The three of us climbed up the rocks and found the trail to Scout Cabin, did a quick compass check and headed off. It was raining pretty hard now and the temperature had started to dropped with the setting of the sun so we set a quick pace to make time and keep warm. I figured it would take Ray 10 to 15 minutes each way to ferry all the scouts to the cabin in the dark so we should be there before he brought everyone in.
It was getting hard to follow the trail now as we leave it unmarked to discourage people from finding it and using it as a party spot or worse vandalizing the place. We made it to the beaver dam after 10 minutes but the recent rains had it full to overflowing so we all got ice cold soakers when we crossed the dam, we were pretty wet already so this was just icing on the cake.
[attachment 56168 beaver20lodge20full.jpg]
Up the next hill we climbed and when we hit the top of it we paused to catch our breath and take our bearings, there was a nasty stink as we checked our compasses and it only got worse when I stepped in a fresh pile of black bear scat. Fresh isn't the word, it was still steaming!
Kyle and Mitch have both been hunting and fishing since they were tikes so I pointed out the scat to them and said we needed to stick close together to make ourselves look bigger. Agreed, we grouped up and scanned the surrounding underbrush with our headlamps and flashlights, nothing. Of course, trying to spy a black bear in the woods, at night when it's raining is a pretty tricky business so we couldn't be sure that the bear had dropped his load when he smelled us and then took off OR voided its' bowel to make room for us. (we were coming at him from upwind) Nothing more to do but keep moving and make plenty of noise doing so but I was nervous and I could tell my scouts were too.
We made double time to get further along the path and hopefully away from the bear.
We finally came to the last steep ravine which would take us to the beach beside Scout Cabin, it's almost a cliff and you have to use handholds and saplings to get down it. I went down first and Kyle, who was 14 yrs and 6'1" already, came down behind me with ease, Mitch came last. Mitch had about ten feet left to go in his descent when the sapling he was holding on to gave way and he slid the rest of the way down and caught a sturdy sapling square between the legs. With a grunt, he slid right up and over that 4 ft. high tree, then came down in a heap holding his crotch. Kyle and I both rushed to his aid but really what can you do?
After a minute or so, Mitch gingerly got to his feet and said he was okay to continue, that kid was a real trooper.
Five minutes later we saw the light from the coleman lantern at Scout Cabin - it was 7:22, we'd covered a kilometer of rough trail in the dark and the rain in only 22 minutes. (must have been the bear)
Scouter Ray should be close to picking up Scouter Jim and the balance of the scouts just about now. Things were looking up, we should be sipping hot chocolate, while we dried ourselves out by the cabin stove in half an hour, at this rate.
I opened the cabin door to pure pandemonium. Scouts were running around the cabin like wild indians, hooting and hollering. Malcolm the Hellraiser was chasing them around the cabin uttering a diabolical laugh and shooting lit wood matches at them off of the striker on the box. I came up behind Malcolm and grabbed him by the collar, then I slowly turned him around to face me - his eyes bugged out of his head
.
The room was suddenly, dead quiet.
"What are you doing, Scout?" I asked him politely.
"Nuthin' Scouter Eric" said Malcolm in a voice as pure as the driven snow.
"It looks to me like you are trying to burn Scout Cabin to the ground, this building is tinder dry inside" was my retort. Malcolm was a good kid but wild and almost uncontrollable when he was off his medication.(ADHD) I asked him if he had taken his medication at lunchtime at school and he admitted that he had not because it slowed him down too much and he wanted to have fun at Scout Cabin. I got him some water and watched him take his medicine.(I am required to make sure all scouts take their prescribed medication):|
I was just checking the stove and stoking the fire to make hot chocolate when I heard the sound of the outboard down by the dock, I left Mitch to tend to the hot chocolate and headed down to the dock.
Kyle was tying off the boat when I got there but only Ray and his son Tom were in it.
"What happened?" I asked
"We can't find them!" said Ray "Their not there!" Tom chimed in.
