Troop 654 Blog
Stay up to date with Troop 654 activities and achievements!
October 2025: Hiking Big Schloss Loop
Over Columbus Day weekend, the troop hit the trail for a memorable hike along the Big Schloss Loop in the George Washington National Forest, straddling the Virginia–West Virginia border. Scouts set up camp at the Wolf Gap Campground and spent the weekend hiking the 10-mile loop, covering about three miles each day and climbing a…
October 2025: Fall Court of Honor
Twice a year, the troop gathers to recognize its scouts for all their hard work accomplished during the previous ~6 months, some scouts move up in rank and many earn new merit badges. The Court of Honor concludes with a festive potluck dinner. Congrats to all our scouts for their achievements!
July 2025: Sea Base
In July 2025, Troop 654 sent 9 scouts of ages 13-15 to Florida Sea base High Adventure in Key West, FL. These scouts formed 2 crews, and each crew spent the first night and morning preparing supplies for their stay at Big Munson Island. The two crews canoed 5.5 miles around various islands, battling not…
July 2025: Northern Tier
In July 2025 Troop 654 sent a crew to Northern Tier High Adventure Base in Atikokan, Ontario CA. The crew selected a custom 100 miles route through the Canadian Crownlands, which is a more challenging and remote wilderness than through the typical boundary water treks. The crew made up of five 16 year olds and…
July 2025: Camp Rodney
Around 30 scouts departed Virginia on June 28 2025, they had 5 days ahead of them for exciting scouting fun. On day one the First Years headed off to their Brownsea program that would earn them 2 merit badges eventually. The older scouts split up to go to their various chosen merit badge classes. One…
November 2024: Valley Forge Campout
The 2024 valley forge campout was an amazing trip. Scouts took on the 8.4 mile Valley Forge trail, and witnessed its many monuments and landmarks, though what made this campout especially unique is that we rode our bikes instead of hiking it on foot. Along the way, there were many landmarks and historical buildings, such…
October 2024: Harper’s Ferry Backpacking Trip
The harper’s ferry backpacking trip had us backpacking a 13 mile section of the Appalachian trail, beginning with a six mile hike through the woods of Maryland to Crampton gap campground. The next morning, we hiked another 6 miles past the civil war correspondents memorial to lunch at Weverton cliffs with an amazing view. This…
June 2024: Overnight canoeing trip on the Rappahanock River
Though we hit a few rocks, the canoeing trip was very fun! We paddled down the Rappahanock River until we got to a sandbar island. We set up camp, made a fire, and waded in the water to cool down. Paddling back to our starting point the next morning wrapped up our canoeing trip.
April 2024: Sandy Springs Rope Course & Camping
On the Sandy Springs trip, everybody had lots of fun. We climbed through the trees on a high ropes course (some people from below may have mistaken us for monkeys), camped overnight, and roasted smores by the campfire at night.
March 2024: 12 Scouts Earn Climbing Merit Badge
At the Sportrock lock-in, everybody had a lot of fun; they climbed massive 60 foot climbs and some even got to the top. We had pizza for dinner and slept on the mats. What’s more, 12 scouts even got their climbing merit badge done!
BSA Troop 654 