Santa Cruz Island Adventure

Our second annual Island Adventure was sweet and satisfying. After a boat ride to the Island/National Park, on which we got to see some dolphins up close and personal, we were reminded why Troop 104 wins the Spirit Stick every year when we pitched in to help with the unloading of our lovely boat while the other Boy Scout Troop that shared the boat with us on the ride over merely waited around for their gear and then left, without pitching in to help at all. feeling a swell of pride because we knew we had done the right and awesome thing, we headed to camp after a brief orientation with one of the resident rangers. After setting up camp, we headed back down to the beach to relax in the surf, skip rocks, and visit the small population of crabs that lived on the rocks by the ocean. When we felt that we had gotten our fill of the sea, we returned to camp, were we prepared for a small hike to potato harbor, where we got to see some breathtaking views from sea cliffs.



The next day, we awoke to a campsite filled to with morning fog. As we began our training hike for the 50 mile backpacking trip this summer, we hiked up out of the morning fog and into a cloud, in which we stayed for the rest of the hike. Seven miles later, we found ourselves at Smuggler's Cove (because every Island has a Smuggler's Cove), were we took a break and threw rocks and had a caber tossing competition. As we began our hike back, the clouds broke and the sun took particular joy in reminding us that it is hot. Once we returned to Scorpion Bay, where the boat had left us the day before, those who needed to return to camp to pack up did so, and together we hauled our gear down to the pier and onto the boat that arrived shortly after. During the boat ride back, we spent a considerable amount of time on the bow, despite the fact that with wind-chill, it was about 40 degrees there. Boys Scouts care not for such trivial things.



--Jonathan R, Troop 104 Historian

Troop 104 Chumash Trail 10-Mile Hike

On the 10 mile hike today, much fun was had. We started our ascent before 8:00 AM, and even though the sun was not up, we could already feel the day heating up. On the ridge, there was no shade, but a nice breeze that kept us cool as we hiked. There were many rocks lining the road with fossilized seashells in them from when the ocean was higher and the mountains were lower, and many boys went home with fossils. After an early lunch break in the trees, we descended down the second half of the trail (it was a loop) and past some abandoned oil derriks before ending up in sunny, happy suburbia, from where we hiked another mile before returning to the bliss of air conditioned cars. It was a hot hike. It was a good hike. Even the young ones form whom this was their first every hike with the troop, it was an enjoyable experience.

Camp Emerald Bay 2009 - Day 4

At 5:30, we crawled out of our sleeping bags and began to pack up. Pots from dinner were put back on backpacks and our gear was retaped to our bikes. When our guides were ready to go, we rode out of camp and up the Hill of Death one last time. As we rode we ascended through the morning fog, and i almost missed as the rest of our group was cut off by a small family of Buffalo crossing the road.



When we reached the top, we were very much in a cloud, and the group soon became seperated by into two groups; the first was made up of good/fast bikers and people without brakes and the second was all of the cautious riders, people with bad bikes, and people who don't bike very often. When the forward group reached the gate, we stopped for our friends we had left behind. Nothing is quite as cool as watching scouts suddenly appear out of a cloud doing 20 miles an hour. After we regrouped at the gate, it was deided that we would only meet again at the bottom of the Hill of Death. It was at this point when we realized why it is called the "Hill of Death". It did not recieve the name for the arduous ride up the hill, but thr speedy ride downhill. The road is either washboard, or sand, and therefore not a very reliable surface to bike on at 28 miles an hour. At one curve, i was behind Scott A., Matt G. and Keith K., when all of a sudden I hear the squeek of breaks and see a cloud of dust which blocks everything from view (Matt G. slammed his breaks and the last i saw of him, he was sliding into the dust sideways). I slammed my breaks and as the dust settled i saw Keith K. Perched on the edge of the road, and the nearly sheer drop on the other side. We then proceeded down the hill with more caution. As we neared Two Harbors, we saw what appeared to be pavement, and we let our brakes go and sped down the last 300 feet for what was undoubtably safe, dependable, solid ground. I was very thankful for the neckercheif and sunglasses i wore protecting my face, because what we had assumed was concrete turned out to be a wet substance which had been put on the dirt roads of Two Harbors. We were sprayed with tiny specks of mud, and when we reached the bottom, we assessed the damages...



