Day 1. The Kayaks Launch across Palisades

7 O'clock at the church parking lot was not that early, even though some complained.  We all showed up early Monday July 18 with the kayaks and bright expectations.  (See my last few blogs for the building of the kayaks)

Packing up and getting ready for this trip was the usual hardness of nothing going right, all the way up until you leave.  I had worked hard on getting the boat ready only to find that it was leaking power steering fluid.  I guess that is what you get when you let a boat sit for 4 years without using it.  I frantically worked on figuring it out and fixing it up until the last possible moment that I could.  I did not want to ask Ben to use his boat even though he had offered it.  I figured out all the leaks and then when I was trying to bleed the air out of the power steering lines the engine starting making quite the squeaking and howling sounds.  I gave up and asked Ben.

Gabren needed a ride so I grabbed him that "early" Monday morning, and his kayak, and made sure we got his stuff and a fishing pole.  It was a good thing for Mike later that I got that particular pole with that particular Rapala, because that is the one he was using when he caught that nice brown.  I was so good at getting all of Gabren's stuff that I forgot his kayak seat, even though I had stepped over it and made a mental note not to forget it.  We showed up at the parking lot and then somebody asked Gabren if he was going to sit on those rough boards.  Dang!  So I ran back and got the seat as I couldn't imagine having to sit my rear end on a sharp ridge of a stick for a couple miles of paddling.   At least it got me out of having to help with loading all the boys' stuff and kayaks.  Haha.  Good thing we have good help with the other leaders and parents.

We said a prayer in the parking lot and off we went.  Ben had his boat, Aaron had  his boat, I had my boatless truck, Mike had a dump truck full of kayaks, Andrew had the scout trailer and Jeff was kind enough to bring up the rear to pick up all the pieces.  The boys were scattered in all the vehicles and we had plenty of room.  I failed to get a photo of the dump truck with all the kayaks, so if anybody would like to donate one feel free.

We got to Palisades around 8:30 am and loaded the two motorboats with all the personal gear as well as necessities from the trailer.  We were not able to get all the the stuff into the boats and determined that we would have to come back after camp was set up for the rest.

And we are off!

We lined up the kayaks in the water by the dock.  Next we zipped and tightened life vests and made sure that they all fit properly.  After a brief lecture they got in and we pushed them off.  It was a little awkward as they were not pros yet, and I immediately dumped Beau into the water while helping him in.  He had a slightly narrower kayak than the rest and down he went because I wasn't paying attention.  Only one casualty so far, but he got in like the eager beaver he is and I pushed him off.  The wind was blowing so hard in our faces that pretty soon they were all back on the bank and couldn't get away because there was no room for them to paddle.  It was a little comical as we shoved them back out again.  I didn't get all that wet as I was wearing my wader boots.

The wind kept pushing them into shore

Getting away from the shore a little more

Kaleb in the Chicago Bulls kayak, Beau in the red, Andrew in the gray, Tucker in the black, Gabren in the blue, Josh in the green and  I'm pretty sure its Chase and the Sushi Searcher on the right

Zach in his red, white and blue sinker

Tucker, Dalton, Beau and Josh's green kayak

Carson and Chase

Kiowa in an olive green kayak, Carson in his majestic scenery painted kayak and Chase in the Sushi Searcher which is a shark with teeth and nearsighted eyes.

Dalton with his  light blue and black kayak

Gabren in the blue, Tucker in the black kayak

Josh in the green and Beau in the red

Andrew in a gray kayak

Kaleb's nice Chicago Bulls Kayak with Zach coming in to the right

I got in Aaron's boat along with Mike and the three of us idled out into the lake to stay with the kayaks.  It took the boys a few minutes to get the hang of paddling and finally they started beating the wind and slowly, two by two's they started making headway.   One of the lectures before we started was to use the buddy system and to not get more than 10 feet from your buddy.  For the most part that happened.  Ben had himself, Andrew and his youngest son Kason with him in his boat as you can see in the pictures below.  Some of these photos are out of order so if you don't quite get the sequence of things its ok.

Kason, Andrew and Ben overwatching the front.  Notice all the smoke from the newly created forest fire in Bondurant.

They are starting to stretch out a little and the wind is a little calmer.  What a gorgeous sight.  It is quite rewarding to see these boys and their little homemade kayaks going across this big reservoir

Using the buddy system.  Zach is slowing down because of the water leak and Chase is staying with him

It took quite awhile before we were away from the bank but once they were, they strung out for a few hundred yards.  The older boys got quite far ahead while Chase and Zach labored with the sinking kayak

We noticed as the boys started lining out that Zach was getting a little behind.  He said he was working really hard and that water was coming in his boat. We didn't think much of it and then I asked how much was in it and he held up his fingers indicating about 3 inches.  I found a gatorade bottle and cut the top off.  I threw it to him and said use this to bail.  He said "What?".  I said "Bail!"  So he jumped out....  Haha he didn't know that bailing was also to fling water out of the boat with a bucket or something.  I said "why did you jump out?"  He said "You told me to bail!"  One of the funnier moments along the way.

