Posted on 20 Nov 2021 by Steve Markham
The Glenville and Schenectady YM decided to plan an overnight outing this weekend. Cabin camping at Wakpominee, followed by seven miles of hiking on Buck Mountain. We had a blast!
Kyle volunteered to plan all the food. He made a meal plan and a shopping list, and Janet and I did all the shopping. This vastly simplifies the logistics, compared with making assignments to people who are coming. We had chicken alfredo with mixed veggies and asian salad for dinner, pancakes, eggs, sausage, and bacon for breakfast, and sandwiches and snacks for lunch.
I decided not to sleep inside the cabin, partly because it was crowded and noisy, but mostly because I want to hit at least 45 nights, and sleeping outside meant I could definitely count it. It was also a good night to try a winter setup since I could bail into the cabin if I got too cold in the hammock. I stayed warm all night, which gives me hope that I can do a couple more trips this season if I want to.
We had three adults and nine YM on Friday night. They got along very well, cheerfully helped out with dinner, and stayed up playing games until 11pm when we made them go to bed. I was keeping dinner moving along, but I did nothing except light the stove and give directions, which I was happy about. It’s a very good group of boys.
We got up at 7am, and again the boys mostly did the cooking with some adult guidance on when to flip pancakes, what to do when stoves went out, etc. We left the cabin a little after 9 and got to the trailhead around 9:40. We lost one adult (had to go to training at a new job) and picked up two adults and two young men, for the 3.5 mile trip up to the summit of Buck.
For future reference, the fast group took just about 1.5 hours to get to the top. I hiked down with Jay Phillips and a couple of hikers who were struggling a bit, and it took 2.5 hours to get down. Even though it feels like hiking down should go faster than hiking up, both groups took about the same amount of time each way (which is often the case, I have found).