Sept 19, 2011

Cross Country with My scouts.

The place was Granddaddy Basin and the time was Scout Camp summer of 1992. I had planned a trip into the basin to help my scouts learn how to find their way in the mountains where during my youth I had experienced some great camps but also some greater anxieties. I feared getting lost probably worse than getting attacked by wild animals even though those thoughts had also crossed my mind a couple of times.

I had all of the geological maps of the basin where we would be camped and had marked where I wanted to take them cross country. It would be a trail that would lead me past the lakes where I had camped in my youth. We would leave Pine Island and cross through to Palisade Lake. From Palisade to Brinton Meadows Guard Station and on to Governor Lake. From Governor Lake we would basically follow the trails to Granddaddy Lake and then back to Pine Island.

I had told the boys the plan before we even went into the basin for the week as we prepared by doing compass courses in troop meetings and learned how to orient maps. I had about 20 people in the group so I divided them up into four smaller groups that would each take a leg of the journey being in charge of reading the map and telling us where to hike. Each group had one boy in charge of smaller segments as well so that they would all have a turn at being the decision maker for the group as we hiked.

The energy was high as we started off that morning and I had the thought come to me that I hadn’t made the loop large enough. At the rate we were going it would be noon by the time we got back and I had planned for it to be around 5 pm just in time for supper.

We crossed the half mile that I had walked the day before in about half the time it had taken me. I started to realize though after they got there that I was going to be OK because they became fascinated with the scenery as well as the process and started to take their time playing around the lake and wanting to explore as they went.(I Then started to worry if  we  even get back before the next morning.)  We had fun though and crossing to Governor Lake became a different fun all together. Brother Brent Haines, who was one of my young adult assistants, stopped to show the boys in a small stream that meandered through a large meadow how to catch a fish without a fishing pole. We had stopped in the meadow to allow the boys to do some fishing in the stream and to relax and just soak in the beauty of our surroundings. Not many people who  go through the  Uintah's ever get to see these types of places since the trails typically go around through the forest rather than through them. Brent caught a small fish with his hand and soon several of the boys were trying it as well with some of them also finding success. I thought it was a great  addition to my plans as it gave them experience in providing food for themselves should they ever need to do so in the future.

We did find a trail of sorts that led up a hill and upon arriving at the top found the source of the stream that we had been fishing in was Govenor Lake. We spent quite a bit of time there  letting the boys fish while  I walked around the lake taking pictures and again soaking up all of the memories of my youth at that lake.  I even found a couple of deer that I was able to photograph.

We then climbed the steep hill following the trail that I had traversed in my youth  up to Granddaddy Lake. We again did some fishing as we went around the edge of the lake toward the trail we had been on Monday and which would lead us back to  Pine Island for the evening campfire program and much needed rest.

I remember as I walked the edge of the  lake seeing a team of Varsity Scouts practicing some old time survival methods that we had been asked as modern scouts not to do. They were cutting branches from live evergreen trees and making shelters. I looked at the trees and thought how bad it made them look and  wondered if their leaders even cared, especially since I couldn’t even see any of them around.  I vowed then to do all I could to drive home to boys that I would work with in the future as well as the ones I was with to respect the outdoors and to take care of them for their children.