By now the rain had turned to sleet and wet snow, the water actually had little white caps on it and the night was jet black.
"You can't see a thing out there, Eric" said Ray "We had our flashlights on but we might have missed them".
"We've got to try to find them, Ray" was my response "Kyle and Tom, get Mitch to help you get the rest of the scouts settled down and into some dry clothes; give them all some hot chocolate when it's ready but easy on the sugar, Scouter Ray and I are going back to find the rest of the scouts".
I grabbed the two best flashlights we had(Maglites)and hopped in the boat with Ray. As soon as we cleared the point the water conditions got bad, the waves were over two feet and the sleet was blowing right down the river valley into our faces, air temp 40 degrees F. No wonder Ray and Tom couldn't find the landing area again. I braced myself in the bow of the little boat and held both flahlights forward so Ray and I could see the way, visibility was only about 50 ft.. After a while, I thought I spotted our large rock up ahead to starboard but it was just a fallen tree, we came around the next point and almost wound up on the rocks of a small islet. Back out into the main channel we went to avoid the rocks and then back into the next inlet to starboard but there was another small islet there that I didn't remember, as we were pulling away towards the next cove I spotted our landing area tucked away behind the islet, we circled back. (I suppose I should mention that Ray's night vision is lousy by his own admission)
As we pulled up to the landing area we could plainly see the problem, the islet looked like part of the shoreline from landward but it was clearly an islet when viewed from the water side. We flashed our flashlights and tried to call out over the wind but our voices were knocked down flat and the sleet cloaked our light - There was nobody here! Surely to goodness, Jim wouldn't try to hike back to the vehicles in the dark on a trail he didn't know?
I jumped on to the rock ledge and Ray held the boat in the lee of the islet while I searched for the missing scoutleader and the scouts. Part way up the path to the trail I found them all huddled back under a rock overhang out of the worst of the storm.
Jim was actually on his cellphone talking to the Regional Director of Scouts Canada, how he got cellphone reception out in the woods I'll never know. I guess Jim had gotten all in a panic when he didn't see Ray return.(how he'd of seen Ray's light while hiding around a corner is beyond me, I guess he figured Ray would beep a horn like a taxi when he returned) Jim handed me the phone and I could hear the Regional Director clear as a bell.
"What was going on out there?", "Were all the scouts safe?", "Did he need to come out to the Scout Cabin tomorrow?" is what he said.
"Come out if you like, Jim just got a little panicked but everything is fine" I told him.(the Regional Director was actually a really decent guy and a lifelong scouter)[I could never figure out what good Jim thought the director could have done - an airlift maybe
]
We both said goodnight to each other and I ushered Scouter Jim and the remaining scouts down to the boat for a cold, wet ride to the Scout Cabin. We got some hot chocolate into them and they slept like logs in the cabin while the wind howled and the rain poured outside.
We awoke to a beautiful sunny morning and we had a full day of activities for the scouts - orienteering, first aid, woodcrafts, fishing, a Mulligan Stew lunch and a BBQ for dinner. Around the campfire that night the beans started to kick in as they usually do, Mitch was sitting beside Kyle and let a huge ripper loose. Kyle didn't bat an eye as Mitch grinned at his flatulent accomplishment, all Kyle said was "C-Flat" and kept drinking his hot chocolate. Those two really cracked me up, they were like Laurel and Hardy together.
The rest of the weekend held clear and warm. We cleaned up Scout Cabin and hiked out in full daylight and clear skies, halfway back I got turned around and had to check my compass, which my scouts thought was hillarious. We dropped off the scouts to their parents at 4pm and I headed for home and a long soak in a hot tub.
Scouter Jim tried to make an issue about poor co-ordination of the trip but when Ray and I pointed out that each delay that occurred was directly related to his actions, he backed off and went back to the office politics of the Regional Office. We never camped with him again but only because he never asked to come along again.
