2/5/2005 - Vogel State Park/Blood Mountain Backpacking

Taylor Hall, Paul Fitzner, Jeremy Drennan, Martin Kaido, Peter McKenna, Nick Jensen, Brian Wright, Alex Smith, Rick Farber, Dave McKenna, Pete Corbett, John Hall (photo credit: Eric Flamm)

We took the Slaughter Creek Trail this year for our annual ascent coveted by the scouts each winter. We had a very comfortable lunch and made it to camp early Satuday. The scouts set up and took over the shelter and the leaders took the mile trip down the trail to fetch water for the evening where Mr. Wright tried out his new water purifier and Mr. Hall had some new fangled water tablets we tried out.

I watched Mr. Farber set up one of Mr. Fitzners new single wall tents and I remember worrying it may not make it through the night if we received heavy winds at times experienced in the winter. I must admit I was more worried I would feel guilty if I did not get out of my 0 degree bag to help Mr. Farber if I heard loud expletives in the late hours of the night.

Scouts and Scouters ate hearty meals and retired early, as far as I could tell but I was out like a light by 7PM.

We woke to a hard frost and a beautiful blue sky. Fixed a simple breakfast, had a very nice worship service by Chaplain's Aide Peter McKenna and worked our way down and actually ran into some slick ice and old snow along the way.

All in all a great first trip as Scoutmaster.

Great weather, Great fellowship, Great scouting.

Scoutmaster Corbett