The 2009 Winter Camporee was on a "back to basics" theme. The day started with fourteen stations along a trail around the lower camp area. The Scouts earned beads for fire building, compass skill, knots and lashings, first aid and emergency preparedness techniques, tracking, nature lore, and Scout knowledge. We broke for a hot franks-and-beans lunch at noon, then returned to the trail for another hour. 

Troop 34 of Newfield was the winner, earning 63 beads for the day. Second place was a tie between Troop 55 Ellis Hollow (Ithaca) and 77 Groton with 62 beads each. Third place was taken by a patrol from troop 2 Ithaca, with 59 beads. 

"Be Prepared" - problem solving

At 2:00 in the afternoon, the Skills competition ended, and the Photo Scavenger Hunt began. Each patrol was given a list of 50 things to photograph. They also had a card containing ten pictures of signs and other objects taken around camp, which they also had to find and photograph. Among the pictures on the list were "your patrol inside something", "your patrol surrounding something" and "your patrol holding something". Here are the patrols' self portraits: 

Troop 2

Three patrols earned perfect scores of 60 on the Photo Scavenger Hunt - Troop 2 Ithaca ("Unidentified" patrol), Troop 34 Newfield and Troop 80 Cortland.

Three troops took part in a "Wooden Chef" cooking competition in the evening. The troops had to prepare at least one dish on the theme, "Food from Trees":

• Troop 34 Newfield offered Pizza with walnuts and ground squirrel meat ("squirrels come from trees!") (at least, they said it was squirrel... tasted like sausage to me), a banana boat with chocolate sauce and a baked apple with cinnamon candy stuffing.

• Troop 90 Marathon brought a deep dish apple pie with walnuts and cinnamon and an oatmeal crust.

• Troop 197 Cortland came up with naner-walnut pancakes with maple syrup, and hobo pies stuffed with cherries.

After gaining about 15 pounds each on these delicious offerings, everyone agreed it was a very close race. All of the dishes were excellent. In the end, the prize (a copy of "The Frugal Gourmet Cooks American", with picture of Scouts on the cover) was awarded to Troop 197. Outdoor cookbooks will be awarded to the other two troops for their tasty entries.