September 2026 - Cape Henlopen SP, Lewes, DE
On 25-27 September 2026 we camped at Cape Henlopen State Park in Lewes, Deleware in the middle of a very large Nor'easter. We were camping in the primitive campground for youth groups a short walk from the beach.The weather forecast kept changing leading up to, and during, the weekend. There was a very large Nor'easter, which stretched from Boston to Norfolk, brewing off the east coast. Good weather for our weekend was dependent on a high pressure system, that was keeping the storm off the coast, to continue through the weekend. It didn't. When the troop arrived on Friday evening it was calm and dry. Expecting high winds, we set up tents away from trees and wrapped the shelter, which would be used for cooking, on three sides with tarps. The storm came on shore during the night and brought waves of high winds and pouring rain. The tents were being battered by the storm, with wind gusts approaching 50 mph, for hours.
In the morning, we set up four of our large canopies, lashed them together, and put sides on three of the outside walls. They were held down with our new screw in ground anchors and this became our primary shelter for the rest of the weekend.
The Scouts checked out the beach and discovered there was no beach; the waves were crashing into the dunes! We visited the Rehoboth boardwalk and found many places closed because of the storm. We had our traditional steamed crabs upon our return.
We did not have the strong winds during Saturday night but it rained most of the night flooding parts of the parking lot. On Sunday morning, after breakfast, we took down the canopies and packed everything up VERY wet.
Because we camped in extremely tough conditions during a Nor'easter the Scoutmaster awarded everyone who camped both nights 10 Texas Tough Points.
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