Meet the Troop Night!

Tuesday, October 8th at 7pm ~ Herndon United Methodist Church

Calling all Webelos, AOLs and anyone interested in scouting! Troop 157 is holding its Meet the Troop Night on Tuesday, October 8th. Come on out to Herndon United Methodist Church at 7pm and meet the scouts of Troop 157. We’ll be cooking dessertadillas, showing everyone how to set up tents and playing some games in the gym. It should be a good time!

A little about our troop… Troop 157 is a small boys troop. You might be thinking, “oh, I want my son to have a great experience in scouts with LOTS of boys!” True, if your son likes a big crowd, this might not be the place for him. The pros however, in my opinion, outweigh the cons. Being a small group has not stopped us from doing a lot of fun things. Since joining last April, my son has gone on lots of campouts, from Gettysburg, whitewater rafting, horseback riding, a high ropes adventure course, summer camp and fishing. He leads. He’s taken on leadership positions he never would have had the opportunity for in a much larger troop. And he cooks A LOT. In fact, he finished all his cooking requirements up through eagle and has become quite proficient in cooking at home.

The troop is small and efficient, enabling them to set up camp, cook and clean up rather quickly, leaving more time for relaxation and fun during campouts. So if this appeals to your son, please bring them on out in a couple weeks for our Meet the Troop night!

Sandy Springs Adventure Park

This month, the troop visited an aerial forest with over 200 climbing and ziplining elements. We spent over 3 hours in the air working out our balance and strength and just having lots of fun. Many were scared of heights at first but were able to overcome our fears and in the end, everyone was quite proficient on the course.

This was a special trip because we were able to camp right at Sandy Springs. It was beautiful camping amongst the forest and surprisingly, although we could enjoy the music and fun from the adventure park, we had a ton of privacy in our camp area. During the day, we did a lot of relaxing, played some chess, built a mega fort and worked on advancement. And of course, we cooked! We had some delicious peach french toast, paninis and chicken pot pie! Oh yes, and don’t forget the mountain pies.

2024 Catchup

It’s been a busy year! Here’s a glimpse into some of the things we’ve done…

February.
The troop had it’s annual Wimp-O-Ree in February out at Camp Snyder. The scouts had a great time working on merit badges, hanging out, eating some good food and planning out the rest of the year.

The troop also took a trip out to Lawless Forge in Sterling and made knives from horseshoes!

April.
Our March trip to go skeet shooting and fishing at Izaak Walton unfortunately got rained out this year. We picked up in April with a trip to Gettysburg. It was fascinating to hike the Johnny Reb Trail and to relive an important piece of history!

May.
This May, we found ourselves taking a trip out to Harpers Ferry! It’s not quite the Four Corners, but Harpers Ferry does have a unique location at the confluence of the Potomac and Shenandoah Rivers where Maryland, Virginia, and West Virginia meet. We camped at Brunswick Family Campground in Maryland… a super cool campsite along the C&O Canal. We trekked over to West Virginia on Saturday and went whitewater rafting through three states and two rivers! We also made friends with another troop camping nearby which introduced us to mountain pies. Yummm…. we may have found a new favorite dessert.

June.
With the craziness of school ending, graduations and the beginning of summer, we chose to stay local for June. We camped at Lake Fairfax and did some fishing and relaxing! We are incredibly blessed to have this 476-acre park with a 20-acre lake right in our own backyard. It was a nice campout to kick off the summer.

July.
The troop went horseback riding at Royal Horseshoe Farm in Front Royal. This was a new experience for some and a welcome revisit for others. We had some excitement from the typical “trail ride” but luckily, everyone was able to hang on and stay safe on their horses. Some scouts have marked this campout down as their favorite one ever.

August.
We returned to Guppy Gulch this year to our favorite August location. If you’ve never been here, you’d love it. Guppy Gulch is a former slate quarry with zip lines, climbing walls, inflatable slides, a rodeo pier, paddleboards and jungle gyms. It’s pretty much a floating oasis with everything you can think of.

All the while, we continue our monthly cleanup of Bready Park…

Plans for the next couple of months include Sandy Springs Adventure Park and a Camporee with the George Mason District at Rock Enon. The troop is looking forward to some archery, rifle, rock climbing and tomahawks!

What’s been going on since February?

What have wee been doing since February? A lot. Campouts with horseback riding, fishing, skeet shooting, it’s been a blast!

March.
The troop drove to the Northern Virginia Lions Youth Camp in Boyce, and used that as their base for the weekend. Saturday they went out for a trail ride at Royal Horseshoe Farm in Front Royal. Rave reviews of this campout, despite the fact that it was REALLY cold Saturday night. The scouts enjoyed the trail ride, and the horses enjoyed the apples afterward.

April.
We finally got back to having our annual Skeet shoot and campout at the Izaak Walton League in Chantilly. All of the scouts and leadership on the roster come out of the woodwork for this campout, it’s so much fun. After the skeet shoot, wood chopping and splitting was the subject of the afternoon, and apparently it managed to tire out EVERYONE!

May.
The troop wandered down to Burke Lake for some oRAINteering and Fishing on the Occoquan.

June.
The campout will be on Father’s Day weekend, they’ll be kayaking on the Shenandoah.

We’re also pretty much ready to start a girls troop – Troop 157G. Come on out Tuesday nights at 7 to meet us, bring your buddies, brothers and sisters – we are active all year long, and we take into account the schedules of our scouts when planning the annual round of activities. If you have the drive, we have the time.

Wimp-O-Ree 2023

Our annual winter cabin trip to Camp Snyder to do intensive merit badge work was this past weekend. The scouts worked on merit badges like Citizenship in the Community, Cooking, Emergency Preparedness, Personal Management, and Automotive Maintenance. During Wimp-O-Ree, the adults handle the cooking, so that the scouts can focus on advancing their merit badges.

Saturday evening the troop started their annual planning for the coming year. We encourage the the scouts to conduct their annual planning meeting during Wimp-O-Ree, because this is one of the better attended trips throughout the year. The evening was finished off with board games for those who didn’t conk out early. We even left Carroll’s Cottage the next morning cleaner than we found it!

In person troop meetings

Recently our troop has been talking about having in person troop meetings. We have already had our patrol meetings, tree sales, and Bready park in person, but we still have our weekly meetings online. If we were to have them in person they would have to start earlier and be in an outdoor park. Lucky the weather is getting warmer! What do you think about in person meetings? Leave your comments below.

Webmaster update!

Hello everyone, my name is Wyatt Anderson I’m currently the new webmaster of troop 157. I am very excited to start posting on here more often to help grow our troop and revive our troop website! If you have any ideas on topics; feel free to leave a comment or contact the troop!