Hike up Henderson Canyon (where we learn a lesson)

Yesterday which was May 30, 2015 a Saturday we took the 11 year old scouts on a hike up Henderson Canyon which is on the west side of our valley in the Big Hole mountain range.  Unfortunately I did not get a lot of great photos mainly because I forgot to pull out my camera except in one steep spot on the trail and then again on top of the mountain.  I need to remember to get good photos of the scouts doing the things they are doing so they can remember.

Our purpose this time was to fulfill a few of the requirements for 1st and 2nd class ranks.  Those included hiking with a map and compass at least 5 miles, doing an orientation course that covered about a mile, finding 10 different plants, estimating the height of objects without using a measuring device, and finding evidence of several types of animals in the forest.  We accomplished most of those requirements.

The task we did was to take the map and compass and figure out where we were on the map.  We chose a spring that we estimated to be about .2 miles away and set a course for it.  It was interesting in that all of us chose a different angle of travel.  We all figured out the correct angle to start so I don't know if it was lack of attention or malfunctioning compasses or we weren't quite starting from the right place on the map.  Anyway we eventually all got there and got bit a lot by mosquitoes.  The spring was actually a pipe running into some water troughs.

From the spring we headed due north on a trail and our course would be to head toward a mountain known as Horse Heaven.  It looked about 3-4 miles away by the map but if it turned out to be easy enough we would shoot for that.  If not then we would go at least 2.5 miles and turn around.  To make a long story short we found ourselves going the wrong way on the trail and decided to go across country to catch the right trail.  Later looking at the GPS I figured out that we were originally on the right trail and it would have eventually swung around to catch up to where we cut across.

After cutting across and re-finding the trail we hit a steep 2 track road which was pointing the right way.  The opposite direction was the main trail that looped back to the vehicles.  I pointed it out that that was the way to go once we came back.  I'm glad I pointed that out or they would have gone back the hard way (as little did I know I wouldn't be with them).

The only problem with the new trail was that it was really steep.  It looked like mostly motorcycles and 4-wheelers went that way.  We started up it.  We didn't get far and I found I was having a hard time.  I kept getting slower and slower and my head started hurting, then my chest was burning.  I've been in a lot of high altitude places but never experienced this before.  I assumed it was from being in not so good shape at first but then I was really really getting slow.  I could tell that the boys hanging back with me (Chase, Zach and Kiowa) were getting impatient.   Chase and Zach started going up to catch up with Tom and Andrew and Dalton.  I sat down and Kiowa sat with me.  We talked for a minute but I couldn't really stand up.  I felt a little dizzy and then thought "Oh no not that thing that put me in the hospital again."  (I had spent a week in the hospital last year which started out as just feeling a little dizzy similar to what I was experiencing now).  I kept sitting hoping it would go away as I didn't have my pills to combat it.  Kiowa then said he was going to go up.  I said ok and to tell them I was feeling sick but should be up in a bit.  He started up and then as I was looking at my GPS I noticed I was sitting right next to another trail that sidelined up and would eventually join into the trail the rest were on.  It looked way less steep but about 150 yards longer.  I stood up and yelled up to Kiowa that I would take this trail and meet them up there and to tell them that I would be there.

I don't think Kiowa understood me well after talking about it later.  I think he thought I said I was going down.  Anyway as I started walking along the new trail my head cleared and suddenly I had energy.  I hoofed it across and then climbed the little way to the top and nobody was there.  I thought maybe they had gone on.  The only problem was there were two trails and I couldn't tell which way they would have gone.  The ground was hard and I couldn't see any tracks.  I thought I would just sit, eat my lunch and wait for them to come back.  I blew my bugle so they would know I was up there.  I heard some voices up the trail and thought "good they heard me".  (I think the wind was blowing too strong as nobody heard the bugle I learned later.)(It was also close to the Crest trail and I could have heard some other hikers.)

I waited and I waited.  I walked around.  I kicked over some rocks and found a little box like a geocache or something.  I threw the remainder of my sandwich at a squirrel.  Took pictures.  Nobody came.  I hoped that they were not lost up there as it had been about 45 minutes.  I looked for tracks up and down the trail they had come but couldn't find any coming or going.  The GPS was not wrong.  I was in the right place as it positions you with the map.  I could see the exact trail I was sitting on, the path that the GPS had tracked me on and they lined up.  I could also see the intersection where I left and that it was only 3-400 yards down the main trail.  Finally I decided to go down, hoping and praying that they had just gone on down and I had heard somebody else on top.  All the way down I looked for tracks and couldn't even find a scuff, including where I had left the trail.  In other words the ground was really hard.