We pulled up alongside his kayak and Aaron and Mike worked out a system to empty the kayak while I held the paddle.  Chase was his buddy and had paddled ahead unaware of what had  happened.  We yelled at him to come back and then Zach got back in and off he went.  About another couple hundred yards or so he started lowering in the water again.  So we had to repeat the process about 6-7 times before we got to our camp spot.  Chase did good keeping with his buddy even though the rest of the gang were way ahead.

Zach in wonderment about what to do now.  This is the first time he sunk and when he bailed out.  That was a good lesson in bailing.  Also a good lesson in not rocking it around and filling it up with even more water.

I can get back in this thing.  Wait a minute, no I can't

Chase the ever present buddy gets some entertainment from Zach and his plight

Smile Zach!  I'm sending this to your mom.  But only after we are done so she doesn't worry.  I think the worse thing that happened with Zach in the water is he probably shriveled like a prune from being wet so long

Moving along nicely

Josh in the bright green one and Gabren in the bright blue one

Its hard to identify them here

I think its Kaleb, Tucker, Kiowa, Josh and Gabren

Ben's boat with Andrew and Kason are up in front circling toward the leading kayaks

Zach getting some distance before his next sinkage

Go Zach!  Move while you're high in the water.

The three 11 year old scouts, Josh, Beau and Gabren

When Zach's kayak is empty he gets way ahead of Chase in the Sushi Searcher.  When his boat gets full Chase gets way ahead of him.  And so we yo-yo'd across the lake like that.  

Aaron and Mike will now demonstrate in a few moves how to empty Zach's kayak.

First Aaron lifts his end

Then Mike lifts his end and the water is gone.  Zach looks a little too giggly don't you think?

The Sushi Searcher waits patiently for his buddy Zachary.

Just a nice view

Josh, Gabren and Beau

It had to be a threesome as we were odd in number.  These boys did great

Looks relaxing don't it?  Uh oh, Zach's back end is dipping again.

Love the placement of the jaws on the Sushi Searcher.  It looked just like a shark.

Gabren is so dang excited and Beau is just being Beau

Josh starting to kick back

Bro. Roberts I am so shy, please don't take my picture

Camp is just around that bend to the right

Such a great day

These are two golden eagles that were fighting over a fish.  They actually dropped the fish but I wasn't quick enough with the camera to catch the action

Almost there Chase

The older boys and Ben and Andrew at the dock where we are going to camp

Beau almost there.

As we hit the last stretch, Mike was using Gabren's pole with the Rapala and hooked into a nice brown.  At first he thought it was a sucker but to our surprise it turned out to be a really nice fish.

Chase's dinner.  Just don't let him bite into it before its cooked.

Ben and Andrew found the floating dock on the bank near the spot we wanted, so we stopped there and dumped out the gear.  While I, with the boys, started arranging and laying out the camp the boats went back and got the rest of the stuff.  We put up the canopy and tents, made a kitchen area and got all situated.  We ate lunch and had a meeting where  we mostly figured out what merit badges we wanted to do and then also rearranged the leadership.  Dalton was voted Patrol Leader and Carson was Assistant Patrol Leader.  Chase was made the Senior Patrol Leader because I think down the road we are going to do two patrols.  We also assigned Chaplain's Aide, Scribe, Historian and Librarian.
We then started working on four different merit badges for the next couple of hours.  I did Environmental Science while Andrew and Aaron did Nature.  Then we switched and I did photography while the other two did camping, fishing or cooking.  I can't remember for some reason what the 4th merit badge was but I think I had most or all of them in photography so Andrew and Aaron didn't have much to do.  Aaron spent most of the time chomping on the bit to get out into the water.  It was a good thing he was because we  were able to do motorboating and watersports merit badges.

Starting to arrange stuff while the others take the boats to get the rest of the gear.

The next bunch of photos are ones that we took while learning principles of photography for the  Photography merit badge.  They are taken by a few different boys and I can't remember which.

Carson poses while I show them depth of field.  Just means that the subject is in focus with a blurry background.

Tucker poses while I show them overexposure

Tucker is now correctly exposed

Somebody's photo of wildlife

Somebody's landscape photo

Somebody's photo of people

Somebody's photo of an object taken with two different perspectives above and below

Gabren runs for somebody to get an action shot

Aaron looks thrilled to pose for this one

Andrew demonstrating leading lines

The tents to the north

Just a random photo looks like

Aaron's boat out in the water.  Ben's boat is still parked.  This is just before we went out and played.

Getting ready to go out in the boat

Not sure what they want with me here.

Not sure who's in the water

Somebody uses the zoom feature on a point and shoot.   You can tell its Gabren, Zach and Chase with Aaron.  It looks like Josh in the water so overall not a bad photo for a point and shoot camera.  Incidentally, these 4 boys were constantly with Aaron working on the watersports merit badge.

Aaron, Beau and Chase

That looks so good and relaxing don't it?

