Joshua Tree National Park
74485 National Park Dr., Twenty-nine Palms
November 17-19, 2006
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Mr. Goldman led us on a very successful weekend trek to Joshua Tree, where three patrols camped in the desert and learned about Geology and Astronomy from Professor Bruce Bridenbecker of Copper Mountain College. On Friday we arrived at First United Methodist Church around 4:30 p.m., we packed up the trailer in the road because a wedding was taking up the parking lot. We left at 6:00p.m. The traffic was heavy. We arrived the West entrance to the park at around 10:00 p.m.. We drove to the "Sheep Pass" campsite, site #3, at an elevation of 4,500 feet, and set up camp from 10 - 12 p.m.. Mr. Merica made a campfire (in two minutes with special matches!) Saturday morning was cold, and windy. Some of us climbed the rock formations near our campsite. Professor Bruce Bridenbecker of Copper Mountain College, Geology and Astronomy merit badge counselor spent the morning teaching us about Geology. For lunch we cooked hot dogs over an open fire. Then we went on a cool Geology tour on a long and bumpy dirt road in 4-wheel drive vehicles. The trucks drove fast and bounced around a lot (like the "Indiana Jones" ride at Disneyland). We made three stops, where we checked out a rock formation used by the ancient Indians to grind flour called "Squaw Tank, learned how dikes were created in rocks, studied the base of an ancient volcano, visited an abandoned gold mine, and looked at 10,000 years old pictographs. The type of rock that they were drawn on was one of the oldest types in America, Pre-Cambrian. After we finished the tour we went to camp and relaxed. Then Sean started a campfire, and the cooks made dinner. After we cleaned we sat by the campfire as Professor Bruce Bridenbecker taught Astronomy. Mr. Merica and Mr Goldman lead the cooking of two cobblers for desert, "black forest cherry and cream torte" and "pineapple/peach." After that we sat in the dark studying the night sky looking for meteors as Professor Bridenbecker used a special laser pointer to identify various constellations. Sunday, after the Scouts Own Mr. Goldman he gave all scouts a special gift, a woggle neckerchief slide that he made by hand! We left toward Burbank at 10:23 a.m. but had to go back to camp to look for a lost cell phone. We drove on toward Burbank and experienced little traffic. We stopped for lunch at around 1 p.m. in Riverside at a "Bakers" restaurant. We arrived at First United Methodist Church at 3:15 p.m.. We unpacked the gear around church services. Every scout took a tent or cooking box home to clean.
Reported by Sean, Troop Historian, 11/27/2006 |