It was a nice easy walk down and took less than 30 minutes to get to the truck.  Sure enough they were all down there bored as heck, building fires out of the papers and maps we were learning on.  I was very relieved to find them waiting there but also a little embarrassed as I knew it would be taken that I had gotten lost.  It was really a matter of communication.  In reality the fault is mine regardless of Kiowa's understanding of what I did or did not do.  You should never take a turn on a trail without fully communicating where you are going to go.  I knew where I was but they didn't know where I was and I didn't know they had gone down.  Its kind of a funny story.  I hope we can all learn from this adventure.

Otherwise enjoy the photos!

Chase and Zach heading up as I was sitting.  

The Teton Range

Kiowa after he left me.  This is about where I yelled up to him so you can see at that distance he probably really didn't hear me.  I must have been really sick because he's a long ways up there and Chase and Zach had dissappeared over the ridge.  The rest may have been sitting on top at this time.

I did enjoy an awesome view.  You can see the point of the Grand left of center and to the far left is Mt. Moran

Craggy windblown trees.

Crazy cloud formations.  You can appreciate the steepness here.

Just some mahogany trees

The map we used

The view at the top

Indian paintbrush

The blue line is my GPS showing our course of travel.  The hike started at the green pin.  We went to the right as a group.  The upper loop that looks like a jump rope is our crosscountry adventure.  The line connecting that and the upper triangle is the steep hill.  The lower part of the triangle heading left is where I left the trail.  We should have connected at the upper point of the triangle.  I came down the right side of the triangle which is where they would have gone up.  After going back down the steep hill the loop to the left is the way we went back down and to the truck which was not far from the green pin.

This is the upper part of the triangle where we should all have met up.  Notice all my wanderings while I waited.  Kinda funny.

Fly Fishing Campout at Teton Valley Lodge May 8 and 9, 2015

Teton Valley Lodge (www.tetonvalleylodge.com) hosted our whole district this last weekend at their fishing pond just south of the lodge.  The owners are Matt and Brian Berry, a couple of great guys.  They set it up so the boys could earn their fly fishing and fishing merit badges.  The plan was to arrive in the evening and set up camp and then the next morning have stations where the scouts could rotate through and learn different aspects of fly fishing.

I set it up to meet at my house at 4:00 pm on Friday.  Unfortunately, Dalton and Andrew did not come.  Chase met me at my house and a little later Carson with his dad, Mike and brother Logan came.  Zach had a family event and would come up later.  As I was gathering up stuff it was raining a little and I hoped it wasn't going to rain a lot later, like the clouds were saying.  I wrapped stuff up in a tarp and away we went.  Mike had to get something in town so he went to Victor and said we would meet him at the pond. 

Me and Chase showed up to the Berry's pond only to find lots more rain and gooey sticky mud in almost a boggy field of grass.  The only other scout troop that was there was the cranky scout master's group (see my notes in the Klondike Derby blog).  He was parked about 30 feet off the lip off the road and into the field.  The problem with that position was that I had to angle off the lip to go around him and because of that I hit a bunch of major goo and almost slid into him.  Luckily I got it in 4 wheel in time and punched it into reverse.  Chase was glad we were in a Chevy.  (Haha Nick.) After I got back up on the road the cranky scoutmaster came out and started calling me Bryan and asked where they should set up camp.  I told him anywhere out there and pointed to the field.  Not sure why he was calling me Bryan except maybe he thought I was Brian Berry.

Me and Chase pulled out on the field and on the opposite side of Mr. Crankypants.  I was so tired of him constantly chewing out his scouts at the Klondike that I didn't want to be anywhere near him. Unfortunately, because we were the only troops there for about a half hour I had to listen to him boss his boys around.  Once other troops showed up and filled in the gaps I didn't hear him anymore.

