Boy Scouts for Profit

On the way down Mt. Monadnock two weeks ago, we found an Eagle Scout project consisting of a circle of benches surrounding a pipe delivering cold, refreshing mountain water.

Well guess what. After returning from the camping trip, I walked by the Davis Square T stop and discovered exactly why the scouts did this:

Lake weekend in the Poconos

I had a relaxing weekend down in the Poconos, where my high school friend xmarv3 had rented a house by the lake for the week. There I met twelve other friends of his, mostly from Swarthmore and really nice people. We had a grilled dinner, went out shopping for a potato gun, played board games and ultimate and soccer, and soaked in the hot tub while sharing a sippy cup. In the basement we made good use of the air-hockey and pool tables, and watched the first few episodes of Firefly on the big-screen television.

The lake itself seemed rather shallow, and it was suspected that a drought had caused the water to recede quite a bit. Nevertheless we managed to go out onto the lake on a rowboat without much incident, and discovered an island that had clearly seen quite a few picnics. Waders and swimmers beware: Big Bass Lake consists of a couple feet of muddy sludge, on over of which is a couple feet of seaweedy water topped off with giant lilypads.