For the second year in a row, W and I went on the Kern River rafting and Camp Whitsett camping trip with his Boy Scout troop this Memorial Day weekend. This time, W and I went on the full-day whitewater rafting excursion on Saturday, which involved two rafting trips down Kern River, near Kernville, down Class 2 and Class 3 rapids (from Little Mama, to Big Daddy, all the way down to Ewing). Then we had a lunch break, and at 2 PM, we repeated the downriver trips, this time in two-man inflatable kayaks. Many of W’s patrol attended, including three new members who transferred into the troop this past month. We also had three new patrols of former Cub Scouts who had just joined the Troop.
The trip began with me and W driving to Bakersfield on Friday night and staying at the Courtyard Bakersfield overnight. Several people stayed overnight for this trip, since check-in at Sierra South Mountain Sports, the rafting company, was at 9 AM in Kernville for the full day excursion. That would have meant leaving the LA area before 6 AM, which few of us wanted to do.
During the first trip downriver in the rafts, the six boys from W’s patrol wanted to ride together, and I volunteered to be the other adult on board (in addition to our rafting guide). I sat in back. The guide told us to brace ourselves during Big Daddy, and he told me to get in the bottom of the boat because of something he called “the guide launch” — basically a big bump that launches people sitting in the rear maybe 15 feet over the front of the raft. When we hit it, I definitely fell into the bottom of the raft.
For the second trip downriver, the boys went alone with the guide while I switched to a raft of the fellow dads (and one senior scout). During the trip down Big Daddy (or maybe it was the other Class 3 rapid), Daniel fell out and with a look of surprise and a little worry on his face, but we managed to get to the side of the river, and he was able to get up and walk over to us through the shallower water at the edge. Our guide was a girl who I thought was still in high school, though Daniel thought she was older. Her problem was that her raft was full of four adult men and one senior scout, and since, for liability reasons, we weren’t allowed out of the raft when stuck on rocks, she had a hell of a hard time getting out and trying to push our raft off the rocks.
In one of the still areas, we dads watched a comedy of our boys jumping out of the raft, struggling back in, losing their paddles, reaching for the paddles and falling back in again, and so on. I should have taken video.
After lunch, during the kayaking afternoon, four of the boys paired up in the two man kayaks with each other. I went with Ben, another dad, and Daniel went with C., one of our new scouts whose dad didn’t come. W went with L., Ben’s son, and the two of them got stuck on rocks a few times.
I was steering from the rear, while Ben powered from the front. I had trouble steering, and I kept switching the paddle from side to side, despite what our guides told us, because I found it easier to control (though my grip on the T-bar wasn’t always what I wanted). I had less trouble during our second trip downriver when I kept the paddle farther from the side of the kayak.
And Daniel fell out again, during the first kayak trip downriver.
Once our trips downriver were done, the boys in our patrol and a few other boys stayed behind and completed work for the Whitewater Merit Badge, so that will be a nice thing to take back.
We got to Camp Whitsett sometime after 6 PM, by which time the scouts and dads who didn’t do the full day excursion were already starting to cook dinner. Those of us who arrived after 6 PM scrambled to set up our tents and other gear.
The boys had done meal planning during their last Scout meeting, Daniel (as ASM) assigned each scout items to bring, and W assigned prep, cooking, and clean-up duties. Cooking crews were divided by patrol, so our patrol cooked and ate together. The new scouts came across as really young and inexperienced, like Cub Scouts, and they seemed a bit surprised that they had to share responsibility for preparing and cooking our meals and cleaning up afterward.
We had a big campfire at 8 PM with a Scout Spirit session as well as a handoff of Scoutmaster duties from Brett, our current Scoutmaster, to Scott, next year’s Scoutmaster. It was a touching ceremony with moving speeches.
On Sunday, we went on a hike. Experienced scouts were supposed to go on the hike to Sherman Peak. We all went on that hike last year, and it went from 9000 ft elevation to 10000 ft elevation. It was my first serious hike, and it wiped me out. For the last 250 ft of ascent up the peak, I had to stop every 30 yards or so on the trail to catch my breath.
By vote of our patrol, we decided to join the new scouts on the hike on the North Fork Kern River Trail. For one thing, our patrol hadn’t done that hike before. For another thing, it was at much lower altitude than the Sherman Pass hike to Sherman Peak. W, T., and I hitched a ride with Daniel and his son A., and once at the bridge on M99 which is the starting point, the Scouts all did a little orienteering with map and compass, and then we set out.
Compared to the Sherman Peak hike, this was relatively easy, and I was able to keep up. It was hot, and I was sweating like crazy and taking regular sips from my hydration sack (a Platypus in my backpack). My main problem, really, was maintaining my footing in areas with lots of loose, jagged rocks. I was using telescoping hiking sticks, though, which helped a lot with my balance and footing. W kindly kept an eye on me and inquired periodically how I was doing, but I like to think I did well.
We got to our destination maybe 2.5-3.5 miles from the start, depending on who you believe, and we had our sandwich lunches, rested, and headed back.
One thing that irritated me was that I kept finding trash on the trail — a map here, some food wrapper there. Some must have come from our scouts, and some may have come from other hikers. Regardless, what irritated me upon coming across the trash was knowing that scouts walking ahead of me hadn’t picked it up. The Boy Scouts are supposed to abide by strict Leave No Trace rules, and they’re supposed to be responsible enough not only not to litter but also to pick up litter as they go along. To some extent, hiking with new scouts means that many of them haven’t learned good habits of Leave No Trace, but I think they’d better learn fast.
I mentioned my findings to Brett, and during lunch, he reminded the scouts to pick up trash they find on the trail.
The ride back was a bit of an eye-opener for Daniel and me because, in addition to a lot of horsing around in the back seat, the boys spent a lot of time talking about girls. Daniel said that he knew girls had been talking about boys for two or three years already, so it seems that the boys are just starting to catch up.
Back at camp, we started doing scout skills activities. Prashant started teaching our boys about various First Class sign-off items — food pyramid (or whatever it is nowadays), finding directions without a compass, and so on. We also got a senior scout to show a couple of the boys (V. and W) some advanced lashings, and Tom, one of the dads who is a lawyer, gave a talk on the US Constitution. All of the new scouts in our patrol along with a couple of our existing scouts also had their Scoutmaster Conferences with Daniel and Ben (our ASMs) in preparation for rank advancement.
Meanwhile, just before dinner, I managed to wash off my hair and the sweat from my body in the very cold shower nearby. Feeling a little clean and civilized was worth the cold water to me.
After dinner, we gathered as a troop around a big campfire and held our annual Memorial Day weekend flag retirement ceremony. An old, worn flag was displayed by a color guard while a senior patrol leader read aloud a speech on service to our country. Tom, the only veteran in our gathering, also stood at attention near the flag, and finally, the flag was put in the fire. Shortly after, fragments of other worn and retired flags were distributed to everyone, and we all burned our fragments.
This morning, we struck camp. W and I had our stuff packed away by 7:30 AM, including time taken off for a cereal breakfast. After the troop did a camp sweep at 8 AM (to pick up any stray bits of trash), W and I finally left and headed home. We had McDonalds lunch in Bakersfield. And like last year, I was so tired from the camping that, for the sake of driving safety, we stopped at a couple of rest stops for me to take brief naps in the car.