Gettysburg, PA National Park

[Chief J]

We are taking the Troop to Gettysburg this summer. We are from the Pittsburgh, PA area. this is our first trip to the area and I would appreciate any tips or tricks from floks who have been there.

We will be camping at McMillan Woods, and the trip will last 4 days.

Any input will be greatly appreciated,
Chief J

[ronin718]

Chief, I've been there a few times myself, and our troop is doing an overnighter there in May. We'll be staying at the hospital, and we've got a couple CW re-enactors who are going to be with us to share some CW history.

Good places to visit besides the Visitors Center would include the Devil's Den and the Round Tops. These are close together, with the RTs overlooking the DD. There are also other viewpoints to visit, and the drive through the historic trails is very enlightening.

I'll try to give more info after our trip.

[Bill Pitcher]

Chief J,
Contact the visiter's center and get an advanced copy of the Scout Hiking guide. There are 4 strips to the patch you can earn . . . 3 hikes of varying lengths and one for a visit to the Eisenhower Farm.
Have someone follow you with a truck/van with plenty of water. It gets hot there in the summer. On the longest hike, in late June, we went through 4-five gal. gerry cans of water in one day. Take 2-way radios to keep in contact with the water person. Have maps to pin-point locations to meet. We also brought a portable video player and showed "Civil War". We were joined by 2 neighboring troops in Mc Millan's woods to watch it . . . great fellowship for the Sscouts and a great camping spot. Water source in the parking lot of "the Woods." You'll be a short walk fron the start of Pickett's charge. Walk it at sundown or early in the morning, all the way to the "Copse of Trees" . . . a cool thing to do!
Have fun. It's a grweat trip.

[John F.]

Chief J

You can find a lot of information about The Gettysburg hikes and the patches that goes with the hikes on York-Adams areaa council website or use the following one.

http://www.yaac-bsa.org/activities/gett ... ysburg.htm

There are a few places to stay while in Gettysburg. The one we use is "Gettysburg Campground" website GettysburgCampground.com.

[OldGreyBear]

Across from the entrance is a line of commerical enterprises, one of which is Colonel Picketts Buffet. I can wait for the laughter to subside.

If you are going to be there 4 days, perhaps on day three you could visit Picketts, they are scout friendly, offer a discount and the youth can fill up. We usually do it after the Johnny Reb trail of the York Adams council. its a thought

[smtroop168]

Lots to do in Gettysburg. Your at a commercial campsite I think so they might have a pool. If you just want to camp, the YAAC council also has a small camp area called Camp Conewago which has Adirondacs and open camping about 10 miles from Gettysburg in New Oxford PA. Their Summer Camp is Camp Tuckahoe about 15-20 miles North in Dillsburg. Todd Weidner is their camp director. Our Troop has been there twice for Summeer Camp.

All the trails are good for the scouts and you could get them all done and earn the Gettysburg Historic Trails Medal which is nationally recognized by BSA. The longest one is 9 miles and we did it in November in 5 hours including lunch with some reenactors.

If you're mobile, you can head down Rt 15S to Emmittsburg (just over the PA/MD border) and visit the Shrines at Mt St Mary's and visit the National Firefighters Memorial as well as Cunnungham Falls State Park.

Hope this helps.

[Chief J]

We are staying at the McMillans Woods camping area on the Battlefield.

We do have the information and trail book for the Historic hikes and are planning to do these while there over the 4 days.

A couple of questions:

1) I see a new visitor center is opening in mid-April. The Electric Map is presumably not moving to this location?

2) Thinking about adding on a "Ghost Tour", anybody have a favorite?

I like the idea of adding the movie Civil War while in the campsite. - Could add some interest to the trip.

Chief J

[fritz1255]

We stay there every year in June. We usually have Saturday dinner at one or more of the restaurants along the "strip" at the edge of the park. There are a coupe of buffet restaurants, which solve the problem of how to fill up teenaged boys. Yes, there is a "General Pickett's Buffet", and General Pickett suffered another calamitous defeat at the hands of our Troop.

As mentioned above, there are activities for Troops to do there. You can get a patch and medal by doing about three hikes as well as going to the visitors center and Eisenhower farm. This takes a couple of days - we usually do it in two visits.