Sandwich Report
In Late October, 2006 five scouts and two leaders from Troop 15 in Merrimack, NH headed to the Sandwich Mountain range for a 12 mile backpacking weekend.
Friday night we arrived at Mead Base in a driving rain but the caretaker followed 15 minutes later and showed us to a screened cabin. We spent a chilly but dry night playing cards and telling stories. A tree broke in the wind and landed mere feet from the latrine. Luckily no one was in there or it would have scared the you know what out of them. 
Saturday was terrifically windy but sunny and we had a pretty easy hike along the Guinea Pond and Black Mountain Pond Trails to Black Mountain Pond where we camped. We had a lot of fun figuring out how to cross the streams that were much wider than expected due to the previous night’s rain. We left quite a few rock and dead wood bridges for the hikers behind us.
As we started that morning we’d met a 40 scout group from Westford, MA starting up to the pond also. Our smaller group got up first and obtained the choice tenting spots. Lo and behold a THIRD group of scouts from Sharon, MA showed up just before sunset with 25 scouts. So we unexpectedly camped with over 70 scouts at this beautiful mountain pond. We had clear weather but 30 mph winds all night and 24 degree wind chill.
Sunday dawned with clear skies and no more winds. Hiking to the other end of the Black Mountain Pond Trail and heading back southwest along the Algonquin Trail we encountered the most beautiful vistas we’d ever seen but boy did we work for it. “Intense-a-thon” was the word our scouts used to describe some of the near vertical climbing we had to do. VERY adventurous!!! The day was so clear that once we were on the ridge we could see the whole of Waterville Valley to our right with the grand Presidential Range behind and Squam Lake to our left like a shining jewel in the autumn sun.
The climbing slowed us down enough so we were left with no time to explore the caves we’d planned on but there were no complaints as everyone had had the type of time we were looking to have.
We returned at 6:30 or so Sunday evening. The first time backpackers had learned much and had a great time. The more experienced took home some new lessons on comfort and relished the new experience.
Submitted by your tired and sore roving reporter.
Brian Lester
ASM Troop 15
