I learned a lot on this trip about the character of our scouts. Some of these guys spend a lot of their time in front of the TV or video games, but when we got them outdoors, they changed. They wanted to be challenged, and they wanted adventure.
We were rained on hard quite a few times, and when it wasn't raining it got pretty hot. But the boys didn't ask to go back to camp, they were excited to do the next thing. I heard very few complaints, and was impressed to see their energy levels.
Something that we determined about the scout carrier is that if the back handles were lengthened to allow someone walking behind to grab on and help get around obstacles or just to take the weight off for a few seconds would be nice.
We also learned that if you have a base camp, try to bring up an awning of some type to give you somewhere to go to cook and eat during the monsoonal rains.
We also learned that we can have fun, and learn something no matter what we're doing.
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Tuesday, December 6, 2011
Blanding High Adventure - Canyoneering
We've done canyoneering before, but never with someone with spina bifida that needed help 90 percent of the way so this was a new experience! We did 2 canyons and each of them required climbing quite a ways up a crack to get to the top of the canyon. With each canyon we used the carrier to get our scout to the base of the climb, and then we helped him from below, above, and both sides where possible. We also helped whoever was behind or in front of each of us as we made our way up to the top of the canyon. Both canyons had a horizontal hike at the top to get over to the start of the canyon.
The last rappel was 100 feet, and our scout with challenges was a little nervous about it, but excited as well. We had enough ropes that we were able to send him down with a top belay (and bottom), with his brother alongside him. It was awesome to see the two of them working together as they made their way down!
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| Whenever we didn't have the carrier we carried our scout on our backs |
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| Doing the last rappel |
Monday, September 19, 2011
Timpanogos Peak Attempt
So we had planned to hike Timpanogos Peak (elev. 11,750 ft) last weekend. We planned to backpack up 3-4 miles and set up camp for the night. Then the next morning we would leave the tents and backpacks and just take day packs to hike to the summit and back, then pack up and hike back down to the trail head.
You'll notice I said "planned". We didn't get as far as we had hoped due to weather (it was raining cats and dogs), and lack of preparation - but it was a good learning experience for us.
We had boys with sleeping bags rolled up and strapped to packs without any waterproof bag covering them (which got soaked in about 90 seconds). We had boys with packs that were open on the top that allowed rain to go right in, soaking everything inside the packs. We had boys that didn't have any rain gear even though they were told that the forecast was for rain and to be prepared.
We quickly took black garbage bags and covered everything we could, but it was too late really, too much was soaked. We backpacked up the 1.3 miles to Scout Falls on the Timpooneke Trail, then had a little learning discussion. We talked about how unprepared we were to spend the night - knowing that it was going to get down to the low 30's and we had all wet stuff. We still had approximately 2 miles to hike and only 45 minutes before dark. We talked about what we would do if we were on a 50 miler, and 25 miles from our vehicles and had to spend the night. Then we hiked back down to the vehicles and drove home.
It was a bummer that we didn't "succeed" in our attempt to climb the peak. But I found out the next day that there was 3 inches of snow at Emerald Lake, and temperatures at the peak were 30 degrees, with a 20 degree wind chill factor. It was good we weren't up there for all of that. And it was a great learning experience for the boys, and us leaders as to what we need to do to prepare better next time.
You'll notice I said "planned". We didn't get as far as we had hoped due to weather (it was raining cats and dogs), and lack of preparation - but it was a good learning experience for us.
We had boys with sleeping bags rolled up and strapped to packs without any waterproof bag covering them (which got soaked in about 90 seconds). We had boys with packs that were open on the top that allowed rain to go right in, soaking everything inside the packs. We had boys that didn't have any rain gear even though they were told that the forecast was for rain and to be prepared.
We quickly took black garbage bags and covered everything we could, but it was too late really, too much was soaked. We backpacked up the 1.3 miles to Scout Falls on the Timpooneke Trail, then had a little learning discussion. We talked about how unprepared we were to spend the night - knowing that it was going to get down to the low 30's and we had all wet stuff. We still had approximately 2 miles to hike and only 45 minutes before dark. We talked about what we would do if we were on a 50 miler, and 25 miles from our vehicles and had to spend the night. Then we hiked back down to the vehicles and drove home.
It was a bummer that we didn't "succeed" in our attempt to climb the peak. But I found out the next day that there was 3 inches of snow at Emerald Lake, and temperatures at the peak were 30 degrees, with a 20 degree wind chill factor. It was good we weren't up there for all of that. And it was a great learning experience for the boys, and us leaders as to what we need to do to prepare better next time.
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