch on a little island in the bay and then returned to Elbanobscot. The rest of the afternoon was spent swimming and canoeing, with the canoes in the swimming pool. Some of the party discovered an ancient Indian campsite, with a burial ground and a circular mound around it. This was reputed to be three thousand years old. On the top of the hill there was a glacial kettle hole. The boys had so good a time they asked to stay until after supper. Leftovers furnished a good meal. It was after seven o'clock before the party left Elbanobscot. It was a forty three mile run back to Weymouth, and an hours ride. All the scouts say, "Let's have another canoe trip later in the summer."
And they did. Troop 2 went on to canoe the Concord and Connecticut Rivers, taking their first 100 mile canoe trip from June 30th to July 6th 1968 down the Connecticut River (scouts participating were D. Bulens, M. Conlon, P. Crawford, E. Gurnett, K. Kent, W. Nummelin, J. O'Connor, J. O'Neil, S. Papkey, J. Parry, J. Rehill Jr, and G. Winters) and in 1970 many of these same scouts, and a few new faces, tackled the Saco River.
Thanks to their spirit of intrepid adventure and experimentation Troop 2 took many other canoe trips over the next 40 years, many tracing the same route on the Saco. This waterborne camping experience is still a part of our troop, and over the last few years our scouts have canoed locally on the North River, the Weymouth Back River, and Whitman’s Pond, preparing for a longer trip in the near future, and continuing the legacy of these early pioneers.
Some pictures of those early canoe trips are below. Keep an eye on this blog for other canoe trips, and at the 100th Anniversary celebration in September please visit the "canoe room" to see more!
