On November 7, 2008,
four Immortals and two invitees departed from Simsbury on a blind drop. We drove north for a couple of hours until we stopped at a McDonalds. From this point on we would be completely blind folded. We pulled into an empty parking lot in the middle of the woods at around 9:30 pm with no idea where we were. We made shelters in the pouring rain and then went to bed.
The next morning we woke up to more rain and a hearty breakfast of power bars and apples. After a little mishap with our water filters we were given our objective. Without knowing our present location we had to find a specific lake using only a satellite image. We decided that our best chance of finding the lake was to get to the highest point in the area. We hiked in the dense fog and occasional rain up a trail that would lead us to a fire tower. Once there we would be able to see the entire region and pinpoint the location of the lake. Once we arrived at the fire tower there was good news and bad news. The bad news is that the fog was so thick that we couldn’t see the lakes. The good news is that on a prior skiing trip, Ryan Mead, Scott Miller and I had hiked to the same fire tower and know we knew that we were on the backside of Stratton Ski Mountain. We deduced that the lake in the picture had to be Stratton pond.
We soon found the Stratton pond trail and headed to the lake. Once at the lake we discovered a great shelter/palace to spend the night at. After lighting a fire in the pouring rain, eating a warm freeze dried meal, and having a push-up contest we hit the sleeping bags. The next morning we were packed up and ready to go by 8:40 am. We jogged back to the cars by 11:26 am.
The trip was a big success and a lot of fun. We practiced our navigation skills, fire building in the rain, and leadership. I expect we will have more trips like this in the future and am looking forward to them.
Michael Vallen,
Immortals Chief, Life Scout