Chase is such a fine young man.  We had that wall tent up before the regular scout troop showed up.  I couldn't have had a better helper.  Mike and Carson were there by then and got their tent up.  Once the regular scout troop under Ben showed up we got camp set up for real.  We got a canopy up next to the trailer and kept out of the rain until it let up.  Then we got a fire going and set up the cooking gear.  Those that came with Ben were Scott another leader, Ben, Kaleb, Trevon, Kyle and Evan (the twins), and Jaron.  Ben brought his youngest son Kason as well.  The boys went off fishing and were having a good time.  

After awhile Kason, (a 7 year old) who had been down by the pond, came up and asked me if I would like to go fishing with him.  I said sure and to let me get my pole.  He told me he knew of a really good spot and that you could see the fish in the water.  I went down there with him to his special spot and unfortunately there were a lot of boys with sticks trying to hit the fish.  He fished there for a minute and then I said I bet we would have more luck if went went over a little ways.  Sure enough as soon as we got over a little ways Kason spotted a fin sticking out of the water.  He said "There's a fish!".  I told him to just cast over it and then reel the worm toward it.  Lo and behold he cast it just right and nailed the fish.  He was super excited and was walking back really fast at the same time reeling really fast.  The fish shot out of the pond like a torpedo.  It came off the hook mid air and landed about 20 feet from the bank.  Pretty funny.  But he was a proud young man.  Later after he had cooked his fish he was going around and offering it to everybody.  The boys and I ate it all up.

We had a quick meeting with all the scouts and the leaders.  We talked about roses and thorns in our lives and were challenged to think how to make thorns into roses.

Beautiful sunset

We had a nice evening as the rain stopped, and there was a pretty sunset.  For dinner we roasted hot dogs and ate chips.  The older boys had stew and tinfoil dinners.  After dinner the boys went fishing and I got the wall tent situated.  The fire was nice and warm.  Logan wanted to tend it so I let him.  I spread the tarp out and then we set up the leader tent.  Zach and Chase both caught a big fish that night.  Kason and Zach had put their fish in tinfoil in the fire.  Chase put his to cook in a pan on some coals by the fire and went off fishing again.  Later he came back and wanted to eat it.  By then it was fully dark.  He asked me how do you know if its done?  I said if the skin comes off easy.  He pulled the skin off and then pulled a piece of meat and stuck it in his mouth.  "It's kinda chewy" he said.  I said, "Well it had been in the pan cooking for a long time, maybe we overcooked it."  He gets another bite.  "Yeah its chewy".  I say "Lemme look at it".  I pull out the light on my phone and shine it on the fish in his hands.  Blaring at me was a pink, slimy, raw, bony huge hunk of fish!  It was chewy because it hadn't cooked a  bit.  Gahhhyuck!  The coals the fish was on were long dead.  Later I asked him if it tasted any different.  He said "No it was just chewy".  That story just earned him the nickname. "ChewyChase".  We first started calling him SushiChase but it doesn't have the ring that Chewy Chase does.

Zach's fish

Later, and this was a lot later, probably around 11 pm.  Chase comes running into camp with his friend.  "I just caught the biggest fish ever!".  Sure enough him and his friend had a huge fish suspended between two sticks while each was holding one stick.  It looked like a monster up next to the boys.  I measured it to be 21 inches.  I asked him if he caught it with his pole.  He said, "No I just knocked it out with a stick and pulled it up on the bank."  That would explain the missing eye.

I caught the biggest fish ever!!

We got everybody to bed and situated finally about midnite.  About 5:45 am as I was dead asleep I dreamed that somebody was stuck in the mud.  The twins' mom was talking to Ben through the tent asking for help.  She had to get them as they had some event to go to but had gotten stuck in the muddy goop in the process.  I halfway thought about going out to help but Ben, Scott and I believe Mike were out there.  I figured they were big enough boys to take care of the problem so I tried to sleep a little longer.  Sorry if that makes anybody mad.  Unfortunately I couldn't and so gave up later and came out.  By then the stuck car was long gone though.

We got through a good breakfast of hash browns, sausage and egg breakfast burrito and pancakes.  We quickly put our camp away to be ready for the classes at 9 am.  We were done in plenty of time so the boys got to fish more.  A little after 9 we gathered with all the scouts again and they lined us out into stations.  As there were six troops and six stations, we got to stay with our own troop.  We started out with a Fish and Game officer and he taught the boys how to read the rules and regulations and how to know what was legal and not legal.  It was a very good exercise.  Now they should always know how to figure out the laws and rules for each body of water they fish.  