It turned out that Two Harbors is not allowed to have real asphalt, so they instead spray a special biodegradable asphalt on their dirt roads every week, and they had sprayed it that morning. We had to get the mysterious mud off of everything that wasn't clothes or skin before it dried or it would never come off. When that episode was over, we headed into the local resturaunt for a heavenly real breakfast. Some ordered the country fried steak, others ordered pancakes or biscuits and gravy, but i purchased a very delicious breakfast burrito. Real food was much appreciated. Too soon, we were back on the road, headed for Emerald Bay. The ride was pretty uneventful, except for the last 3 miles. Just two valleys away from Emerald Bay, the forward group was cruising just fine, when all of a sudden I heard a snapping sound followed by the sound of something scraping on the ground. I turned around and quickly hit my brakes, because all i saw was a dust cloud with Matt G.'s seatless bike and Matt's left leg sticking out of it.

The rest of the group screeched to a halt as we helped Matt up, and together we cleaned out the lovely collection of gashes on his right knee and bandaged it up. First with gauze, then an band-aid, then pre-wrap, then duct tape to hold it all together.



What happened next is something i will tell my grandkids about. As Kelsey began to tell the group that we would have to wait until the people from camp with a new bike or just walk in as a group, i walked my intact bike over to Matt (which was, Ironicaly, the perfect size for him), picked up tiny, Matt's seatless bike, and told Kelsey that that her solution wouldn't be neessary. The crew leader gave the customary shout "is anybody not ready?" and when nobody reponded, we began to roll. The four people who lead the way back to camp were Scott A. (the boy who bikes so much he needs physical therapy for his back), Keith K. (who was training for a triathalon taking place the day after he got back from camp), Matt G. (who was missing skin), and myself (on a broken bike). I hate to boast, but it set my record for the most awesome I have seen a person do for the whole summer (Matt even fell twice on the way back to camp).

After we dropped off our bikes (the head of the bike repair shop gave me a nsaty look when i rolled in without a seat), some people went to the showers while other people decided to wait after the snorkeling trip that would come later that day.

Lunch was peanut butter and jely sandwiches, and when we left for the snorkeling trip, Matt and another scout stayed behind to wait for the doctor so Matt could get some proper medical attention. For our snorkeling trip, we loaded our gear into 1 person kyaks and headed out for Indian Rock, an awesome looking, jagged rock where the birds like to go to use the bathroom. When we got to indian rock, we reached down into the water and pullout pieces of seaweed, which we tied our kyaks to so that they wouldn't float away (this also scored amazingly high on the awesome meter). There wasn't much to see in terms of snorkeling, just a few Ghirabaldis and lots of kelp.

Afterwards, we paddled to a nearby beach, where some people took naps while others built sand castles or flipped each other's kayaks out on the water. After an hour, went back to camp and got cracking on dinner, chilli and mac and chese. I spent that night on the floor instead of in the bed that came with the tent, and it was much more comfy.

Camp Emerald Bay 2009 - Day 3

I'm not sure if i covered this in the last entry, but before we went to sleep, we had to decide on a time to wake up. We had to be back by 8:30 AM because we had taken lots of canoes (there were alot of Rugged E Scouts). The trip had been somewhere between two and a half and three hours long (including stops to find out where we are going and a little trip through a cave). Therefore, we decided that a lack of sleep would be better than dealing with an angry camp cordinator, and awoke at 4:30 in the morning and began packing.

The beach was pitch black, the only light came from the mainland. The one scout we had trusted (he was the only one with an alarm on his watch) began to wake everyone else up, and the people he awoke began to wake up others. Soon, the beach was alive with grumbling scouts and the sound of sleeping bags being packed into their stuffsacks. While other scouts searched for their flashlights, I couldn't seem to find mine in the backpack i had packed it in the day before. I gave the area around me a good search, and when i didn't find it, i decided i had left it in camp and headed to breakfast.

We had left our food on a different part of the beach than where we were. It was on the other side of a collection of considerably sized rocks and boulders that didn't seem to frightening by day, but where certainly a problem in the dark when the only light i had was that from the screen of my camera, and the occasional bit of light from scouts trying to "help" me with their flashlights (my poor nightvision). Breakfast was a Chewy Granola Bar Bar (TM) and some yogurt with granola mixed in. The sky began to light up just as we finished bringing the leftover food over the frightening collection of rocks and boulders, and after we loaded up all of the food and personal gear into the canoes, we carried them out into the water and jumped in.

Today, I had decided to switch places with Mick, so i got to paddle and contribute to the speed of the canoe instead of steering. And we paddled. And we paddled fast. And as we paddled, we sang. We sang a rousing "Hotel California", so good that on of our guides, Daniel, began to paddle along beside us and sing along. The water wasn' t as choppy as the day before, and we flew back to camp.



