Thursday, March 1, 2012

Snow Camping with Scouts

Feb. 24, the boys and Kirk and all the other Scouts/Leaders ventured
into Logan Canyon to camp overnight
in the snow structures that they built the weekend before.
I don't know how they did it but they got there after dark on Fri,
repaired their structures if needed,
set up their bags and gear,
ate dinner
and survived the cold, wet climate in pitch black.
They used sleds once again to pull most of their gear up this hill that had a
layer of ice with snow on top.
They said it was tricky making it up with snowshoes.
First they had to "find" their structure.
It had snowed during the week and all of the entrances were buried.
Here Jared is discovering where the entrance was.
Just a little piece of blue tarp sticking out of the snow
was his indication that he was close.
 Kirk was able to catch Jared all snug as a bug wedged in his structure!
I think that is a little too close for comfort for me.
Incredible!
Kirk caught a glimpse of someones flash light glowing through
the wall of their snow cave.
What an awesome experience!
The next morning Kirk found Kaleb to be dusted with powder.
He was so cozy in there that one of the leaders rode
a snow mobile up the hill to bomb him and his buddy out of bed.
They were not budging!
You can barely make out his face.
Kirk said that he had a little sliver of skin exposed.
 There were two kids who crawled through this opening and slept in a
clearing inside.  It reminded me of a bunny hole.
Kirk said that they had to crawl down and then turn a corner before
they entered the clearing.
Just crazy to me!
The next morning they had to take down their shelters and
pull up their tarps. 
Jared said it was easier said than done.
They had to carry their all of their gear down the mountain
 to the vehicles parked at the base.
These kids didn't want to waste any time getting down. 
My cautious, Jared said they went really, really, fast.
They went so fast, they drug the other kid behind.

 Going,
 Going,
Gone.
About this time, everyone was exhausted with the amount
of energy it was taking to pack up and disassemble their
structures. 
A blizzard moved in (which I watched from our kitchen window.
We can see the entrance of the canyon from the house) and
gave them almost no visibility.
The wind was blowing, it was heavily snowing.
As a group they were hiking , or sledding, down the hill.
Kaleb's hands just gave out and he dropped the black trash
bag that had his new 0 degree sleeping bag
 in it that he had just gotton for his birthday.
So the bag is just slidding down the mountain like
nothin'.  Kaleb takes off after the bag.
Jared looks over and sees Kaleb booking down the hill with snowshoes on
about to become a cartoon character rolling up in a
giant snowball, and he can hear Kirk yelling at Kaleb that he is going the
wrong way.  Jared called the visibility a complete
"white out" making it really hard for Kaleb to actually see where
he was going.
And no one was anywhere near to help catch the bag because it took off
down the other side of the mountain.
Needless to say, he found the bag!
Whew!
And he survived.  Very tired and sore, but alive.......with the bag.

 They were in the process of taking down their structures. 
 This was a partial lean to.
 This literally looks like a bunny hole.
It is hard to believe that there were boys crawling in there.
 This looks like they dropped something.
One of the kids did drop Kirks heavy scissors in the snow and just dissappeared
into no where.  I am sure they will turn up in the Spring.
And probably a little rusted by then.
I love this picture of Kirk. He looks like Grizzly Adams (he said he would
trim his beard AFTER this campout.......
he promised me).
I love it here.
SO.....my men came home exhausted and barely able to move,
their muscles hurt so bad.
They stayed warm, had a great experience,
and I haven't heard that they never want to do this again
ever in their life, ever again!

1 comment:

Katherine said...

Kirk took some great pictures, I love the sequenced ones of the boys sledding down the mountain. I also love that he took a photo on himself, he looks like he enjoyed himself. This is great. I hope they loved it, despite the being sore and exhausted. These experiences are what build character....I love it. I love when boys have opportunity to work hard and push themselves.