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Swamp Fox Chapter Website
Trek
2009 FCF Trek , (December 5-6) LAST CALL!! PLEASE IF ANYONE IS ITERESTED IN DOING A CANOE TREK, I NEED TO KNOW BY NOV. 21 . We have space for 3 more, possible 5. It wiil be on Dec 5-6 on Lynches River in the Florence area. Contact Toby Tarver for more information. toby@scdrr.org
Once it starts getting dark early, you know that Trek is coming near. The Swamp Fox Trek is an annual event that started in 1997 and consists of an overnight trip while you are dressed and supplied in a pre-1840 manner (shoes, food, etc.). It is a great opportunity to learn more about your FCF brothers and yourself. The event is usually the first full weekend of December.
Here's a story about our 2004 Trek:
From Three Sticks:
A historical trek is one of those things in life that is hard to explain. We can get together for a rendezvous or a trace, wear our outfits and compete in events, but getting your kit together and hitting the trail sheds a new light on our membership in FCF. If you want an adventure where you can put your outfit, your gear and yourself to the test, take a trek. Nine frontiersmen participated in the 2004 Swamp Fox Trek. Present were Kenneth Fields, Dale Poston, Nathan Poston, Stephen Jackson, Ethan Jackson, Bill McCurry, Miles Terry, Charlie Packard, and Chuck Packard. We arrived at Laurel Valley on the afternoon of November 19th and parked our wagons. Our goal was to trek over Sassafras Mountain and finish in the area of Table Rock. The afternoon weather was spectacular for a mid-November day. The start of the trail began with a fairly steep ascent and then leveled off to more of a moderate climb. The leaves were beginning to fall off of the trees but a good many of them remained on the trees to paint a colorful portrait from the Master's hand. The sheer beauty of the landscape was breath-taking as we ascended into the mountains. The leaves on the trail did pose a bit of a problem for some of us, especially Gray Dove, as he found two steps forward and one big slide back to be standard fare for his smooth leather soled boots. Our trek in on Friday afternoon lasted about two hours and covered several miles. Even short hikes can give you insight into how much of your kit you should carry. I guess I should have expained earlier that I use the term kit to refer to my clothes, bags, bedroll, food, etc. It doesn't take long before you're asking yourself "Should I really have brought along my Dutch Ovens?" I jest of course. We found a quiet opening to make camp and soon we were involved with gathering firewood and setting up shelters. We soon had several roaring fires going and the aroma of food and drink was in the air. Charlie and I cooked a small pot of rice and corn, and ate that with some jerky and apples. Gray Dove had a slab of beef that he roasted over the fire, and we ate slices of the beef with chunks of bread. If I recall correctly, Whitehart cooked some potatoes and other goodies. As we ate we shared our meals amongst each other. We washed it all down with a hot cup of chocolate. It was a fine meal amongst a fine group of frontiersmen. We then had a set for a spell as Restless, Whitehart , and Two Hawks reveled us with tales of treks of old. We laughed and enjoyed the fellowship that only brothers in Christ can enjoy. Before long it was time for me to crawl into my bedroll. Others sat around the fires and talked, while I drifted between listening to the sounds of the woods and listening to the tales told around the fires. Time drifted on and everyone made it into their bedrolls. Some of us slept under oilcloth shelters while others slept under the stars. Sometime before midnight the light mist that had been in the air turned first into a mild drizzle that would come and go and eventually turned into a steady downpour. Now as you can imagine sleeping under the stars in the rain poses its own set of challenges, mainly sleeping. While some of us slept on and off during the night others decided to spend the night around the fire. It seemed as if morning would never arrive but it finally did. Several of the group had stayed up all night. It was the consensus to return to our wagons for an early return home. The rains had continued through the night and showed no sign of letting up. We broke camp and started back down the trail. It was a pleasant walk in spite of the weather. About a half mile from the wagons, Charlie told me that he had dropped his knife. Now this was no ordinary knife. It was a prized knife. Charlie had bought this knife in Camden a few years ago with his own money. It was a handmade knife with a handmade brain-tanned elk sheath. I decided to head back up the trail in search of his prized knife. I dropped my gear and started my search. Although I looked as best I could, I ended up making it all of the way back to our camp without finding the knife. I decided to make a more thorough search on the way back down. The knife sheath was the same color as the leaves on the ground. This made the search very difficult. As I got closer to where I had left Charlie I heard Charlie yelling that he had found his knife. Restless had led Charlie back up the trail and they found the knife in an area where we had crawled under some downed trees. As I followed Charlie and Restless down the trail I thought about the story of the lost sheep in Luke chapter 15. This chapter also tells about a lost coin and a lost son. Jesus uses these parables to compare the joy of finding these things that were lost to the rejoicing that there is in heaven over one sinner that repents. We have a rare opportunity in Royal Rangers and FCF to reach out to boys that are lost and lead them to our Shepherd. God has given us the vehicle and the tools in the Royal Rangers program. Are we willing to walk the extra mile to reach one for His Kingdom? With the joy of a new found knife in our sash, Restless, Charlie and I walked the final leg of the 2004 Trek. We rendezvoused with the rest of the group and headed into Pickens for a fine breakfast at the Village Tavern. After a hearty breakfast we said our goodbyes with a resolve to rejoin on the trail as soon as we could. Although we may not have covered the amount of ground we would have liked to or spent an extra day on the trail, I think we will all look back on 2004 as the year of the "Half Trek". |
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