Pedroza's Place

Our last day in camp was a rainy day. We had scheduled to stay longer and maybe do some more fishing, but with the rain everyone just wanted to pack up and go. So after a quick breakfast that is exactly what we did. The only thing that was interesting was the night before one of the leader’s tents was attacked by an army of red ants. We tried everything we could to keep them away from the tent. In the end the only thing that worked was drenching the area around the tent with lots of water.
On the morning of our last day it was interesting to see the pollen pool. It was kind of like a river of yellow fuzzy things:

Day Four saw us back on the trail. This time we were camped out at the Clyde group campground in Big Pine Canyon. Working on our 10 mile hike we had two goals: see First and Second Falls and Palisade Glacier.

For Palisade Glacier we didn’t climb all the way to the top but we got pretty close. Along the way we saw a bunch of trail workers:

It is amazing how strong they are, I was huffing and puffing my way up and they climbed that trail as if it were nothing. What is more is they had a lot of equipment with them.

After checking out the glacier we turned directions and went to look for the falls. The first one we saw was First Falls:

This was relatively easy to get to, it was fun to see it. It is amazing to think of how much water runs through that water fall.
(video here)

After staring at First Falls for a bit we went on to Second Falls. The idea was to hike up the trail and just see it from a distance. Which we did:

It was cool, but decided that we needed to get closer so up we went. The view from up close was amazing. It is fun to feel the power of the mist hitting against you. After climing up to the falls we had to make the descent down:

After getting down it was just a matter of following the creek back to camp:

On the way back we some interesting stuff.
A horse outfitter:

A old abandoned house:

And a Cottonwood tree:

After 10 miles it was another exhausting day, but it was very beautiful.

Day 3 found us back at camp, which was good because I was tired from the day before. Although our feet got a little bit of rest it was still a busy day. On this day we finished the Fishing Merit Badge which basically meant a bunch of knot tying and talking about fishing emergencies. What is a fishing emergency you ask? Well basically just think hooks. Anyhow, it was also Wilderness Survival day. To start Wilderness Survival Day we had to first find a wilderness.

Not too far away from our camp we found this really cool grove of Aspen trees:

It kind of reminded me of the sacred grove. First thing the boys did was start building shelters. We told them they could use anything they had on them and anything they found. Here is a picture of one of the shelters:

In this particular case the scouts found an old palette and what looked to be an abandon burlap sack, kind of wierd finding that in the middle of the forest, but it is what they found so it was valid. To complete their requirements they had to sleep in the shelter one night, and it rained a little bit. I have to say they did a better job than I did when I got this merit badge. When I did the Wilderness Merit Badge I did it in the winter and built an Igloo, building an Igloo is a lot easier than building a leantoo. Anyhow, since it was taking a lot of time for the scouts to build their shelters I went with another Coach (in Varsity Scouts the leaders are called Coaches not Scoutmasters) and did some of my own reconanse. After some time we soon found a town called Aspendale. It was a very small town, but there was a resort there:

In this town we found a pay phone and overpriced ice cream sandwiches. We decided the scouts didn’t need to know about that so we went back to camp and didn’t say anything about it.
Back at camp we found the scouts demonstrating fire starting:

The bow method is really one of the harder methods. My favorite method involves a 9 volt battery and steel wool. Try it one day, but watch your hands, wouldn’t want you to burn yourself.
Fire was started and it was one to preparing food. For food we made what is called a Hobo Pack:

Basically all you do is cut up a potato, some meat, vegetables, and wrap it up in aluminum. This is then cooked right on the coals of your fire. It is very simple. Also simple was our refridgerator. Yes, we had a refridgerator out there and we had nice cold milk everyday:

It was a fun day, I didn’t make a shelter. I just “cowboy” camped by showing the scouts how a shelter and hiking pole make a great shelter:

It worked well, but there was a lot of mosquitoes out there and I got bit pretty good.