This trip was delayed last month due to heavy rain, which worked out perfectly for me. I really loved being on this trip with just the boys during COVID year. We still talk about how much fun we had when we made our our summer camp at Walls of Jericho. But I will say I was a little hesitant about this trip as the day approached. I was continuously watching my phone hoping for a miracle of warm weather, but that was not to be. Our predicted and actual weather for our night in the valley was a 23 degree low with wind chill making it feel like 16 degrees. Now that is cold. Our back packs got a little heavier as we planned for warmer gear at night, but we probably all still maintained below 30 lbs (goal was 22 lbs).
I did not see the boys much on the hike down. They are up front, and I keep a very consistent pace, but one that keeps me in the back with the old goats. My new trekking poles were great on this climb down of about 1500 feet over 2 miles. This is also one of our training grounds for the Grand Canyon, and one I am hoping we can try again in May. Both of the log bridges are now gone, replaced with the steel bridges over the water. I was happy to see that even tho we were apart on the hike down, both them and me took silly pictures with the hollowed out log separately. We had to do that when we were here in 2020 also.
This will be Sam's last campout with the Boy Scouts, and as we looked back, it was his first campout with the boy scouts after he crossed over. Looking at this crew that had ZERO crossover scouts, I can't imagine how Sam made it back then, but he was full of stories when he came home as a young 5th grader. And Davis is now the Senior Patrol Leader, and did a great job of picking a spot to camp, directing the troop to the falls and back, and with the campfire preparations.
Our hike to the falls was good, with all trying our best to avoid water, as no one wanted to deal with being wet in this cold weather. We made it all the way back to the falls to snap our picture, then watched the troopmaster Mr. George go completely into the water. He is completely crazy, but the boys loved it, and that is probably why he is the troopmaster.
Back at the campsite, it was time to prepare for dinner. I forgot to mention that our only Eagle Scout in the family forgot his rainfly (actually it has been sitting out under the deck since the last campout, and he never put it back into his tent bag), so after a borrowed ground tarp from Mr. George and a randomly tied frog tog on the front, at least he had a little protection from the wind that night. Back to dinner, Davis heated our water for both a Chicken Fried Rice and a Chicken Teriyaki Lo mein. Both were pretty good, hot, and filling. But we also had the nice taste of soap from where Davis had cleaned them two nights prior. Mr. George was the envy of all the boys, as he brought some steaks and cooked them on his stove...but he did share with Davis a piece and a couple of the other boy leaders. As an adult, and echoed by Sam as an older scout, it is great to watch a group of boys just be boys. When you take away their phones, they hang out, they talk, they make up silly presentations during the campfire, they were all cold, but all laughing together.
I went to bed early that night around 8PM, and was glad to have my powerade bottle, as I did NOT leave that tent again until 6AM. The boys laughed at me the next morning, but I bet I had 10 hot hands placed all over my body in the sleeping bag. I mean that was easily over 10 degrees colder than I have ever been outside camping, and you could feel it. Davis said he slept well, but he looked like the kid from Christmas story with about 8 layers of clothes on while he slept. Sam also did not pack his sleeping mat, so he basically slept in his bag on the ground. I was hoping we would be up and moving quickly in the morning. When it is this cold, hiking would feel good...but the boys were like bears hibernating, slowly coming out of their tents for a bite of food.
We had a breakfast scramble (all of these were the meals in a bag) and ate them again with a faint taste of soap with our breakfast, only this time it was a weird combo of soap and teriyaki. Davis was awesome as he also used his new filtration system to get us ice cold water from the river for all three of us. He filtered it for all of us, and got us ready for the hike back up. He said he did not feel his fingers for a long time. The hike back up was not too bad. It was long, but I don't remember too many tough spots. My knees seem to bear the climb well, and around 12 the next day, we were all up and at the vehicles ready to head out.
I said goodbye to the boys, as I had to leave from here to make it to Savannah, but I was so happy to have this last boy scout campout with both of the boys. Our very first night camping was at Sequoyah when Sam was just in the first grade, and it was so cold that night. And now 11 years later, those boys are pushing me. I found a picture below of those boys after that first night so long ago...and also a picture of Sam packed for his first trip to Walls of Jericho. I thought about alot of our fun trips on a long drive to Savannah. I certainly enjoyed the heat in my car on my long drive, then teased the boys with my "camping ground" hotel pics I sent to them when I finally arrived. Looking forward to our next trip to the walls!
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