Aaron Ford and Wardsworth
Just after I was called to be a Scoutmaster of Troop 66 I held my first camp. We decided to hike up a canyon in Hobble Creek Canyon right hand fork. The road is paved to the junction where this canyon starts. It was only a mile and a half to the camp area from the junction. We started the camp by going to the church where I had a gear check. There was one scout that had to leave a lot of things behind because he was expecting to go to the camp area by vehicle not walking. I was glad that I started with a gear check. When we started hiking there was one place where we had to walk across a log to get across he stream. One scout slipped off of the log and fell on his back into the stream. It was a small stream so we were able to just reach down and pull him out. We had talked about ways to keep our gear dry and he had followed those methods and thus came out of the creek with no wet clothes other than the ones he was wearing.
The camp was good until the next morning. I had planned to leave camp that morning and do some compass work with the boys farther up the canyon. As we were cleaning up from breakfast three of the oldest scouts decided to pick on the youngest one Aaron Ford. They took his backpack while he was playing nearby and hung it on a rope about 15 feet above the stream. Aaron came to me and told me to make them take it down and I tried to explain that it would be OK to leave it there while we went for the hike and then I would help him take it down. As long as it was up there then nothing could get into it while we were hiking the rest of the morning. He didn’t like that answer and then tried to get it down himself and it dropped into the stream. That of course made him pretty mad and then no reasoning at all could make a difference. He grabbed his things and started down the trail for home. I looked at my assistant Gary Reed and told him to take charge and go on the hike with the boys while I brought Aaron back. Some of the boys were still fishing downstream so I told him I would send them back up to camp as I passed them on the trail. One of the boys was Jeffery, my son that was just 10 years old so I figured that I would just have him come with me when I found him.
Well Aaron went all the way to the start of the trail or at least almost all the way. He climbed a small hill near the start and hid behind some bushes as I walked with Jeff past him to the vehicles. I knew he had to be close by and in fact had suspected where he had gone as I had walked past that point a few minutes earlier. I went back and looked closer and had him come down. I tried to talk him into going back with me but instead he went out to the road and thumbed down a passing truck and driver. I was a little surprised to see him stop and really surprised when he the driver stopped and was going to let him have a ride. So I talked to the driver as Aaron started to climb into the back of the truck. I then told Aaron that he had to get into the cab since scouts do to ride in the back of trucks. I had him get in first then Jeff and then to Aaron’s surprise I climbed in and shut the door. Aaron then started to change his tune and was telling the driver to let him out at the next cam and the that he didn’t know me and of course the driver was pretty smart and knew exactly what was happening. The to add to Aaron’s frustration the young man knew exactly where he lived because he had been one of the men on the construction crew. So we drove right straight home and then I figured out why Aaron so badly wanted to get out. We had a meeting with is dad and he told his father he would earn his Eagle his dad also asked me to bring the leadership to his home after we got home as well which I did. We had a good meeting and the older boys who had started the trouble and who were the leadership also learned a lesson that day as well. It was an interesting first camp for me as Scoutmaster and I learned a few lessons also. Take more care in working with boys that have tempers being the first.
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