At camp, we paddled the boats up close to the shore, jumped out, and while one person held each boat (for us, Matt G.), the rest of us ran up to the shore and put out all of our life jackets in a line to protect the boats from rocks (called a PFD line). After lifting the canoes from the water and brining them up onto the PFD lines, we unloaded all of our gear and worked together to picked up each boat , flipped it, and put it on the rack. shortly thereafter, we were dismissed and the scouts of Rugged E carried their belongings back to camp.

In camp, everybody agreed on what to do next, shower, cards, and naptime. After all of these important tasks, we picked up our lunch, dininer, and breakfast from the back of the mess hall and headed back to camp, where our guides Kelsey and Nick (Daniel had other work to do) were watining for us to take us down to the bike shop to get the gear we needed for our next excursion. At the bike shop, we lined up shortest to tallest, and we were all given bikes and helmets that were too small for us. On our ride back to our campsite, we found that the gears were also amazingly picky, and tended to get stuck often if you set the bike on a speed you wanted.

After lunch, we began to pack our gear. For dinner, we were going to have some corn bread with pasta and italian sausage, to the cornbread was taped to the only bike with a rack on it, and Justin A. packed the sausage and some ice. Other people took chips, the pasta, our breakfast for the next morning (more granola bars) and the coals for dinner were divided up amopngst the bikers. I personaly carried my sleeping bag in my backpack, along with breakfast goodies and capri suns, with my hat, mess kit, and a large pot for the pasta dangling from the oustide of my pack. Me sleeping pad was attatched to the handlebars of my bike along with my share of the coals, and other people had similar setups.

After we finished setting up, we began our ride out of camp and onto a road with no name. For those familiar with Catalina, it is the one that starts in Two Harbors and goes along the etnire North Easter part of the island, overlooking all of the camps along the way. For those unfamiliar iwth catalina, it is a mountain dirt road like any other, with its fair share of ups and downs. After no more than a half hour's biking, we stopped overlooking two harbors, the same distance it took us an hour to travel by canoe. As we rode into Two Harbors, Nick G.'s right bicycle pedal fell off, and we took a forty five minute break in Two Harbors while we waited for the truck from camp to bring us another. During this time, Matt G., Cassandra G., and I bought a half galon of Neopolitan Ice Cream, which tasted very good.



With ice cream in our bellies and bikes returned to being only one piece, we set out again, although this part of our journey would be much harder. We were never told what the real name was for the mountain we had to bike up next, but everybody referred to it as the Hill of Death, and although none of the scouts of Rugged E gave up, many did walk their bikes (given the condition of their aluminum steeds, i don't blame them). I didn't walk. I could not shift all the way down on my bike, because the chain would get stuck and i would do a wheelie, but i shifted down as low as possible and put my bodyweight into it. After some amazing scenic views and many switchbacks, we found ourselves at a gate, and we didn't know what it was for, but we all passed through it without a secopnd thought and didn't begin to go down the other side of the Hill of Death like we had expected, but then climbed the next few miles, much to our grumbling discontent. we were told that at the top, we were supposed to stop to go over some safety things for going downhill. The fact that we needed a safety talk for going downhill was my only motivation for getting to the top. Soon, we reached a considerably high part on the mountain (the clouds were about 40 feet above us) and we stopped thinking it was the top. When the guides caught up with us, they said we weren't at the top yet, and told us to keep going. After what we thought was our great, relieveing, downhill run, we found some more hills that we had to climb. And we climbed for the clouds.

We could tell when we were at the top, because we could see the ocean in three directions, and we were in the bottom of a cloud. When Kelsey and Nick caught up with us, they told us the rules for going down the Hill of Death; stay at least two bike lengths away from each other, keep both hands on the handlebars at all times, and no passing. Everybody broke at least one of these rules. We decided that Matt G., who has the most momentum of any of us, should go first. The ride downhill was amazing. David B. was hit in the throat in the rock, and if i hadn't had my neckercheif, i probably would have been hit alot, too. After we found our campsite, we got our coals ready for our dinner, and relaxed, playing cards and talking. As the sun went down, we played a few teamwork games involving trying to figure out how we were going to fit 22 people on a 6 foot long log with one foot on the log and one foot off (Cassandra G. turned out to be the brains of the whole operation).




That night, we spread out our sleeping bags close enough to the nearby big, wide palmtree so that if it began to rain, we could get to cover fast, and fell asleep. The next day, we would awake at 5:30 so that we could stop for breakfast in Two Harbors.