Nice photo

It looks like Beau is trying to hear the conversation.   What a little sneaker.  No actually they had these little orange nets that they kept catching minnows with.  Unfortunately I did not get a photo with us out on the water that night.  I wish I would have had some of them getting flung around in the tube.

This is the last of the photography merit badge photos I believe.

After the merit badges we hopped in the boats and played in the water.  The boys took turns in the tube and I had a few good runs before losing anybody.   I had a few boys on the 3 man tube behind me with Ben's boat and I popped Dalton clear up out of the tube and into the water.  I think the other two were Kiowa and Tucker.  I don't think they wanted to ride the tube again so we went back.  The boys with Aaron were interested in doing the watersports merit badge and they started on it.

There was a big dang brown that put his nose on my fly and then never came back

Tucker caught this just right.  I noticed him watching me cast and then he says "do you have a camera?"  I said in my pocket is a  point and shoot.  He said "just keep doing what you are doing".  And lo and  behold he comes up with probably the  best photo of the trip.  It helps that I am in it as well.  haha

Andrew

Tucker and Andrew fishing beside me during the fantastic sunset

The sunset without me in it

Getting better

We finish fishing and all come in.  Notice the sun is looking even better.  You can still see Tucker way back in the orange where we were taking pictures of the sunset.

The boys who were supposed to cook got on it and we had a nice meal of (you guessed it) hot dogs.  We didn't have much of  a campfire, other than just to relax and reflect on the day.  It was good to get to bed and have  a nice rest.  The moon came up big and beautiful as we sat around the campfire.  I got my 50D camera and put on a long lens and was able to get some nice shots.

It was such a nice moonrise

These boys, learned a lot that day, even though they probably don't think they did.  They struggled a little but soon got the hang of it and were doing good.  There is a lot to be said about just getting out and doing stuff. They all got a little stronger and more confident in themselves.  It was good to be away from  home and their mothers so they had to take care of themselves.  If they had not gone to scout camp, I bet a lot of them wouldn't have done the equivalent at home for the entire summer.  Scout camp away from a standardized Scout Camp takes a lot more planning and getting ready.  When  you show up at a regular scout camp all you have to do is have your gear and you set up a tent.  They bring the food to  you, and although you still have to have the boys take turns cooking it, they really have not done much with the planning and organizing of it.  So I believe this was great.


I have to reflect a little on my recent trip to Woodbadge.  I made my tickets(goals) with the idea to completely change the way we have run things.  The Boy Scout program was designed for the boys and to teach the boys to be leaders and be responsible.  Doing it the way I have done it in the past is not as effective.  I have been the main leader, planner, quartermaster and historian.  The goal is to have a boy-led troop where they plan and carry it out.  In our case, the patrol leader has mostly assigned prayers and not much else.  It is going to take a long time for me to accomplish these goals I  have set, and I have been a little frustrated knowing that some of the other Woodbadgers have already completed their tickets and have their beads.  Despite this, I hope not to rush it as I need to completely change my way of thinking in order to do it right.  Sometimes change is like trying to turn an oil tanker with a fork for a rudder.  I will not verify with my Patrol Guide until I feel I have satisfied my goals and the change is complete.

Why have a scoutmaster then?  It is to train the boys to be our replacements.  The scoutmaster needs to be there for guidance, encouragement, training and most of all to give rides and provide treats.  I am proud of these boys.  They are awesome.  I am a little unsure if they will take to the idea of the boy-led troop but we shall find out in the next couple of months.  I would also encourage the boys to attend Cedar Badge as it will also teach them many leadership skills.

I crawled into my tent that night and it was so comfortable.  It was not too cold and not to hot.  I'm sure everybody slept well as we had worked hard and played hard.  Thanks also to Andrew, Aaron, Mike and Ben for all they do.

The boys who came were (this is not in alphabetical or any type of order):  Kaleb, Tucker, Dalton, Chase, Carson, Kiowa, Andrew, Zach, Beau, Josh and Gabren.  Aaron Kearsley, Andrew Leavitt and myself also stayed the entire week.  We had several guests the whole trip.  Ben Kearsley stayed with us the first night making sure we got everything together.  Tuesday night the Bishopric came up including Bishop Todd Dustin, Ben Kearsley, Steve Craw, Scott Stanger and Brent Douglass.  Jeff Jeppesen came up that night as well and then him and Ben left the next morning early because they were going on the high adventure with the older boys the next day.  The rest of the bishopric left that night.  Wednesday night Brad Christopherson came up and set up his tent and stayed the rest of the time.  On Friday Mike Walters came back up and spent the night so that we could get packed up and out of there at a decent time Saturday morning.  Many thanks to the men and families that helped us.  There were many times that somebody did something to  help us just at the right time.  Looking back I realize the timing of it and that I definitely saw the hand of God in all this.

Note:  I chose to do an entire blog on the first day just because it was so packed.  I will try and condense more for the next days but I am not sure how it will roll out.  I also apologize for taking so long to get this published.  It is a very busy summer, but I won't let you down with the next stories.  There are some really funny things and fun adventures to come.