We decided to go up to Baer Canyon which lies directly east of us up the mountain. It's close by, allows for a little backpacking in, albeit much less strenuous this time, and is beautiful this time of year with the changing colors of the leaves! This time I had 3 of the boys come and they were all super stoked to be going out again. We met at the church at 5:00 p.m., piled into the truck, and made our way up to the trail head.
The hike up the trail was great. We were out of the hot sun this time and climbed our way up the well-worn trail in the shade of the trees. We passed several campsites before reaching the river where we crossed over the bridge. After about 20 minutes since we'd left the truck, we found our spot! It was just off the trail, but surrounded by boulders and trees with several spots to pitch a tent or make a shelter. We took off our packs and set up camp. It wasn't long before we had a fire going and dinner was served!
After we finished dinner, we were sitting around the fire as the daylight was fading when we had an unexpected visitor... A grungy looking guy in his late teens or early 20's staggered up the trail and began coming into our camp. I called out to him and he stopped and said: "Oh. Are you guys camping here?" (I thought the tent was a dead giveaway.) "Yes, we are," I replied. He started scanning the area again and looking closely at the boys and that's when I got that eerie feeling again. "Do you need help or something?" I asked pointedly. He stepped back a few steps and put his hands up as he replied, "Oh no no no! No, man, I was just, uh, looking around and stuff. Naw we're good, man..." I heard someone yelling further down the trail and he backed away further and began calling to his buddy. He wasn't moving quick enough for my liking and I still felt eerie about the situation so I reached into my pocket and clicked open my knife. I was turning around to speak to the boys when I heard three other clicks before I could say a word. Each one of the boys had their knives out and said, "Don't worry, we're ready!" Haha! These boys are so freaking rad! I don't know why we keep getting creepy kooks wandering up on us while we're camping. To be honest, it's really starting to bug me. This kid and his buddy were clearly coming up to use drugs and drink. They moved onto some rocks a short distance away and we watched them through the bushes until they finally left a short time later.
As the sun went down, we spent the rest of the evening going over Merit Badges and were able to finish 3 for the three boys as well as go over several others. I'd say it was a pretty successful evening! I decided to head for my bag around 10:00 and was drifting away at 10:30. I'm pretty sure the boys barely slept at all! I woke up at midnight and heard them talking and laughing. I rolled over just after 2:00 a.m. and heard them laughing. I woke up at 4:00 a.m. and heard them singing "Do, Re, Mi, Fa, So, La, Te, Do!" and a stirring rendition of "The Devil Went Down to Georgia." Oh, and yes, they were laughing. I woke up at 6:00 a.m. and yep, you guessed it... Still laughing! When they finally emerged from the tent around 7:30, I asked them in a very serious voice who invited the girls into camp. They looked at each other with puzzled expressions and answered assuredly that nobody had. I said: "Well, I woke up several times last night and kept hearing girls giggling and laughing!" Hahahahahaha. We all had a good chuckle from that one. Then we ate breakfast. Eggs, sausage, and pancakes. Legit!
After breakfast, the boys went exploring and it wasn't long before they were looking for wild edibles to eat. Logically, they decided they wanted to eat cactus. (Hahahahahahahahaha!) Soon, the 3 clicks were heard again as they brandished their blades and went to work collecting cacti. They actually gathered a good amount of the stuff when they brought it all back to camp. Now the real work began, however, as they had to remove all of the spines. It was a lot of work for a very small yield, but in the end, they all had some "warm cucumber" in their mouths. They weren't too impressed with the taste, but now they can say they ate cactus. As expected, the cactus foraging wasn't without injury. One of the boys somehow got a spine in his lip...
After a little first aid, we packed up our gear, hoisted our packs, and headed back down the trail. We made good time on the way down and so we did a bit of exploring near the trail head. We didn't find any treasure, but we did find a cool culvert to take pictures in!
We had a great camp out! These guys are so rad! I love my troop and I'm so lucky to be their Scoutmaster...
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