The Big Eddy April 21-22, 2016

Our first campout as a reorganized troop with me as Scoutmaster.  Those who came were leaders: Aaron, Andrew, Mike, Brad and myself.  scouts:  Kaleb, Carson, Zach, Chase, Antonio.  11 year old scouts:  Kiowa, Bowdy, Gabren and Josh.  Friend of Carson: Gaven.  and little brothers and sons were: Quinn, Heber, Alex and Logan.  Tom and Andrew also came up for the evening.  We missed Dalton who went with his dad for the weekend.  

The Big Eddy is always a good early Spring campout because you can fish and there really aren't many people camping there.  Also there are usually not so many bonfire parties because its a little cold I think.  This year it was different where they had actually blocked off the areas we used to camp which were right on the banks of the river.  They had made a new loop road and within it were several tables and campfire rings.  We pulled into the middle and set up camp.

Lessons the boys learned:  

No leaving your stuff lying around or you owe the person that picks it up for you an ice cream.  I found a nice set of knives and there's a pillow in the back of my truck.  There are also two nice jackets in my back seat.  (I like any type of chocolate ice cream, fellers, whenever you want to claim them.)

Also do not bring airsoft guns and leave the pellets lying all over the place in piles.  It is not very easy to pick them up.  Also it is not wise to try to bury them.  Remember to "leave no trace".  Not very hard to figure out who left a mess with a trailer that has the troop number in plain sight for many miles.

Camp is mostly up

Mine and Quinn's sleeping area.  I brought my cot tent and he had his little backpacking tent.  There were lots of birds making crazy noises in the night and ducks quacking.  With that and the wind, Quinn woke up in the middle of the night a little panicky and I think he freaked out until he remembered he was in a little tent.  After I told him what kind of bird made each sound he relaxed and then didn't move a muscle until morning.

My wall tent and the scout trailer.  Aaron is the official scout trailer caretaker.

The Big Eddy is named this because of the slow current that hits the bend and then comes back around.  

Most of our scouts are on the bank over there

Aaron and his boys Josh and Alex.  I unfortunately couldn't fix Josh's pole.

Quinn.  Quinn had borrowed his pole to Zach who's tip had broken

Antonio and Chase and a few others.  It might be Andrew in the yellow and Kaleb.  The two adults in the white car are not ours

Andrew L. on top, Heber, Brad and Bowdy.  Bowdy was  determined and fished way after dark.

Antonio, Brad, Andrew L. and Quinn.  Looking North on the Teton

Looking east at the Teton Range.  I bet it got a lot of snow because we left just before a big storm

Heber and Bowdy

Quinn, Antonio, Brad, Andrew and Chase

We ate the usual hotdogs and chips for dinner and then the boys wanted to keep fishing.  Brad brought some nice cold soda pop and Aaron brought the chips.

When it got a little dark there were lots of fish jumping and just tantalizing the boys.  They were unsuccessful in hooking any but had a gagillion "bites" and "had him on but he got off" situations.  They put forth a lot of effort.  After dinner they went down for another go at it.  Chase and Bowdy kept fishing and never even came up for dinner.  I think they might have gotten a bun and a few chips when they finally came in.

The boys took Mike's truck down to the river to have some light so they could still fish.  Hard to tell who they all are.  I can tell for sure Carson, Kaleb and Chase  

Carson, Alex, Quinn and Bowdy

Antonio

Quinn and Chase

Zach and Antonio

Carson and Zach

Carson giving his friend Gavin a friendly push which unfortunately left Gavin in the river

Gavin climbing out of the river

Good nite

So when we went to bed there were a few kids in the back of Mike's truck sleeping.  Kaleb hates his picture taken while Carson loves his picture taken.  Gavin is next to Carson.  Zach was on the tailgate and not in the photo here.

The day dawn is breaking.  Quinn only woke me up a couple times in the night.  The wind had blown a lot and then there were a lot of noisy ducks and other birds.  We heard a few coyotes.

When I woke up there were around 8-9 in the back of Mike's truck or maybe 10.  I couldn't quite tell because they were all snuggled up and wound around each other like a bunch of snakes in a den.  The next few photos should illustrate that.  I took these photos around 6 am.

Antonio doesn't want any water bath right now and Chase is getting up and headed to fish some more.

These guys were dead.  I tickled Kiowa's nose for a few minutes and watched him pop himself in the nose.  He never woke up though.  That was some good entertainment

Isn't it cute how they share pillows?

Kaleb tucked up under his sleeping bag on top of the tool box.

"Kaleb look there's a cute girl right there"

Dang he got my picture again!  I wish I didn't like girls so much

He tucks back in again.

Sunrise.  Neat how the huge mass of clouds leave a small gap and  you can see the sun on the Tetons.

Heber, Quinn, Alex (The kids of the leaders all from the same primary class) and Aaron

We ate hashbrowns with some green chilies and lime provided by Andrew L. for breakfast.  I think he gets the award for the best dish on this campout.  We also ate eggs and sausage by Mike and Carson, with tortilla shells.  We got the camp packed up and ready to go before the big heavy rain clouds hit us.