Mikes tent with another troop in the background

Fish and Game guy handing out rules and regs

Station two was casting with a fly rod.  They lined out behind a line of tape and each were given a fly rod to practice with.  They were taught how to cast and how to let line out.  After practicing for awhile the guides measured how far each boy could cast.  We had some good casters.

Station three was learning how to tie an artificial fly.  They tied a zebra midge.  This was done up at the lodge in their shop at some tables the guides had set up.

(From now on I'll leave all the photos til the end)

Station four was actually trying to catch a fish with a fly.  The boys lined up along the edge of the pond and tried their luck at casting the fly.  Within minutes Kaleb was excitingly reeling in a fish.  Strangely enough he was backing up and reeling as fast as he could like his brother Kason did the night before.  It was hilarious.  I was telling him to slow down.  The fish popped up on the bank and fortunately it didn't come out like a torpedo but the pole snapped right after the fish landed.  I looked at the break and fortunately it wasn't Kaleb's fault as there was a big ding where the pole had snapped.  Dings like that usually happen when rods bang together when people aren't watching where they are casting.  And then when you get some tension on the pole it snaps.  I didn't see anybody in our group do that so it must have been one of the previous groups.  That fish had a ton of eggs.  Trevon hooked a nice fish but it got off right about when it got to the bank.  He was quite bummed.  Carson caught a nice fish as well and was able to land it just fine.  I'm not sure if any of the other boys caught one at that station.  They were a little frustrated trying to cast the fly as the guides had tied on some heavy wet flies.  I hate casting those and they make the cast awful clunky so I know what the boys were going through.

Station five was learning fishing lots.  They learned two of the most important in fly fishing.  The first was the improved clinch knot which is used to attach the fly to the tippet.  The other was the surgeon's knot which attaches two pieces of line together.  This is a useful knot for attaching slightly different sized lines together, such as when you are building your leader.  Personally, I prefer the blood knot because I think it goes through the guides better, but the surgeon's knot is definitely easier to tie.

Station six was first aid.  So how do you perform first aid on  somebody who has a fish hook in the eye?  You cut out a hole in a paper cup, stick it over the eye and then tape it so the eye and the object cannot move.  You also tape the other eye because if the other eye is looking around, the injured eye moves with it and could cause lots of damage.  Immobilize both eyes and get them to the emergency room.  They also learned how to use an epi-pen in case of bee stings or other anaphylactic type reactions.  He went over some other outdoor case scenarios for which first aid would be required.  

After station six, we said goodbye and drove home.  A great thanks to the Berry's for a well thought out event.  A great thanks to the guides and all those who helped make it great.  Teton Valley Lodge has always been a great support for scouting.  All the more reason to fish with them.  I also appreciate Mike who never fails to come on a campout and is very helpful.  Thanks to Ben and Scott who are excellent Boy Scout leaders. 

Please enjoy the pictures and feel free to make comments.  I hope all the boys and their families and leaders can use these to keep the memories alive.  I went on countless scout camping trips as a youth, leader and staff at a major Scout Camp.  I barely took a few photos and wrote nothing down. I wish I had done something like this as the memories slowly fade.

Sunset after about 5 minutes

Toasty fire and the chewy fish to the right of the fire in a pot on some coals.  You can kinda see why it was raw.

Getting situated

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I love the look on all their faces, especially "ChewyChase"

Joking around the campfire

Who will eat this eyeball?

Station 1, Fish and Game rules and regs

Station 2, Fly rod casting

Station 3, tying flies

Station 4, Casting for actual fish

Kaleb after he stopped backing up.  Look at that nice bend in the rod.

Beautiful pond

A guide shows him how to hold the fish while photographing his beauty.

Carson proudly displays his rainbow.

All lined up on the bank

A guide showing how its done

Trevon has one on!

Thats as close as it got.  It dropped off right after I snapped the photo

Pretty picture with a fly line on the right.

Station 5, Tying fishing knots

Kaleb proudly displays his fish.  Notice how the belly has shrunk a little after losing some eggs.  It was a very fat egg filled momma

Clouds to the east

Station 6, First Aid