Yes, our yearly visit to Tumbling Rock with the Scout Troop was on us again. As always on these trips, one of my favorite parts is watching how much Sam and Davis have grown into leaders. With no senior patrol leaders on this trip, Sam quickly assumed the role and started directing the boys in setting up camp upon arrival. Davis and Matthew jumped in the trailers and immediately began organizing how things were removed and assigning boys to take this and that to the site. They are both also always leading during the meal preparation, often cooking, but also showing the other boys how to cook. It is fun to watch them grow. But Sam was the only one to hear one of my favorite lines of the whole trip. He was helping one of the youngest boys set up his tent. That scout is a good kid, but still not in full boy scout mode. He had set up his tent, then walked off, and no one knew where he went. A strong gust of wind showed us quickly he had not staked his tent down, so Sam and another boy helped grab the tent and get it staked down. But then as they got it back in place, this other young scout walks back to his tent oblivious of what others had done to help him, looked at Sam and said "I just saw a butterfly" in the happiest of voices. Now that is funny in itself, but Sam nearly busting a gut trying to tell me this story later...that was priceless...and became our repeated line back from the campout and for the next week afterwards..."I just saw a butterfly".
So the cave...Davis went with the first group led by Dirk Byerman and his Byerboys (Adam and Ben), as they were going with a goal of touching the back of the cave. And I am glad I was not with them, as Davis told me they set a new record of 43 minutes into the Topless Dome area (Easily a 2 hour hike, and what would be almost 3 hours for me with my slower crew on this day). And they did make it to the very back of the cave, with Davis touching as far back as you can go. He also got to go to the top of Mount Olympus in the back of the cave. Sam wanted to go with Dirk, but I needed his help leading the slower group, so he hung back with the 2nd group. Sam has been asked to be a Junior Scoutmaster after he gets his Eagle Rank, and I think it will fit him well. He did the safety talk for the 2nd group that included all of the younger scouts, and was the only person in our whole group to have led a group to the Topless Dome.
And into the cave went our second group. The plan was for me to lead this group, and let Sam be my number two to help if I got lost. But Sam took the lead early while I stayed in the back to help some of the youngest scouts, and new dads that were...struggling. I knew that we were going to be slow when 5 minutes into the cave, we had two boys that were ready to turn around. One, that apparently saw a butterfly earlier, kept saying to himself "Why did my mom sign me up for this". Wow, it was slow going with these guys, and after the second stop where Sam had to wait about 15 minutes for our group in the back, I found him, and told him that we had to break up, or we may never make it to the Topless Dome area. He agreed, and took lead of what became Group 2A, with Bob Brown taking the caboose role of that group. I then took the lead of Group 2B, which had 4 boys and 4 dads. And we took things at times one slow step at a time. After one of the adults fell for the second time, and slid face first toward another large rock, Mr. Mike decided to just hang out by himself in the dark, and not go any further. He was OK, but was not going to make it any further. I encouraged him to leave with a group that I heard coming out, but he said he would wait till we got back...which was about 3 hours later.
We did finally make it to the Topless Dome, which was good, because in the end I got my wings, and was able to lead a group on my own to this part of the cave. We arrived just as Sam's group were coming down out of the hole in the ceiling from the dome area. But we rested and ate lunch, while Sam's group moved into the next room to visit Tumbling Rock (a large rock that looks like it crashed down from the ceiling, but wedged into what now is a good photo opportunity). As Sam's group was coming back, our crew went over to Tumbling rock, and while we were there, I heard some folks coming from deeper in the cave, and sure enough, it was Dirk and the first set of boys. So me and Davis got our picture together at Tumbling Rock.
Then we began the journey back out of the cave, with Dirk and Sam leading a larger pack out, and from what Davis told me, that group did not stay together well, as he had to lead one group that got separated out. But as for Group 2B, we stayed together, because we were barely moving. It was a strange crew and we had some strange times...as Mr. Garrett kept belching as loud (like ELF loud) making me afraid of another Tumbling Rock...and then one of the boys started farting directly into the face of Mr. Garrett...and finally when we made it back to Mr. Mike (yep, still there), he was constantly moaning in pain, and periodically falling again. Tough guy, as I watched one fall that I know hurt some ribs..."you ok Mike". We never got lost, but we took alot of rests. And finally we ran into Dirk who had come back in after they had been out of the cave for an hour...thinking we were lost. Anyway, it was nice to have a little company, but they quickly saw that the trip out was slow. But we all made it out, and even a week later, Mike didn't seem too bruised up.
That evening we were a little worried about another troop of girls that were there. They went in after Dirk's group but before me and sam, but they did not come out until after 8PM that evening. Pretty crazy, but they seemed in all smiles coming out. The next morning was again fun to watch Sam and Davis lead the efforts to reverse everything to get it back into the trailers. Then Sam led the devotion that morning around having a firm foundation of God. I was proud of him for jumping in and leading here also, as the troop did not have its two chaplains at this campout either. This is and has always been my favorite trip with the troop, and i can't wait to do it again.
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