I left scouting for good a couple of years later when the politics and insurance requirements made it impossible to do anything more exciting than needlepoint in the church basement. I stayed in touch with my boys until I left for Bermuda and they are all doing well.
Cheers,
Scouter Eric
It was getting hard to follow the trail now as we leave it unmarked to discourage people from finding it and using it as a party spot or worse vandalizing the place. We made it to the beaver dam after 10 minutes but the recent rains had it full to overflowing so we all got ice cold soakers when we crossed the dam, we were pretty wet already so this was just icing on the cake.
[attachment 56168 beaver20lodge20full.jpg]
Up the next hill we climbed and when we hit the top of it we paused to catch our breath and take our bearings, there was a nasty stink as we checked our compasses and it only got worse when I stepped in a fresh pile of black bear scat. Fresh isn't the word, it was still steaming!
Kyle and Mitch have both been hunting and fishing since they were tikes so I pointed out the scat to them and said we needed to stick close together to make ourselves look bigger. Agreed, we grouped up and scanned the surrounding underbrush with our headlamps and flashlights, nothing. Of course, trying to spy a black bear in the woods, at night when it's raining is a pretty tricky business so we couldn't be sure that the bear had dropped his load when he smelled us and then took off OR voided its' bowel to make room for us. (we were coming at him from upwind) Nothing more to do but keep moving and make plenty of noise doing so but I was nervous and I could tell my scouts were too.We made double time to get further along the path and hopefully away from the bear.
We finally came to the last steep ravine which would take us to the beach beside Scout Cabin, it's almost a cliff and you have to use handholds and saplings to get down it. I went down first and Kyle, who was 14 yrs and 6'1" already, came down behind me with ease, Mitch came last. Mitch had about ten feet left to go in his descent when the sapling he was holding on to gave way and he slid the rest of the way down and caught a sturdy sapling square between the legs. With a grunt, he slid right up and over that 4 ft. high tree, then came down in a heap holding his crotch. Kyle and I both rushed to his aid but really what can you do?
After a minute or so, Mitch gingerly got to his feet and said he was okay to continue, that kid was a real trooper. Five minutes later we saw the light from the coleman lantern at Scout Cabin - it was 7:22, we'd covered a kilometer of rough trail in the dark and the rain in only 22 minutes. (must have been the bear)Scouter Ray should be close to picking up Scouter Jim and the balance of the scouts just about now. Things were looking up, we should be sipping hot chocolate, while we dried ourselves out by the cabin stove in half an hour, at this rate.
I opened the cabin door to pure pandemonium. Scouts were running around the cabin like wild indians, hooting and hollering. Malcolm the Hellraiser was chasing them around the cabin uttering a diabolical laugh and shooting lit wood matches at them off of the striker on the box. I came up behind Malcolm and grabbed him by the collar, then I slowly turned him around to face me - his eyes bugged out of his head
.The room was suddenly, dead quiet.
"What are you doing, Scout?" I asked him politely.
"Nuthin' Scouter Eric" said Malcolm in a voice as pure as the driven snow.
"It looks to me like you are trying to burn Scout Cabin to the ground, this building is tinder dry inside" was my retort. Malcolm was a good kid but wild and almost uncontrollable when he was off his medication.(ADHD) I asked him if he had taken his medication at lunchtime at school and he admitted that he had not because it slowed him down too much and he wanted to have fun at Scout Cabin. I got him some water and watched him take his medicine.(I am required to make sure all scouts take their prescribed medication):|
I was just checking the stove and stoking the fire to make hot chocolate when I heard the sound of the outboard down by the dock, I left Mitch to tend to the hot chocolate and headed down to the dock.
Kyle was tying off the boat when I got there but only Ray and his son Tom were in it.
"What happened?" I asked
"We can't find them!" said Ray "Their not there!" Tom chimed in.
By now the rain had turned to sleet and wet snow, the water actually had little white caps on it and the night was jet black.
"You can't see a thing out there, Eric" said Ray "We had our flashlights on but we might have missed them".
