Twenty-nine Scouts and seven adults from BSA Troop 688 braved mid-December’s below normal temperatures and headed south to Fort A. P. Hill near Bowling Green, Virginia, over the weekend of December 11-13, 2009. This annual camping trip is one of the Scouts’ favorites and has been nicknamed “Nosecones” because the Scouts spend two nights sleeping in B-52 bomber nosecones that the US Army has placed on a 200-acre section of the post where youth groups are allowed to camp. The Army once used the fiberglass nosecones to protect electronic equipment from the weather. Today, they look like 21st century tee-pees and provide the Scouts with a very unique shelter from the cold.

Although it was 27° F when the Scouts arrived at the campsite Friday night, the temperature fell to 22° F before the Scouts woke up on Saturday morning. After preparing their breakfast and cleanup, most Scouts worked on Pioneering Merit Badge while four Scouts learned the sport of orienteering in order to satisfy one of their First Class Scout requirements. In the afternoon, the Scouts constructed a zip line as their project for Pioneering Merit Badge. They raised two large tripods and added a launching platform to the larger tripod. A rope was stretched from one tripod to the other and anchored on nearby trees. Once the zip line was complete, the Scouts spent the remainder of the afternoon taking turns launching themselves off the platform and gliding down the zip line.