"We've got to try to find them, Ray" was my response "Kyle and Tom, get Mitch to help you get the rest of the scouts settled down and into some dry clothes; give them all some hot chocolate when it's ready but easy on the sugar, Scouter Ray and I are going back to find the rest of the scouts".
I grabbed the two best flashlights we had(Maglites)and hopped in the boat with Ray. As soon as we cleared the point the water conditions got bad, the waves were over two feet and the sleet was blowing right down the river valley into our faces, air temp 40 degrees F. No wonder Ray and Tom couldn't find the landing area again. I braced myself in the bow of the little boat and held both flahlights forward so Ray and I could see the way, visibility was only about 50 ft.. After a while, I thought I spotted our large rock up ahead to starboard but it was just a fallen tree, we came around the next point and almost wound up on the rocks of a small islet. Back out into the main channel we went to avoid the rocks and then back into the next inlet to starboard but there was another small islet there that I didn't remember, as we were pulling away towards the next cove I spotted our landing area tucked away behind the islet, we circled back. (I suppose I should mention that Ray's night vision is lousy by his own admission)
As we pulled up to the landing area we could plainly see the problem, the islet looked like part of the shoreline from landward but it was clearly an islet when viewed from the water side. We flashed our flashlights and tried to call out over the wind but our voices were knocked down flat and the sleet cloaked our light - There was nobody here! Surely to goodness, Jim wouldn't try to hike back to the vehicles in the dark on a trail he didn't know?
I jumped on to the rock ledge and Ray held the boat in the lee of the islet while I searched for the missing scoutleader and the scouts. Part way up the path to the trail I found them all huddled back under a rock overhang out of the worst of the storm. Jim was actually on his cellphone talking to the Regional Director of Scouts Canada, how he got cellphone reception out in the woods I'll never know. I guess Jim had gotten all in a panic when he didn't see Ray return.(how he'd of seen Ray's light while hiding around a corner is beyond me, I guess he figured Ray would beep a horn like a taxi when he returned) Jim handed me the phone and I could hear the Regional Director clear as a bell.
"What was going on out there?", "Were all the scouts safe?", "Did he need to come out to the Scout Cabin tomorrow?" is what he said.
"Come out if you like, Jim just got a little panicked but everything is fine" I told him.(the Regional Director was actually a really decent guy and a lifelong scouter)[I could never figure out what good Jim thought the director could have done - an airlift maybe
]We both said goodnight to each other and I ushered Scouter Jim and the remaining scouts down to the boat for a cold, wet ride to the Scout Cabin. We got some hot chocolate into them and they slept like logs in the cabin while the wind howled and the rain poured outside.
We awoke to a beautiful sunny morning and we had a full day of activities for the scouts - orienteering, first aid, woodcrafts, fishing, a Mulligan Stew lunch and a BBQ for dinner. Around the campfire that night the beans started to kick in as they usually do, Mitch was sitting beside Kyle and let a huge ripper loose. Kyle didn't bat an eye as Mitch grinned at his flatulent accomplishment, all Kyle said was "C-Flat" and kept drinking his hot chocolate. Those two really cracked me up, they were like Laurel and Hardy together.
The rest of the weekend held clear and warm. We cleaned up Scout Cabin and hiked out in full daylight and clear skies, halfway back I got turned around and had to check my compass, which my scouts thought was hillarious. We dropped off the scouts to their parents at 4pm and I headed for home and a long soak in a hot tub.
Scouter Jim tried to make an issue about poor co-ordination of the trip but when Ray and I pointed out that each delay that occurred was directly related to his actions, he backed off and went back to the office politics of the Regional Office. We never camped with him again but only because he never asked to come along again.
I left scouting for good a couple of years later when the politics and insurance requirements made it impossible to do anything more exciting than needlepoint in the church basement. I stayed in touch with my boys until I left for Bermuda and they are all doing well.
Cheers,
Scouter Eric
)